NCAA First/Second Round Previews: UCLA & Northwestern Regionals

UCLA Regional
Sunset Canyon Recreation Center - Los Angeles, CA

[3] UCLA Bruins (22-2) vs. [49-64] Weber State Wildcats (14-7) - Friday 1pm PT - Both schools earned their conference's automatic berth after UCLA defeated Cal in the finals of the Pac-12 Tournament while Weber State punched its first ticket since 1992 with a win over Idaho in the finals of the Big Sky Tournament. Weber State went 0-3 against teams that were ranked at some point during the season the Wildcats losing to BYU, Utah, and UC Irvine by a combined score of 18-2. 

Note: These matches will be played at the Sunset Canyon Recreation Center, which is on the campus of UCLA, instead of the Los Angeles Tennis Center due to construction of the new football and basketball training facilities.

Doubles Records: UCLA 18-6, Weber State 13-8

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: UCLA 85, Weber State 72

Friday Recap: UCLA and Cal Win Out West, Rain Hampers Play in the Southeast, Ohio State and Penn State deliver in the Big Ten, & More

It was an extremely long day of tennis in Columbia, South Carolina, as rain pushed the schedule at the SEC Tournament back significantly and ultimately shifted play indoors. One of the opening matches of the day, which started at 9am ET, would be a barnburner as South Carolina was trying to pull off its third top-20 upset in the last five days.

The Gamecocks started off the morning by taking the doubles point over No. 13 Texas A&M with Gabriel Friedrich and Harrison O'Keefe winning the deciding tiebreak at No. 1 by a 7-1 score.

Texas A&M rebounded in singles by taking four opening sets but South Carolina's Andrew Schafer was the first one to finish after he defeated Jordi Arconada 6-1, 7-5 at No. 3.

Thursday Conference Tournament Results

Several conference tournaments got underway on Wednesday, with an abbreviated schedule, but they really got going on Thursday with the ACC and SEC having four matches each.

All four matches at the SEC Tournament in Columbia, South Carolina, were hotly contested with South Carolina, Vanderbilt, Ole Miss, and Kentucky the day's winners.

The four matches at the ACC were quite as suspenseful with Virginia Tech rolling over Miami 4-0, Georgia Tech pulling away from Louisville 4-1, Notre Dame holding off Duke 4-1, and NC State edging Clemson 4-2.

Both of the matches in Ojai were 4-0 shutouts with Cal and Stanford overwhelming Washington and Oregon.

What A Night - #55 Notre Dame Stuns #1 UNC, TCU & Kentucky Win 4-3 Thrillers, Georgia Rallies Past Florida, & More

Just when you think you've seen it all you get a day like today with one thrilling finish after another. Before I can even talk about all the 4-3 matches I got to give a shoutout to No. 55 Notre Dame who absolutely stunned top-ranked North Carolina in one of the biggest upsets, in terms of ranking, in college tennis history.

The Fighting Irish entered the night with a 12-12 record, and that was after beating Chicago State twice last Sunday, so most people probably figured at best they'd win a set or maybe a court but surely not the match. It was the final home match of the season for Notre Dame which meant it was the swan song for the five seniors on the roster. Four of the seniors (Monaghan, Lawson, Sabacinski, Montoya) would start and they would each play a role in the upset victory.

Noles Shock #1 UNC, Razorbacks Upset #7 Texas A&M, Clemson beats #38 Notre Dame

Friday was a day of upsets with the biggest shocker coming in Tallahassee as No. 51 Florida State stunned No. 1 and previously unbeaten North Carolina 4-3.  Florida State was coming off a tough 4-3 loss to Miami last Sunday so the thought of them beating the No. 1 team in the country had to be a long shot at best coming in.

FSU's Aziz Dougaz and Michael Rinaldi were first off the court at No. 2 doubles as they defeated UNC's Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray 6-1. UNC's Andrew Gores and Ronnie Schneider won 6-3 at No. 3 over Jose Gracia and Terrance Whitehurst but FSU took the doubles point when Benjamin Lock and Marco Nunez defeated Brett Clark and Robert Kelly 6-4 at No. 1.

Sunday Recap: TCU Too Good For Illini, Arkansas Stuns Oklahoma, Wake Topples Texas Tech, ODU Beats NCST

One day you're on the top of the mountain and the next day your toppling down the hill. Illinois took the court today against #8 TCU just 16 hours removed from its big win over #2 Virginia so you had to figure they'd have a tough time replicating the same energy in such a short span.

It was sunny and 65 degrees outside at match time but the 25-30 mile per hour wind gusts kept play indoors. I knew the crowd wouldn't be as big as Saturday night but I was impressed with the Sunday afternoon turnout of just over 400.

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Wins At Illinois, Ohio State Outlasts Florida, Memphis Wins in Oxford, & More

Texas A&M had been on the road for the last week and a half, and had lost its last three, but it managed to come from behind today to beat Illinois 4-2 despite playing without one of its top starters. Texas A&M senior Shane Vinsant missed today's match against Illinois due to a blister on his foot but the Aggies managed to stay focused in his absence and the team performed much better in singles than it did in doubles. The weather was right around 50 degrees outside but they played it indoors anyway. I was a little surprised at the lighter turnout of around 175 because I've been to Atkins in the past for some big matches and have seen well over 500 on hand.

Blowouts Galore on Day 1 Of Men's KO Weekend + Weather Downs Cal

There were just 4 matches on the Friday's schedule and none of them were particularly close with USC, Tulane, Illinois, and Northwestern each rolling into the second round.

Tulane started off the day by really taking it to Pepperdine with the Green Wave cruising to the doubles point and then getting runaway singles wins from Dominik Koepfer, Sebastian Rey, and Chi-Shan Jao at 1, 4, and 6. 

USC sat its #1 Max DeVroome and still rolled to a 7-0 win over UC Davis in a match where all courts were played to conclusion which is something that I like to see. The only Trojan to drop a set was newcomer Laurens Verboven who dropped his opening set before rallying to win in 3-sets at #2 singles. 

NCAA 1st Round Previews: Ohio State & Texas A&M Regionals

Ohio State Regional
OSU Varsity Tennis Center - Columbus, OH

[11] Ohio State (25-8) vs. [49-64] Buffalo (12-10) - Friday 1pm - #11 Ohio State got an at-large bid after losing to Illinois 4-0 in the Big 10 Championship Finals while Buffalo earned its first ever NCAA bid after beating Binghamton 4-2 in the MAC Championship. Buffalo went 0-4 on the year against ranked opponents. 

Doubles Records: Ohio State 26-7, Buffalo 11-11

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Ohio State 84, Buffalo 74

Sunday Recap: Hoos Too Much For Hokies, Texas A&M Gets Past Florida

Both Virginia and Texas A&M faced tough opposition on Sunday but both answered the bell and came out on top.  Virginia won the doubles point and then took all 6 opening sets and managed to finish the top 3 out in straights as Mitchell Frank, Ryan Shane, and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski all won.   Virginia played singles without one of its top 3 players as Collin Altamirano sat out due to a stomach bug.

Virginia Tech did show some fight down low but Virginia still managed to win 2 of those 3 with all going 3 sets.

Virginia recap

"I was pleased with the overall performance today," said head coach Brian Boland. "Virginia Tech showed why they are a top-15 team, if not better. They are solid from top to bottom. We had all the momentum, winning doubles and six first sets, but they never gave up. We had to overcome a little adversity today and I was happy with how we responded to that."

"Missing Collin and Alex (Ritschard) in singles, I was pleased with how the guys stepped up," said Boland. "Alex is continuing to get better and is getting close to being back. Collin had a stomach bug and was able to play doubles, but not singles today. I thought the team responded well to having to reshuffle the lineup a little bit."

Friday Recap: Mississippi State Upsets #6 Georgia, Hokies Gut Out A Win, + More Results

The big upset of the day came in Starkville as the Bulldogs from Mississippi State upset the Bulldogs from Georgia 4-2.  Mississippi State took the doubles point for the 16th time this year and is now 11-0 in doubles at home.  State fell a break behind at both #1 and #3 but managed to turn both courts around and would clinch the point with a win at #1 over the #1 ranked team in the country.

Mississippi State kept the momentum going during singles play and jumped out to early break leads on 5 of 6 courts.

Mississippi State's Rishab Agarwal was 1st off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #5 singles over Nick Wood in a match that was pretty lopsided the entire time.  Georgia's Wayne Montgomery would cut the deficit to 2-1 with a 7-6, 6-2 at #2 singles over Juan Cruz Estevarena.  Montgomery fell behind 5-3 in the 1st set but would break Estevarena at 4-5 and 5-6 to force the breaker then after jumping out to a 6-0 lead in the TB he took it 7-4.

Longhorns Roast the Buckeyes & Red Raiders Take The Luck Out Of The Irish, LMU Upsets Utah

After dropping a 4-3 thriller to Ohio State earlier in the year at the National Indoors, Texas reversed its fortune today and took out #11 Ohio State 4-1 in a match that the Horns seemed in control of just about the entire way.  Ohio State was 15-3 in doubles coming into this one but Texas got the point by winning at 2 and 3 by scores of 6-4 and 6-2.

With the nearly unbeatable Soren Hess-Olesen at 1, Texas knew it had at least 1 point in the bag and Soren quickly delivered that point with his 17th consecutive win with a 6-1, 6-3 thrashing of Chris Diaz.  The Buckeye junior had one opening in the match after going up 2-0 in the 2nd but Hess-Olesen came back and won 6 of the next 7 games to close it out.

Ralf Steinbach would get Ohio State on the board at #5 singles with a 7-6(4), 6-1 over Nick Naumann.  Naumann had 3 chances to take the opening set when Steinbach served at 5-6, 15-40 but Steinbach forced his way to the net on each of the 3 points and managed to put 2 away with Naumann going long on a lob on the other.  In the 1st set tiebreak after Steinbach got the early mini-break to go up 1-0, Naumann got overruled on a Steinbach serve, which happened right in front of the chair, and Naumann never really seemed to recover.

HOLY GUACAMOLE!!! #1 USC IS SHOCKED BY #51 TULSA + Other Saturday Results

Shocker of the day, week, month, year, decade, century, maybe longer - #1 USC playing without Eric Johnson and Nick Crystal goes down to #51 Tulsa 4-3.

USC came out strong and really blew out Tulsa in doubles winning 6-1 and 6-0 at 2 and 3 despite having new doubles pairing on each court.  Eric Johnson did play in doubles but I guess it was a coaches decision to give him and Nick Crystal the day off in singles and it ultimately proved to be costly.

Still even with those 2 guys out of the singles lineup you figure there is no way that Hanfmann and Quiroz are both going to lose and sure enough they both did in straight sets.

When I was looking at Saturday's matches and deciding which ones to preview I quickly passed this one over because I didn't think there was any way possible that Tulsa could win this match regardless of whether USC sat a couple of guys.  But I guess there is a reason they play the matches because you never know what can happen on a given day.

Saturday Preview - Illini/Irish, Bruins/Cardinal, Gators/Gamecocks

Compared to what we'll see on Sunday (Virginia at Baylor, Wake Forest at Texas, Vanderbilt at Ole Miss) Saturday should be fairly tame day with just 1 matchup between top 15 schools.  Below are the best ones that I saw on the docket so check them out if you get a chance.

#34 South Carolina (8-6) at #17 Florida (5-3) - 1pm est. - Live Scoring - South Carolina comes into this one on a 3-match losing streak which includes a 4-2 loss on Thursday to Auburn while Florida is coming off a tough 4-1 loss to Georgia. Florida is 4-4 in doubles while South Carolina is 11-3 with both dropping the doubles point the last time out. Here's an interesting stat that you don't see too often for a team at this level - South Carolina is 0-13 at the #1 singles spot this year.  Most likely that streak will stay intact tomorrow because I'd be surprised if Hidalgo didn't beat Koch.  

Stanford wins the Big Slam, Ohio State makes it 200 straight, Wake toogood, Ivy League no joke + My Sunday Preview

I knew it'd be hard for today's matches to follow up those from Friday but while a few of them came up short in the drama department the one that didn't was the "Big Slam" in Berkeley as Stanford pulled out a classic 4-3 win over rival Cal.  

Cal jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point with a 7-5 win at #3 doubles in the clinching match.  Stanford welcomed freshman David Hsu back into the singles lineup at 5 which shifted Nolan Paige to 6 while Cal made a switch at 5 and 6 and moved Greg Bayane up from 6 to 5 and dropped Wikberg from 5 to 6.  After dropping the doubles point the momentum shifted back to Stanford in singles as the Cardinal took 4 opening sets and managed to finish 3 of them off in straights as Tom Fawcett, John Morrissey, and "Rollin" Nolan Paige won at 1, 3, 6 to give Stanford a 3-1 lead.  Cal would answer back with wins from Filip Bergevi and Greg Bayane at 2 and 5 to tie it up at 3.  

All focus was centered on #4 singles where Cal freshman J.T. Nishimura had opened up a 5-2 lead in the 3rd set over Stanford junior Maciek Romanowicz and Nishimura was serving for the match. Nishimura fell behind 15-40 in his service game and after getting it back to the deciding point (40-40), which was also a match point, he would put a shot into the net to give Romanowicz the break. Romanowicz went up 40-15 on his 3-5 service game but then Nishimura hit a two-handed forehand winner to make it 40-30 and followed that up with a backhand winner past a drawn in Romanowicz to bring up the deciding point (40-40).  Nishimura chose the ad-court to receive the serve on what would be his final match point and Romanowicz landed his 1st serve out wide and as the outstretched arm of Nishimura deflected it back in play Romanowicz closed in toward the net and hit a volley into the open court for the hold.  Nishimura would now serve for the match for a 2nd time up 5-4 and he would quickly get broke at love as Romanowicz continued to play aggressively while Nishimura tightened up and had difficulty keeping the ball in play.  Romanowicz would then hold at 40-15 to go up 6-5 and would then race out to an 0-40 lead on the Nishimura serve. After a Romanowicz error made it 15-40 Nishimura wouldn't be able to keep the next one in play and with that Stanford had stunned its rival 4-3.

Saturday Preview

Friday was an entertaining start to the weekend and I expect that Saturday should more of the same.  Let's take a look at the highlighted matches on Saturday.

The number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of the current date so Notre Dame's Quentin Monaghan has a 14.28 UTR as of today 2/21.  For more details about UTR check out theirwebsite.  

#17 Notre Dame (6-1) at #9 Ohio State (10-3) - 12pm est - Live Scoring & Streaming - Ohio State goes for #200 in a row at home (according to my records) though it won't be easy as Notre Dame usually gives Ohio State a tough match just about every year.  Ohio State has won 10 straight in the series and leads the all-time series 28-27.  A year ago in South Bend, Notre Dame jumped out to a 2-0 lead only to see Ohio State win 4 straight singles matches with the final 2 both being 7-6 in the 3rd.  If the projected lineups below hold up there will be just 1 rematch from last year with that being the match at 1 where Diaz knocked off Monaghan 7-6, 6-4.  Ohio State is 11-2 in doubles while Notre Dame is 6-1.  The Irish must take the doubles point to have a realistic chance at stopping the streak but I think Ohio State gets the point and picks up wins from the bottom 3 of Steinbach, Callahan, and Metka to pull it out.  Prediction:  Ohio State 4-1

Projected Lineup:
1. #29 Quentin Mongahan (ND 14.28) vs. #53 Chris Diaz (OSU 13.80)
2. #92 Josh Hagar (ND 13.74) vs. #30 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU 13.95)
3. Eddy Covalschi (ND 13.13) vs. Herkko Pollanen (OSU 13.58)
4. Eric Schnurrenberger (ND 13.45) vs. #68 Ralf Steinbach (OSU 13.91)
5. Billy Pecor (ND 12.98) vs. #110 Hunter Callahan (OSU 13.90)
6. Nicolas Montoya (ND 12.48) vs. Kevin Metka (OSU 13.80)

Down Goes #1, UNC unable to finish, Vandy wins 4-3 again, & a look ahead to Saturday

What a start to the weekend it was with 2 thrillers taking place 100 miles apart as Texas A&M took out the new #1 Oklahoma 4-3 in College Station while Texas's Lloyd Glasspool refused to lay down as Texas knocked off North Carolina 4-3 in Austin.  

We'll start off in College Station where #1 Oklahoma came to town expecting to waltz all over Texas A&M but the Aggies had other plans as they took the all important doubles point and were then able to pick up 3 1st sets and ultimately pulled off the stunner when freshman Arthur Rinderknech came back from a set down to knock off Oklahoma freshman Spencer Papa 6-7, 6-3, 6-1 at the #4 spot. Oklahoma swept the top 3 spots in the lineup and usually if you do that you've got to feel pretty good about your chances but Texas A&M was able to lock down the bottom 3 plus take the doubles point so there you have it - upset city.  

aTm recap
OU recap

#13 Texas A&M 4, #1 Oklahoma 3

George P Mitchell Tennis Center

Singles competition

1. #11 Axel Alvarez (OU) def. #45 Shane Vinsant (TAMU) 6-4, 6-2

2. #26 Andrew Harris (OU) def. #43 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) 6-4, 6-1

3. #31 Dane Webb (OU) def. #36 Harrison Adams (TAMU) 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 7-5

*4. Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU) def. Spencer Papa (OU) 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-1

5. #51 AJ Catanzariti (TAMU) def. #63 Alex Ghilea (OU) 7-6 (7-5), 6-1

6. Max Lunkin (TAMU) def. Jose Salazar (OU) 6-4, 6-2

Doubles competition

1. #8 Shane Vinsant/Harrison Adams (TAMU) def. #5 Dane Webb/Axel Alvarez (OU) 6-4

2. Andrew Harris/Alex Ghilea (OU) def. #13 Jeremy Efferding/Jordan Szabo (TAMU) 6-3

3. AJ Catanzariti/Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU) def. Spencer Papa/Florin Bragusi (OU) 7-5

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,2,6,5,3,4)

*Clinched Match

Friday 1/30/15 Men's Recap

What was expected to be an exciting Friday of college tennis didn't disappoint as both Notre Dame and Duke picked up tough hard fought wins over Northwestern and Illinois.   Oklahoma went on the road to Winston-Salem and put it to Wake Forest 

In Champaign, Illinois had a 17 match home court winning streak get snapped by a game bunch of Blue Devils from Durham.  Duke started things off by taking the doubles point but Illinois quickly tied it up as freshman stud Aleks Vukic steamrolled Bruno Semenzato at #4 singles 6-1 6-1.  It looked like Illinois was going to take a 2-1 lead with senior Ross Guignon up 6-1 5-0 on Duke junior Josh Levine at #6 singles however Levine wouldn't go away taking 1 game, then 2, then before you knew it he had it to a tiebreak which he took 7-3.  As Guignon/Levine moved into a 3rd set Duke put up a pair of straight wins from Chris Mengel at #5 singles and Jason Tahir at #1 singles to push the lead to 3-1.  Tim Kopinski would then finish off his comeback from a set down to defeat Raphael Hemmeler at #3 singles 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 which cut the Duke lead to 3-2. While Illinois's #2 Jared Hiltzik was up a break in the 3rd it would be Josh Levine that would put the final dagger in the hearts of the Illini comeback with Levine closing out a 0-6 7-6(3) 6-4 win. After the match was clinch Hiltzik was able to close out Nicolas Alvarez at #2 to make the final score 4-3 Duke.