Georgia Rallies Past USC, Oklahoma Whips Wake, UCLA Tops Stanford, Florida and North Carolina Roll

After a great first half of the day in Tulsa we were treated to a gem in the evening as Georgia and USC went toe-to-toe for the better part of three hours. USC came into the round of 16 with the worst doubles winning percentage (.409) out of the teams still left in the field but that didn't stop them from getting off to a quick start against Georgia.

USC's No. 1 team of Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven opened the match by holding on the deciding point to take a 1-0 lead and then they'd break Austin Smith to go up 2-0. Crystal held for 3-0 before Ben Wagland finally put Georgia on the board with a hold for 1-3. Verboven held on the deciding point for 4-1 and then USC broke Austin Smith on the deciding point to go up 5-1. Crystal went up 40-15 on his next service game but had to hit a service winner on the deciding point to win it 6-1.

NCAA Round of 16 Previews - Virginia/Oklahoma State, Florida/SMU, Ohio State/Texas, TCU/Cal

[1] Virginia Cavaliers (26-4) vs. [16] Oklahoma State Cowboys (20-7) - 1pm ET - Virginia advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 4-0 win over Monmouth and a 4-1 win over Penn State while Oklahoma State beat Bryant and Arkansas 4-0. Oklahoma State will only be playing 75 miles from its Stillwater campus so it should have a good amount of fan support but it'll take a Herculean effort to get past Virginia. 

Doubles Records: Virginia 26-4, Oklahoma State 18-8

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 86, Oklahoma State 82

Chaotic Sunday - SMU, Texas, and Stanford Pull Off Upsets

What a crazy day it was on Sunday with not one, not two, but three regional hosts going down. The day started off in College Station with the resumption of Saturday's match between Texas A&M and Texas and it finished in Lubbock with SMU kicking the door down and stunning Texas Tech.

When the season started if you told me that Texas would be in Tulsa for the NCAA Round of 16 I would have told you to go see a doctor. Well Texas made a believer of me and many today after going into enemy territory and knocking off Texas A&M in a 4-3 thriller.

The match originally began on Saturday but after Texas A&M took the doubles point the match was stopped early in singles due to rain. Play resumed Sunday morning at 11am central and within a matter of minutes Texas had five first sets in the bag after Rodrigo Banzer, Adrian Ortiz, and George Goldhoff closed out sets on 4, 2, and 1.

NCAA First/Second Round Previews: Florida & Texas Tech Regionals

Florida Regional
Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex (Linder Stadium) - Gainesville, FL

[9] Florida Gators (18-6) vs. [49-64] North Florida Ospreys (11-11) - Saturday Noon ET - The Florida regional is the only regional that had all four teams get in after winning their conference tournament. Florida got the SEC's automatic bid after beating Georgia in the finals of the SEC Tournament while North Florida earned its first-ever NCAA berth after defeating USC-Upstate in the finals of the Atlantic Sun Tournament. Florida has won the doubles point nine straight times (7 of 9 opponents ranked inside top 50) and in fact they've only dropped three individual doubles matches in that nine-match span. UNF has won the doubles point in 12 of its last 13 matches though none of those opponents were ranked inside the top 50. 

Doubles Records: Florida 19-5, North Florida 14-6

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Florida 84, North Florida 78

AAC Semifinals: South Florida and Tulsa Advance to the Finals

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Memphis with blue skies paving the way for a pair of action packed semifinals that were played simultaneously with a 9 a.m. central start. All 12 courts were available on Saturday after only having 10 available on Friday due to a crack near the center line on court 1.

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.

Wednesday Recap: Buckeyes Tame The Cats, Cavs Too Strong For Gators, TCU Wins The Skillet

Usually we have to wait until the weekend to see top-25 matchups but we got a mid-week treat on Wednesday with three top-25 teams playing each other along with two other top-75 matchups.

The day started off in Lexington with No. 20 Kentucky and No. 5 Ohio State playing indoors due to high winds and the chance of rain.

Ohio State was able to claim the doubles point for 19th time in 23 tries after picking up wins at No. 1 and No. 3. The Buckeyes duo of Matt Mendez and Hugo Di Feo fell into an early 3-0 hole at No. 3 but rallied to take the next six games to close out Austin Hussey and Ryotaro Matsumura 6-3. Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard and Martin Joyce led Nils Ellefsen and Enzo Wallart 5-3 at No. 1 but the Kentucky duo won the next two to even it at 5-5. Torpegaard and Joyce would take the next two games to close it out 7-5. The match at No. 2 was abandoned with Kentucky leading 6-5.

Saturday Recap: SoCal Too Tough For NorCal, SMU Stuns South Florida, Texas Tech Wins A Thriller at Baylor, Ivy Roundup

It was a nice weekend for the two Southern California Pac-12 schools as both UCLA and USC swept their Northern California neighbors, Cal and Stanford. Both Cal and Stanford went 2-0 in doubles on the weekend but neither could do enough damage in singles to make the early lead hold up.

Cal's Mads Engsted and JT Nishimura cruised to a 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Gage Brymer and Max Cressy but the Bruins appeared to be in control with 4-1* and *4-2  leads at No. 1 and No. 2. Cal would get the break back on both courts and Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat would take the final five games at No. 1 to win it 6-4 and give the Bears the doubles point.

UCLA came back in singles and took opening sets at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. UCLA sophomore Martin Redlicki made quick work over the slumping Andre Goransson by winning 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2. Goransson went 13-2 in the fall with 7 ranked wins but he's just 5-8 in dual-match play with a 1-8 record against ranked opponents.

Ride Sally Ride - Mustangs Run Over The Pokes, Boise State Comes Up Big Again, Texas Takes Out Tulsa

The hits keep on coming and on today's playlists we heard the 1966 classic Mustang Sally after No. 36 SMU ran all over No. 5 Oklahoma State 4-0.

SMU jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 and then the Mustangs claimed four opening sets in singles. SMU's Nate Lammons made it 2-0 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Julian Cash at No. 1 and then Hunter Johnson put the Mustangs a point away from clinching with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Arjun Kadhe at No. 2. Redshirt junior Tony Russell would bring it home for SMU with a 7-6, 6-3 upset win over Lukas Finzelberg at No. 5.

Thursday Recap: Buckeyes Top The Bulls, Columbia Wins at SMU, & Action Gets Underway in San Diego

After a calm Wednesday the pace picked up on Thursday with Ohio State taking on South Florida while the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic got underway with four close matches at two different sites.

No. 4 Ohio State made its outdoors debut in Tampa and despite getting tested the Buckeyes still had enough in the tank to get past No. 16 South Florida 4-3.  Ohio State's Chris Diaz didn't play in doubles (reasons unknown) but the Buckeyes still managed to win at No. 1 and No. 2. Diaz's normal partner, Hugo Di Feo, and Matt Mendez led 5-3 at No. 3 when the point was clinched.

Sunday Recap: Texas A&M Holds Off Florida, NC State Upsets Wake, Ohio State Wins At OU & More

In what had to be the match of the day it was No. 8 Texas A&M outlasting No. 30 Florida 4-3 in 3 hours and 51 minutes. Florida jumped out to the early lead by taking the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but Texas A&M came out ready to go in singles and took five opening sets.

Jordi Arconada was off the court first with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Chase Perez-Blanco at No. 3 but Florida's Gordon Watson answered with a 6-4, 6-4 win over AJ Catanzariti at No. 5.

Texas A&M senior Jackson Withrow evened the match at 2-2 with a 7-6, 6-2 win over Florida freshman McClain Kessler at No. 6 but Florida retook the lead when freshman Alfredo Perez rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Texas A&M senior Harrison Adams.

UNCW Clips #25 NC State & Memphis Holds Off SMU

North Carolina State returned to the top 25 this week and had four matches scheduled for the weekend with two of them ranked opponents. However the Pack may have been caught looking ahead to Friday's showdown with #6 Texas Tech because this afternoon it was upset by unranked UNC Wilmington 4-3.

Despite being an upset in terms of ranking, it wasn't a surprise in terms of recent history because this was actually the third time in the last four meetings that the Seahawks have clipped the Wolfpack.

UNCW won a tightly contested doubles point with both #1 and #3 going to tiebreaks. UNCW won 6-2 at #2 and when Xander Veys/Javier Restrepo and pulled it out 7-6(4) at #1 the Seahawks had the crucial doubles point.

Thursday Recap: Go Tigers Go, Stangs Top the Islanders

Going into last night's match Memphis had dropped 14 of its last 15 against Vanderbilt with its last win over Vandy coming back in 2012. Now they can say they've taken split the last four meetings after coming away with a 5-2 win on Thursday night.

Memphis took the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 and then took three opening sets in singles with five singles matches in progress at the five court indoor facility. Ryan Peniston was first off the court with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #2 and then Kai Lemke made it 3-0 Tigers with a 6-2, 7-6 win at #4. Vandy's Daniel Valent put the Commodores on the board with a 7-6, 6-1 win at #1 but a short while later Felix Rauch clinched it with a 0-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at #5.

Tuesday Recap: Dartmouth knocks off SMU & Pepperdine beats Washington

#36 SMU opened up its new outdoor facility tonight but #60 Dartmouth spoiled the party with a 4-1 upset win.  The Big Green was playing the middle match of a 5 game road trip and after losing to both TCU and Oklahoma State it definitely was a welcome win.

Dartmouth came out and won a tight doubles point by winning 7-5 at both 1 and 3 while SMU took #2 doubles 6-4.  In singles, Dartmouth took the opening set on 5 of 6 courts and was able to pick up wins from Brendan Tannenbaum, Dovydas Sakinis, and Ciro Riccardi.  At the time of the clinch Dartmouth's Max Schmidt was a game away up 5-2 in the 3rd.

Wednesday Recap: Bulls Ground The Gophers & Cowboys Rally Past The Mustangs

The top 25 showdown between South Florida and Minnesota may have finished 4-3 but it wasn't that close as South Florida cruised to the doubles point and then picked up 4 opening sets and ended up sweeping the top 3 courts.  Roberto Cid provided the clincher at #1 singles winning the 3rd set 6-1 then after the clinch the 2 remaining matches played 10 point supertiebreaks in lieu of a 3rd set.

USF recap

“[Minnesota] has a very good team in doubles and we have a very strong team in doubles, so we knew that would be a huge point,” said head coach Matt Hill. “The guys played really well today, especially at No. 1 and No. 3, so that gave us a lot of confidence moving into the singles.”

Minnesota recap

FYI, the number beside the player's school is the player's Universal Tennis Rating as of March 14th.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

#21 South Florida 4, #25 Minnesota 3

Mar 18, 2015 at Tampa, Fla. (USF Varsity Tennis Courts)

Singles competition

1. #21 Roberto Cid (USF 14.19) def. #25 Leandro Toledo (MINN 14.01) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1

2. Sasha Gozun (USF 13.39) def. Jack Hamburg (MINN 13.07) 6-3, 7-6(5)

3. Oliver Pramming (USF 13.32) def. Ruben Weber (MINN 13.27) 6-2, 6-4

4. Matic Spec (MINN 13.78) def. Igna. Gonzalez-Muniz (USF 13.09) 7-5, 6-3

5. Felix Corwin (MINN 13.58) def. Justin Roberts (USF 13.03) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 1-0(5)

6. Mathieu Froment (MINN 12.84) def. Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF 13.21) 7-6(5), 4-6, 1-0(5)

Doubles competition

1. #37 Oliver Pramming/Justin Roberts (USF) def. #66 Mathieu Froment/Jack Hamburg (MINN) 6-2

2. Sasha Gozun/Vadym Kalyuzhnyy (USF) vs. #80 Felix Corwin/Leandro Toledo (MINN) 4-5, unf

3. Roberto Cid/Igna. Gonzalez-Muniz (USF) def. Eric Frueh/Matic Spec (MINN) 6-2

Match Notes

Minnesota 10-5 (1-0 Big Ten); National ranking #25

South Florida 13-4 (1-0 AAC); National ranking #21

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

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Oklahoma Too Much For Virginia, Ohio State Overpowers Florida, Baylor Too Deep for Ole MIss

The headlining match of the day lived up to its billing as #1 Oklahoma came from behind to knock off #7 Virginia 4-3.  This showdown was played using the traditional scoring system which had doubles play a pro set to 8 and had ad scoring used in both doubles and singles.

Oklahoma jumped out to early 4-2 leads at 1 and 3 doubles and would actually lead 6-3 at #1 before Virginia started turning it around.  Virginia's #1 team of Corinteli/Shane broke at 4-6 to get it back on serve and it stayed that way until the tiebreak.  In the tiebreak the UVA #1s would win the final 2 points to take it 8-6. Virginia's #2 team of Kwiatkowski/Aragone broke to go up 4-3 and never let the lead go as they finished off Harris/Ghilea 8-6.  Virginia's #3 team of Frank/Altamirano came back from 4-2 down and would lead 7-5 at the time of the clinch.

In singles play, Virginia jumped out to early leads on several courts and would take the opening sets at 1, 3, 4, and 6 while Oklahoma picked up 1st sets at 2 and 5.  Virginia freshman Collin Altamirano was the first to finish as he knocked off Spencer Papa 6-4, 6-4 at #4 singles in a match where Altamirano was never broken.  Oklahoma's Axel Alvarez would put the Sooners on the board with a 6-4, 7-5 win at #2 singles while all the other matches would head to a 3rd set.