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

TCU Tops Texas Tech To Win the Big 12, Ohio State Is The King of the B1G, & More Conference Tournament Winners

Championship Sunday delivered some great matches throughout the country but the highest profile match took place in Stillwater as Texas Tech met TCU in the finals of the Big 12 Championships. The teams were regular season co-champs but Texas Tech got the No. 1 seed due to its win over TCU in the regular season.

Texas Tech won the doubles point in the regular season meeting and they'd do it again today after picking up a 7-5 win at No. 1 and a 6-4 win at No. 2.

SC Stomps Stanford, Michigan Tops Washington, Texas Tech Beats the Pack, & More

The featured match of the day took place in Palo Alto with Stanford hosting USC in a non conference matchup. Stanford had dropped the doubles point in three consecutive matches and it didn't get off to the best start after USC's Rob Bellamy and Jake DeVine picked up a quick 6-2 win at #3. However a short while later Stanford's Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski would win 6-3 at #2 and then Tom Fawcett and Maciek Romanowicz sealed the doubles point with a 6-4 win at #1.

USC quickly turned things around in singles by taking five opening sets and Nick Crystal needed just over an hour to finish off David Wilczynski 6-3, 6-1 at #2. Stanford would end up being just as dominant in the second set as USC was in the first because the Cardinal took four second sets while USC's Jack Jaede forced a split at #5.

Mercer Bears Down, Red Storm Overcomes the Hurricane, Arizona Upsets New Mexico

It has become customary over the last several years to see schools play doubleheaders against perceived "lighter" schools but very rarely do you ever see the bigger school actually lose one of these - until today. #64 Clemson and Mercer met in Charlotte for a doubleheader and after Clemson took the opener 4-0 Mercer turned the tables on them in the nightcap and stunned the Tigers 4-3. According to Mercer's recap it is the Bears first ever win against an ACC school although they had previous beaten Clemson but it was back in 1939 which was 14 years before the ACC was founded. 

NCAA 1st Round Previews: Virginia & Ole Miss Regionals

Virginia Regional
Snyder Tennis Center - Charlottesville, VA

[3] Virginia (23-3) vs. [49-64] St. John's (15-8) - Friday  1pm - #3 Virginia received the ACC's automatic bid after beating #12 Wake Forest 4-2 in the ACC Championship while St. John's got the Big East's automatic bid after defeating Marquette 4-2 in the Big East Championship. St. John's finished the year on a 6-match winning streak and won 11 of its final 12.  The Red Storm went 0-6 against ranked teams on the year.

Doubles Records: Virginia 23-3, St. John's 11-11

UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 87, St. John's 78

Championship Sunday Recap - Part 2 (Big East, Big Sky, Big West, Horizon, MAAC, Southern, Southland, Summit, WAC)

Big East:

St. John's repeated as Big East Champions with a 4-2 win over #2 Marquette.  The Red Storm took the doubles point with 8-5 wins at 1 and 3 and then Lucas Hejhal extended the lead to 2-0 with a 7-5, 6-2 win at #1. Marquette answered with wins from Kris Trukov and Mackenzie Stearns at 4 and 5 to tie it at 2 but St. John's Robert Livi would put STJ back up 3-2 with a  6-4, 2-6, 6-3 win at #3. STJ's Erick Reyes would came back from a set down to clinch at #2 singles with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-1 win over Vukasin Teofanovic.