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 - UCLA/Stanford, Wake/Oklahoma, Georgia/USC, UNC/Miss St

[3] UCLA Bruins (24-2) vs. [17-32] Stanford Cardinal (15-10)  - Friday 8pm ET - UCLA booked its spot in the Sweet 16 after shutting out both Weber State and San Diego while Stanford knocked off Notre Dame 4-1 and Northwestern 4-3. UCLA is the only team to make the Sweet 16 every year since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1999 while Stanford is back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2012. This will be the fourth meeting of the year with UCLA taking the previous three. 

Interesting notes: Stanford won the doubles point in each of those three previous matches yet UCLA came back and won each time. UCLA will have played the exact same singles lineup in all four matches while Tom Fawcett is the only Stanford player to have stayed in the same spot all year. Michael Genender started the year at #6 singles but has worked his way up to #2. 

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: 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

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.

Saturday Recap: TCU Hooks The Horns, Cal Men Take the Big Slam, Stanford Women Slam #1 Cal, Coastal Carolina Dancing

The first big match of the day took place in Austin between No. 18 Texas and No. 2 TCU. The Horned Frogs took the doubles point with a 6-1 win at No. 3 from Cameron Norrie and Alex Rybakov and a 7-6(1) win at No. 1 from Hudson Blake and Reese Stalder.

Texas turned it around in singles and claimed five opening sets to really put TCU on its heels. The only Horned Frog to win a first set was also the first one to finish as Cameron Norrie defeated George Goldhoff 6-4, 6-1 at No. 1.

TCU found its fire in the second set and took all six sets to send five of the six matches to a third set. Jerry Lopez put TCU ahead 3-0 after completing his comeback with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Michael Riechmann at No. 5.

Saturday Recap: Lamar Upsets Rice, ODU Over W&M, Drake Beats Wichita State, Ivies, GGC Outduels HPU, & More

There were two bigger stories on Saturday - the rain that wiped out several matches and Lamar upsetting No. 28 Rice 4-1. The bad weather out in California washed out the Oregon/Cal and San Diego/Santa Clara matches while UNC Wilmington and VCU were rained out in Richmond. Both of the matches in California are set to be played on Sunday while UNC Wilmington and VCU won't make their match up.

Earlier this season Lamar upset then No. 47 Iowa 4-2 but today's win over Rice took it to a new level. Lamar took the doubles point by winning the deciding match at No. 2 in a tiebreak and then the Cardinals took four opening sets in singles. Lamar junior Nikita Lis rolled over Tommy Bennett 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2 but Rice senior Adam Gustafsson countered with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Sebastian Santibanez at No. 3.

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.

Who Let the Heels Out - UNC Takes Out UVA Again & UGA TKOs aTm

When North Carolina defeated Virginia to win the National Team Indoors back in February many thought that win wiped out all the streaks that Virginia had over North Carolina. It turns out there was another streak that was still intact going into today's match and that was the fact that Virginia had won the doubles point over North Carolina in 18 straight matches dating all the way back to April 3, 2004. Well that streak was broken today when North Carolina found a way to pull out the point in dramatic fashion.

Virginia's Collin Altamirano and JC Aragone didn't waste any time at No. 3 as they ran all over Ronnie Schneider and Andrew Gores 6-0.

North Carolina's No. 2 team of Brayden Schnur and Jack Murray took their first lead of the match when they broke to go up 4-3 and then Murray held for 5-3. Virginia's Mac Styslinger and Thai-Son Kwaitkowski would hold for 4-5, break Schnur for 5-5, and then hold for 6-5. Murray held to send it to a tiebreak and in the tiebreak the UNC pair jumped out to a 5-2* lead. UNC served up 6-4 but UVA got the mini-break back only to see UNC take the next point to win it 7-6(5).

Wednesday Recap: Hogs Slop The Horns, Stanford Gets Past Pacific, Boise State Upsets UCSB

A great season for Arkansas got even better on Wednesday night when the Razorbacks beat Texas for the first time since 2004 and won in Austin for the first time since 1988. Arkansas took the doubles point by winning the deciding match at No. 1 in a tiebreak but Texas rebounded by taking four opening sets in singles.

Adrian Ortiz bum-rushed Santiago Munoz 6-1, 6-0 at No. 3 and then Michael Riechmann put Texas ahead with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Adam Sanjurjo at No. 5. Arkansas's Giammarco Micolani tied the match at 2-all with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Rodrigo Banzer at No. 4 and then Jose Salazar put the Hogs ahead with a come from behind 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 win over Texas freshman Harrison Scott.

Illinois Stuns #2 Virginia, Texas Shocks #5 Wake Forest, UCLA Holds Off Stanford, Okie State Drills USF

Man oh man what a day of tennis it was - we had some blowouts, some upsets, and some really big shockers. College tennis action was played outside in sunny skies, outside in windy conditions, and indoors in calm conditions. I'll start off with the match that I attended in Champaign-Urbana between #11 Illinois and #2 Virginia.

The temperature in C-U was in the mid-40s so there wasn't any doubt about whether the match would be played inside or outside. After having my complementary piece of pizza I walked into the Atkins Tennis Center and within the first 60 seconds I found out that Virginia would be playing without its #1 Ryan Shane. I talked with Ryan for a minute just before doubles and he said he's had a few things bothering him for a while and it was decided that it would be best to rest until he's back to 100%. He obviously wanted to be out there playing but at the same time he knew he needed to take care of his body so he could compete at the highest level in the later stages of the season. So Virginia had to retool two of its three doubles pairings and move everyone up a spot in the singles lineup.

Saturday Preview - Oklahoma St/South Florida, UCLA/Stanford, Virginia/Illinois

#9 Oklahoma State (10-1) vs. #14 South Florida (7-3) (Montgomery, AL) - 1:30pm est/12:30pm cst - Live Scoring - These teams were originally slotted in opposite ends of the draw at the Blue Gray but a last minute change was made and they'll end up facing each other in the semis. Oklahoma State is coming off a 4-0 win over Alabama in a match that could have finished 4-3 because the Tide led on each of the three remaining courts. South Florida was challenged by Boise State on Friday but still won it 4-0 and it probably would have finished 7-0 had it been played out.

South Florida loves playing outdoors while Oklahoma State is probably a little better indoors so I think that may help determine the outcome. Both teams have played great doubles this season so that should be a tightly contested point.

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.

Saturday Recap: Cal Wins The Big Slam; Penn State Still Unbeaten, Mississippi State Rides the Wave

It was Big Slam Saturday at The Farm and as expected Cal and Stanford gave us another 4-3 classic. Last season each team won at the other's place and this year is starting off the same after Cal gutted out a 4-3 win in a match that took 3 hours and 59 minutes.

The 52-minute doubles point was extremely tight with breaks hard to come by at both #1 and #3. Cal's #2 team of Andre Goransson and Billy Griffith jumped out to a 5-2 lead but Stanford's Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski would come back and take five straight to win it 7-5.

The match at #1 stayed on serve until Stanford's Maciek Romanowicz double faulted on match point at 30-40 to give Cal's Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat the 7-5 win.

Big Slam Preview - Cal at Stanford

The big match of the day on Saturday takes place in Palo Alto as #22 Stanford hosts #18 Cal in the "Big Slam" Part 1. This will be a non-conference matchup with the official conference matchup taking place in Berkeley on April 16. Last season the teams met three times with Stanford taking two of the three by winning at Cal and in Ojai in the Pac-12 semis.

The first meeting in Berkeley was a wild 4-3 win by Stanford that saw Maciek Romanowicz come back from 5-2 down in the third to beat JT Nishimura 7-5 in the deciding match. Cal took the second meeting 4-3 when Billy Griffith held off Nolan Paige 6-4 in the third in the deciding match. Stanford won the rubber match 4-1 at the Pac-12 Tournament in a match that was extremely tight.

Cal is coming off a tremendous pair of wins over #3 TCU and #24 Texas while Stanford is coming off gut wrenching losses to those same two teams.

Cal Stuns TCU, UNC Takes Out OU, Texas Hooks Stanford, Bucks Blank Hokies

Some days things go your way and some days they don't - for TCU, Oklahoma, and Stanford it was the latter while Cal, North Carolina, and Texas walked away with big smiles on its faces.

Cal got punched in the gut when it couldn't participate in the Kick-Off Weekend due to weather but they made up for it this weekend in spades with wins over #26 Texas and #2 TCU.

Both Cal and TCU played physical matches on Saturday with each getting pushed by its opponents but while Cal bounced back TCU wasn't able to keep up the Bears.

TCU pulled out the doubles point for the second day in a row with wins at #2 and #3 but Cal got humming in singles and took opening sets at #2, #3, #4, and #6.

Gustav The Great Saves Ole Miss, TCU Wins Battle Over Stanford, Cal Fights Off Texas

Saturday was a day for some great tennis in the state of Texas with Ole Miss winning a thriller over Baylor in Waco while TCU and Cal won battles over Stanford and Texas in Austin.

Ole Miss came into the match having only played 3 times all season while Baylor was playing its 5th match in the last 8 days. Baylor got off to a hot start in doubles and at one point led 5-1 at #1, 3-0 at #2, and 4-2 at #3 but unbelievably they'd only get 1 more game between the 3 courts combined. Julian Lenz and Will Little got that 1 game and finished off the match at #1 winning 6-2 but Ole Miss started chipping away at the deficit everywhere else. The Rebel's #3 team of Fabian Fallert and Grey Hamilton won 4 straight game to close out Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck 6-4. The biggest momentum shift in that one came when Ole Miss was serving at 4-4, 15-40 and they managed to come back and get the hold. Moments later Stefan Lindmark and Ricardo Jorge completed their comeback by winning the final 6 games at #2 to win 6-3.

Saturday Preview - Stanford/TCU & Ole Miss/Baylor

#18 Stanford (5-1) vs. #2 TCU (2-0) - (Big 12/Pac-12 Challenge - Austin) - 12pm est/11am cst - Live Scoring - Stanford is coming off back-to-back shutouts of Santa Clara and San Diego State while TCU hasn't played since squeaking out a 4-3 win over Oklahoma State during the Kick-Off Weekend two weeks ago. Stanford missed out qualifying for the National Indoors since it lost to Columbia 4-3 so this weekend is a chance for the Cardinal to pick up a couple of ranked wins. TCU is looking to use this weekend to toughen up some more before going to Charlottesville for the NTIs.

Doubles Records: Stanford 6-0, TCU 1-1

Pham Pushes Columbia Past Stanford & Wake Forest Wallops Tennessee

What's that old saying about saving the best for last - Columbia and Stanford sure didn't disappoint in the excitement department by bringing the house down at the USTA National Tennis Center in one of the final regionals of the 2016 ITA Kick-Off Weekend. These matches were originally scheduled to be played at Columbia's Dick Savitt Tennis Center but because of worries about the weight of the snow on the roof it was moved to the USTA NTC.

Going into the match I figured Columbia had to get the doubles point to have a realistic shot because I didn't see them taking 4 singles matches from Stanford but that's just what they did.

Stanford came out ready to go in doubles and went up early breaks at #2 and #3. Just one day removed from a 6-0 loss to Minnesota, Stanford's #3 team of David Wilczynski and Yale Goldberg jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and cruised to a 6-2 win.  Stanford's #2 team of Tom Fawcett and Sameer Kumar broke early to go up 2-1 but Columbia's Mike Vermeer and Michal Rolski had a chance to get the match back on serve when Kumar served at 4-3, 15-40. Kumar and Fawcett took the next 3 points to get the hold with Columbia's best chance coming at 30-40 when Rolski let a floater at the net drop instead of taking it out of the air and his chip return was ultimately blasted past him for a winner. Fawcett served it out from 5-4 to clinch the doubles point for the Cardinal.

San Diego Slides Past Duke, Soares Steals The Show, TCU Holds On, UNC/Baylor/Georgia Each Tested

Sunday was a great day for the guys from sunny San Diego as the Toreros went into snowy Durham and beat the host Duke Blue Devils 4-2 to clinch the school's first ever berth in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. Sunday was also a day of near misses as #28 Oklahoma State, #40 NC State, #44 Memphis and #49 Oregon each put a considerable amount of pressure on the #1 seeds in their respective regionals before coming up just short in the end.

There were also several blowouts as Oklahoma, Texas A&M, Ohio State, UCLA, and South Florida each cruised in matches that took 2 hours or less.

The biggest comeback of the day took place in Austin as the #4 seed Texas Tech came back from 3-0 down to defeat the #3 seed Florida 4-3.