Weekend Preview (4/15-4/17)

This is a monster weekend of college tennis with a slew of intriguing matches. The biggest match will take place in Charlottesville with top-ranked Virginia hosting No. 7 Wake Forest Demon with the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and the ACC regular season title at stake.

Georgia has already clinched a share of the SEC regular season crown and can win it outright with either a win over Arkansas or Ole Miss or a Florida loss to Kentucky and Tennessee.

Michigan has a chance to make a move in the Big Ten standings but it won't be easy with road matches at Northwestern and Illinois. Ohio State is still the favorite to win the conference but the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament will probably be decided this weekend.

Sunday Preview - TCU/Oklahoma St, Texas/Oklahoma, Tulane/South Florida

After a wide open Friday, that had five top 25 matchups on the slate, things slow down a little today with just two top 25 matchups with both taking place in the Big 12.

Second-ranked TCU, fresh off its first win over Oklahoma since 2008, welcomes in No. 12 Oklahoma State. This will actually be the second meeting of the season with TCU edging Oklahoma State 4-3 during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend back in January. Oklahoma State started out the year with a 15-1 record but the Cowboys have lost three of their last four and have fell from a season high ranking of No. 5 down to No. 12. Oklahoma State got shutout on Friday by Texas although the Cowboys were ahead on two of the unfinished courts. If both teams use the same lineups they used on Friday there will be just two rematches from the first meeting (Rybakov/Kadhe & Nava/Meraut) due to Ismailov leaving while TCU has Trevor Johnson back in the lineup. I definitely am not expecting another 4-3 thriller but if TCU isn't as motivated after its big win over OU it could be much closer. If TCU takes the doubles point I think they'll win the match 4-1; If TCU loses the doubles point then I'll say 4-2.

Weekend Preview (4/8-4/10)

The rubber meets the road this weekend with the Big 12 Conference schedule finally getting underway plus there's a big one in the SEC on Friday afternoon in Athens. It's hard to believe it but we're down to the final two weeks of the regular season in several conferences (AAC, ACC, CUSA, Ivy, Pac-12, SEC) while a few others have three weeks left (Big Ten, Big 12, WCC).

Several schools are all but guaranteed to make the NCAA tournament but there are several others that need to kick it in gear down the stretch if they want to hear their name called on selection Tuesday.

There are FIVE top-25 matchups on Friday with two of them in the SEC, two in the Big 12, and the other involving a Big 12 school and a AAC school.

Baylor Sics The Horns + Busy Wednesday Coming Up

It definitely hasn't been the most memorable season for Baylor but that didn't stop the Bears from knocking off No. 17 Texas for the ninth time in the last ten years.

Texas jumped out to early break leads at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles while Baylor earned the first break at No. 3. Texas's George Goldhoff and Julian Zlobinsky opened up a 3-0 lead on Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck at No. 2 and ended up breaking Rios to close out a 6-2 win.

Texas's No. 1 team of Adrian Ortiz and Michael Riechmann jumped out to a 3-1 lead on Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski but the BU duo broke Ortiz to even it at 3-3 and then Tchoutakian came back from 30-40 down to hold for 4-3. After Riechmann and Podvinski held, Baylor would break the Ortiz serve again, this time on a double-fault, to win it 6-4.

Sunday Preview - UNC/WF, OU/FSU, Tulane/Tulsa, Arky/MSU

It's Sunday which means we've got one more chance this weekend to see some great college tennis action.

There are four top 25 matchups today with the biggest one coming in Chapel Hill as top-ranked North Carolina tries to pick up a second top 10 win of the weekend against No. 6 Wake Forest. North Carolina is coming off a big 4-3 win over No. 3Virginia while Wake pulled out a 4-3 win at No. 45 Virginia Tech. I'm still amazed that UNC won the doubles point after losing 6-0 at No. 3 but I have a feeling that Wake gets the doubles point today. If UNC plays anywhere as good as they did against Virginia they should win it 5-2 or so but I'm expecting another 4-3 match. I'll take Wake in doubles and Chrysochos and Bogaets in singles but I like Schnur, Clark, Kelly, and Kodali to win for UNC.

Weekend Preview (4/1-4/3)

Friday is going to be a blockbuster day with five matches between top 25 opponents. The big one in the ACC is the rematch from this the National Team Indoor finals as No. 1 North Carolina hosts No. 3 Virginia. The big one in the SEC is in College Station between the conference's highest ranked teams as No. 10 Texas A&M hosts No. 7 Georgia.

#3 Virginia (16-2) at #1 North Carolina (20-1) - 3pm ET - North Carolina snapped a 15-match losing streak to Virginia and in the process snapped Virginia's 140-match ACC winning streak when the Tar Heels upset Virginia back on February 15 (box score below). The big story in this one will be if Brayden Schnur is healthy enough to play in singles after missing seven of the last eleven matches. The other story will be whether the match is played inside or outside. The temperature is projected to be in the mid-70s but there's a 40 percent chance of rain. If they play indoors streaming video will be available but if they stay outside then no streaming.

Weekend Preview (3/25-3/28)

Most of the bigger conferences are into the middle of conference play while some of the smaller ones are still playing out of conference.

There are two top 25 matchups on Friday with No. 24 Mississippi State hosting No. 16 Florida while No. 23 Michigan welcomes in No. 25 Penn State.

In my opinion the biggest match of the day in the Big Ten isn't the Michigan/Penn State match but rather the one between Iowa and Wisconsin. Neither team is going to win the conference this year so to get into the NCAAs as an at-large these guys will need to be ranked in the low 40s and if you want to stay in the low 40s or better you have to win these types of matches. I do like Wisconsin to get the win in its own backyard.

Weekend Preview (3/18-3/20)

It's Friday and that means another weekend of action packed college tennis action. There are three top-25 matchups on the docket for Friday with two of them getting underway early in the day.

Ninth-ranked Texas A&M (15-4) and No. 25 Mississippi State (11-3) were originally supposed to play on Friday evening but due to the potential for rain the match was moved up to noon central. Last weekend Texas A&M split road matches with a loss to Arkansas and a win over Ole Miss while Mississippi State swept its matches against Kentucky and Tennessee. Texas A&M hasn't lost a conference match at the Mitchell Tennis Center in over three years (3/15/13 - LSU) and I don't see them losing today either.

Thursday Recap + Weekend Preview (3/11-3/13)

There were actually four ranked versus ranked matches on Thursday with the higher ranked team winning three of the four.

No. 4 Virginia went to Tulsa, the site of this year's NCAA Championships, and rolled over No. 26 Tulsa 6-1. Virginia won a pretty tight doubles point by breaking Tulsa's 5-6 service game at No. 3 to claim the point.  Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, Mac Styslinger, and Henrik Wiersholm won in straight sets for Virginia at 1, 2, 5, and 6 while Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won a three-set battle over Dylan McCloskey at 3. Tulsa's Juan Matias Gonzalez earned the lone point for the Golden Hurricane with a straight set win at No. 4.

Weekend Preview (3/4-3/6)

The weekend is here and while there aren't as many high profile matches as in past weeks there is still plenty of quality tennis to be played.

SEC conference play gets underway this weekend with a big match taking place on Sunday in College Station between #8 Texas A&M and #30 Florida. These two teams were selected as the preseason #2 and #3 by the SEC coaches so it'll be a chance for one of them to get a leg up on the other. Of course before Florida gets a crack at A&M it'll have to take care of business in Baton Rouge on Friday night against #32 LSU. The Bayou Bengals have been known to give higher ranked teams some trouble at home so we'll see if that's the case tonight. Texas A&M actually opens up its weekend on the road at #66 Auburn though I'm not expecting that one to be too close.

Weekend Preview (2/26-28)

I highlighted some of the top matches of the weekend in a post I did on the ITA's site and below I'll go over all the rest.

The featured match of the day on Friday takes place in Palo Alto between last season's Pac-12 co-champions #29 Stanford and #13 USC. This is a non-conference match, with the official conference match coming on April 2 in LA, though it's a match both teams want and a match that Stanford really needs. Stanford has dropped the doubles point three matches in a row and if they lose it again today I think it's looking at a fourth straight loss. If Stanford takes the doubles point I think it picks up its first win since beating Santa Clara back on February 2nd.

Weekend Preview (2/19-21)

It's the first weekend after the National Indoors but there is no time for slowing down. Texas A&M is back on the road and is in Columbus tonight for a rematch against Ohio State (Buckeyes won 4-3 last Sunday) and then on Sunday it'll be in Champaign to face Illinois (I might make it to this one).

There are 7 ranked versus ranked matches on Friday highlighted by #7 A&M and #6 Ohio State but that #50 Indiana/#37 Oregon match has a lot of potential too.

#55 South Carolina and #17 San Diego will be in Tampa this weekend to play each other and #14 South Florida. San Diego and South Florida just played last Sunday in a NTI consolation match with USF winning 4-2.

What's Coming Up

There's a lot of quality matches on the schedule this weekend with eight top 25 matchups taking place plus there's another half dozen or so that will be very intriguing.

Below I've listed the ones that I'll especially be keeping a close eye on because while most of the higher ranked teams should win there are a couple of 4-3 ones in the bunch.

#13 South Florida leaves the state for the first time this season as it goes to #23 Minnesota to play indoors then heads to College Station on Sunday to play #3 Texas A&M outdoors. South Florida is a good bit better than Minnesota but the Bulls don't play indoors often so it'll be interesting to see if the Gophers can put the home court advantage to work. Tennis Atlantic's Jeff McMillan will be on site so keep an eye on his twitter account for the occasional video clip.

Wednesday Line-Up

We are just 2 days out from the start of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend but there are a few teams that want to get some last minute work in as extra preparations.

#10 Ohio State opens up its season today with a triple-header against Dayton, Butler, and Xavier with everyone on the roster most likely looking at getting some court time.

#20 Stanford opens up its season by welcoming in Sacramento State and #57 UC-Davis. Stanford is playing in one of the toughest KO regionals (Columbia/Virginia Tech/Minnesota) so it needs to be as sharp as possible if it wants to pull through.

#14 UCLA opens up its season by hosting #55 San Francisco after many of the Bruins saw action last weekend at the Sherwood Cup.

Monday Line-Up

Normally Mondays are a light day for college tennis but due to the Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend we get an extra day of tennis. The schedule for the day shows 5 matches between ranked opponents plus an intriguing one in the Boro between Nashville neighbors Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee State.

I think the best match of the day will be in Memphis as #45 Memphis opens up its season by hosting #28 Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State opened up its season on Friday by only dropping 1 set in a pair of 7-0 shutouts over UNLV and Creighton. Below are some comments from Memphis head coach Paul Goebel about bringing in a big time opponent:

"This is an exciting match for us," Head Coach Paul Goebel said. "We have been training all fall with a really demanding schedule. We got back early to school and we're excited to get the season started. And to host Oklahoma State is big for us. They're very well-coached and Jay Udwadia has done an unbelievable job there. They've been in the top 25 and are one of the forces in the Big 12, which is one of the best conferences in the nation. So to have them coming to our place just a season after hosting Baylor, who was in the top five last year, is a big deal."

Sunday Line-Up

There's been a lot of great college tennis action over the last 2 days but there's still room for more as the MLK Holiday Weekend continues with 4 matchups between ranked teams.

#36 Louisville is fresh off a Friday sweep of #63 Troy and Dayton and be looking to run its record to 4-0 as it faces #26 Northwestern and Morehead State. I have a feeling that Northwestern's top 3 is going to be a little tough tough today and will help the Wildcats start off the season with a win. After the match Northwestern will hop back into the van and cruise back up to Chicago so they can play another match at 7pm central against Chicago State.

#24 Florida opens up its season with a doubleheader against #63 Troy and Stetson and I expect to see the Gators roll in both. Florida is a very talented team that was the coaches voted picked to finish second this season so they'll be a fun team to watch all season.

One of the most intriguing matches of the day will come in Durham. #13 Duke, fresh off a 6-1 season opening win over Elon, will host unranked Kentucky which opened up its season with a pair of routine wins on Friday over Eastern and Northern Kentucky. Duke's Nicolas Alvarez will be tough to beat at #1 but Kentucky may have the advantage at 2, 3, and 4 with newcomer Ryotara Matsuuara and junior Nils Ellefsen both playing extremely well. Beck Pennington didn't play at all on Friday so whether he plays in this one could be big.

Saturday Line-Up

Friday brought us several good ones and I expect Saturday to do the same with 7 matchups between ranked opponents highlighted by #16 Virginia Tech going to Tuscaloosa to face #65 Alabama and #54 UC Santa Barbara trying to make it to 2 big wins in as many days as it faces to #12 Texas out in Seattle.

Wake Forest opens its season against a pair of solid opponents, North Florida and East Tennessee State, and maybe we'll get to see Petros Chrysochos and Dennis Uspensky in action with the pair just joining the team. For more info about Wake Forest you can check out my season preview.

Another round of doubleheaders will take place in Lubbock between Texas Tech, New Mexico, Pacific, and Arizona with each team playing 6 dual-matches in a 4-day period.

William and Mary went on the road yesterday and beat Yale but today they'll have to try and beat another Ivy League school as they go to Harvard.

Live scoring links are listed below so follow along throughout the day - for a multi-frame scoreboard you can check out this page that I've been tinkering with - feedback welcome!

Friday Line-Up

3 matches today between ranked teams with all 3 expected to be pretty close. Louisville is going to be starting a lot of new faces today so I wouldn't be surprised to see Troy come into the Ville and pull off the upset.

I guarantee you #13 Duke won't be overlooking Elon after the Phoenix stunned them 2 years ago. Despite having a young team I still expect to see Duke pull through because Elon is just as young after losing 3 of its top 4 from last year.

Cal and Tulsa ought to be a good one tonight and I'm sure it'll be played indoors which will give Tulsa a little bit of an advantage however I expect to see Cal take it with 5 ranked singles players starting in the lineup.

Live scoring links for today matches are below

What's Coming Up This Week

The dual-match doors have been unlocked and they are open for business - there will be 17 dual-matches this week between ranked teams plus I wouldn't be surprised to see an unranked team upset a ranked opponent.

The most intriguing matches in my opinion are #12 Texas at #62 Washington, #21 Cal at #29 Tulsa, Kentucky at #13 Duke, and #16 Virginia Tech at #65 Alabama. I'll be interested to see what lineups Texas puts out on Tuesday against some lighter foes in preparation for its trip to Seattle to face both UC Santa Barbara and Washington. Even though Kentucky is unranked I'd make their match against #13 Duke a toss-up. Duke has a lot of new faces that will be called upon to start in this one and Kentucky is coming off a strong showing against LSU, Memphis, and Florida Gulf Coast.

Alabama bulked up its roster in the off-season bringing in Mazen Osama (Fr), Grayson Goldin (FSU transfer), Matthew Rossouw (Tyler JUCO transfer), and Spencer Richey (Fr) so I think they'll be much improved this season. Virginia Tech better bring its A-game or it'll be a long trip back to Blacksburg. 

Also make sure you keep an eye on the Sherwood Cup and MLK Invitational. Oklahoma, Georgia, Ole Miss, and Georgia Tech will lock horns using a hidden-dual format while USC, UCLA, Stanford, and Baylor will be sending their best to Thousand Oaks for the Sherwood Cup.

What's Coming Up & Interesting NCAA Facts & Notes

Between now and the start of the 1st round on May 8th I'll preview 2 regionals per day. I'll start off with the Oklahoma and UCLA regionals and finish with the Virginia Tech and Baylor regionals.  I'll list the projected starting lineups with current player rankings and current Universal Tennis Rankings and I'll also make my predictions on each.

Some interesting facts and stats:

The doubles point plays a large roll between winning and losing and it seems to mean that much more when tournament time rolls around.  It's interesting to see a pair of top 20 teams in the bottom 4 in winning percentage.