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.
Cal recap
#39 Stanford 4, #14 Cal 3
Feb 21, 2015 at Berkeley, CA. (Hellman Tennis Complex)
Doubles:
1. No. 30 Bayane/Melton (Cal) def Morrissey/Stineman (Stanford) 6-3 2. Fawcett/Romanowicz (Stanford) def. #32 Goransson/Wikberg (Cal) 6-2
3. Bergevi/Engsted (Cal) def. Paige/Wilczynski (Stanford) 7-5
Singles
1. #28 Tom Fawcett (ST 14.12) def. #42 Andre Goransson (Cal 13.70) 6-2, 6-4
2. #114 Filip Bergevi (Cal 13.66) def. David Wilczynski (ST 13.72) 2-6, 6-2, 6-1
3. John Morrissey (ST 14.07) def. Billy Griffith (Cal 13.68) 6-4, 6-1
4. Maciek Romanowicz (ST 13.28) def. J.T. Nishimura (Cal 13.86) 5-7, 7-5, 7-5
5. Greg Bayane (Cal 13.48) def. David Hsu (ST 13.98) 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-2
6. Nolan Paige (ST 13.37) def. Oskar Wikberg (Cal 13.30) 6-2, 6-3
Match Stats
Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1,3) Singles (6,3,1,2,5,4)
____________________________________________
In Columbus, the 184 people in attendance didn’t realize they were witnessing the Buckeyes historic 200th consecutive home win with most having thought they hit that number against South Florida 2 weeks ago but as I reported it was actually 199 so today was 200. The doubles point was the only real drama in this one with Ohio State taking the deciding match at #3 in a tiebreak. In singles the Buckeyes took 4 1st sets and finished them all in straights and would also pick up a 3 set win from Ralf Steinbach at 5. Notre Dame’s lone point would come at #1 singles as Quentin Monaghan cruised past Chris Diaz.
Ohio State recap
Notre Dame recap
_____________________________________________
In Winston Salem, Wake Forest picked up the doubles point by winning at 1 and 2 then picked up 3 hard fought straight set wins at 1, 2, and 4 with 3 of the 6 sets going to a tiebreak. Oklahoma State won at 5 and 6 then after the match had been clinched won a 10 point tiebreak in lieu of a 3rd set at #3 singles.
Wake recap
OK State recap
Saturday was a big day for the Ivy League as Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell all knocked off Power 5 schools.
In Cambridge, Harvard justified its top 25 ranking by knocking off Minnesota 5-2. Minnesota won a tight doubles point that came down to a tiebreaker at #2 but once singles got going so did the Crimson as they took 5 1st sets and ended up closing out 3 of those in straight sets while also picking up a pair of 3-set wins at 3 and 4.
Harvard recap
Minnesota recap
#25 Harvard 5, #34 Minnesota 2
Singles:
1. #91 Denis Nguyen (HV 13.99) def. #25 Leandro Toledo (MN 14.01) 6-2, 6-4
2. Ruben Weber (MN 13.14) def. #80 Sebastian Beltrame (HV 13.21) 6-3, 7-6(5)
3. Nicky Hu (HV 13.78) def. Jack Hamburg (MN 13.15) 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(8)
4. Alex Steinroeder (HV 13.37) def. Matic Spec (MN 13.60) 6-4, 2-6, 6-3
5. Kenny Tao (HV 13.11) def. Felix Corwin (MN 13.56) 7-5, 7-6(6)
6. Brian Yeung (HV 13.19) def. Mathieu Froment (MN 13.04) 6-1, 6-2
Doubles:
1. Nguyen/Yeung (HV) def. Froment/Hamburg (MN) 7-5
2. Corwin/Toledo (MN) def. Beltrame/Hu (HV) 7-6(7)
3. Spec/Frueh (MN) def. Steinroeder/Solomon (HV) 6-2
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (1,6,2,4,5,3)
___________________________________________
In Montgomery, Princeton advanced to the finals of the Blue Gray classic with a 4-0 rout over Clemson. Princeton took the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 then they took 5 1st sets with Zack McCourt, Joshua Yablon, and Luke Gamble quickly closing out their opponents at 1, 3, and 6 to complete the shutout. This was Princeton’s 2nd big win in as many days after they beat #30 Mississippi State 4-3 on Friday. The Tigers will face #24 South Florida in Sunday’s championship match at 1pm eastern.
Princeton recap
Clemson recap
http://www.soonersports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPID=127253&DB_OEM_ID=31000&ATCLID=209902010<br /><br />try this link for live scoring