It was a rainy Sunday across much of the country and while several matches were cancelled due to a lack of indoor courts those that had them put them to use. The matches that were cancelled were Tulsa at Texas A&M, Tennessee vs. Georgia Southern (@ Troy, AL), and a pair of consolation matches at the Blue Gray Classic in Montgomery, Alabama – Boise State vs. Alabama and Auburn vs. Mississippi State.
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of the current date. For more details about UTR check out their website
Oklahoma and North Carolina played last weekend in the National Indoors quarterfinals with Oklahoma winning 4-1 and the final score of today’s match was exactly the same – 4-1. The lineups were a little different today with Oklahoma down 2 singles starters, Spencer Papa (sick)/Jose Salazar (injury), while North Carolina was without Esben Hess-Olsen and Robert Kelly plus the Tar Heels switched up 1 and 2 singles to try to avoid the same result from last weekend.
Oklahoma started off by taking the doubles point which was something it hadn’t been able to do the last 2 times out versus North Carolina. In singles play North Carolina came out really strong and took the opening set on 4 courts however they’d only be able to convert 1 of those to a win as Brett Clark upset Dane Webb 6-3, 6-4. Oklahoma’s Andrew Harris and Austin Siegel (OU’s #8) closed out their matches at 1 and 6 in straight sets to put Oklahoma up 3-1 and it was Florin Bragusi, OU’s #7, that provided the clincher by coming back from a set down to defeat Oystein Steiro 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 at #5 singles. The other 2 matches were abandoned at the time of the clinch with OU’s Alex Ghilea was up 5-2 in the 3rd at 4 and UNC’s Brayden Schnur up a set at 2.
Oklahoma’s recap is one of the more detailed recaps that I’ve seen recently so check it out for my quotes and details about this match.
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The Ivy League had a superb weekend with Harvard, Princeton, and Cornell all knocking off Power 5 schools but the tables were turned on them today with each coming up short.
Cambridge, MA: Vanderbilt jumped out to the early 1-0 lead by taking the doubles point but Harvard would pick up 4 1st sets and Brian Yeung, Nicky Hu, and Kenny Tao would each close out their opponents in straight sets at 6, 3, and 5 singles to put Harvard up 3-1. Vandy’s rock at #1, Gonzales Austin, would trim the deficit to 3-2 with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Denis Nguyen. Austin is now 10-0 during dual match play with his last loss coming to Brayden Schnur in the finals of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships. Vandy’s Danny Valent would even that match at 3 and run his record to 9-1 with a come from behind 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win at #4 singles over Alex Steinroeder. The final match left on court was at #2 singles between Rhys Johnson and Sebastian Beltrame. After splitting sets, Vandy’s Johnson would jump out to a 5-2 lead in the 3rd but Beltrame wouldn’t go quietly as he would hold and then break Johnson at 15-40 to put the match back on serve. It would come down to the deciding point on the Beltrame serve but it wouldn’t end good for the home team as Johnson would get the point and the match. (Most of the details came courtesy of Harvard’s Tennis Twitter – @HMTofficial – give them a follow)
Harvard recap
Stanford has always done the "abandoned" thing too, and I got the same type of response you did when I last asked about it at the 2011 NCAAs. Definitely going to be a problem at this year's NCAAs in Waco, but we're on notice.