Compared to what we’ll see on Sunday (Virginia at Baylor, Wake Forest at Texas, Vanderbilt at Ole Miss) Saturday should be fairly tame day with just 1 matchup between top 15 schools. Below are the best ones that I saw on the docket so check them out if you get a chance.
#34 South Carolina (8-6) at #17 Florida (5-3) – 1pm est. – Live Scoring – South Carolina comes into this one on a 3-match losing streak which includes a 4-2 loss on Thursday to Auburn while Florida is coming off a tough 4-1 loss to Georgia. Florida is 4-4 in doubles while South Carolina is 11-3 with both dropping the doubles point the last time out. Here’s an interesting stat that you don’t see too often for a team at this level – South Carolina is 0-13 at the #1 singles spot this year. Most likely that streak will stay intact tomorrow because I’d be surprised if Hidalgo didn’t beat Koch.
The 2nd weakest spot for South Carolina is #2 singles where they are just 6-6. The 2 participants at #2 singles have lost a combined 13 matches in a row with Andrew Adams on an 8-match slide while Maxx Lipman has dropped 5 straight. I think Lipman is the one that breaks his streak and gets the win. The matchup at #3 will be interesting because you have Thiago Pinheiro (1-8 dual match record) taking on Gordon Watson (4-3). Most of Pinheiro’s losses came at #1 against some stiff competition and 7 of his 9 losses have gone 3 sets so while Watson should win it likely won’t be easy. With South Carolina underdogs at those top 3 spots they’d need to sweep the bottom 3 and get the doubles point and if they couldn’t do it at Auburn it isn’t going to happen at Florida. Prediction: Florida 4-2
Projected Singles Lineups:
1. Kyle Koch (USC 13.91) vs. #46 Diego Hidalgo (UF 14.04)
2. Andrew Adams (USC 13.80) vs. #103 Maxx Lipman (UF 13.72)
3. Thiago Pinheiro (USC 13.26) vs. Gordon Watson (UF 13.74)
4. #101 Andrew Schafer (USC 13.39) vs. #80 Elliott Orkin (UF 13.84)
5. Harrison O’Keefe (USC 13.27) vs. #123 Chase Perez-Blanco (UF 13.30)
6. Thomas Mayronne (USC 13.11) vs. Oliver Landert (UF 13.14)
#37 Stanford (6-3) at #21 UCLA (6-5) – 4pm est. – Live Scoring – It’s been a while since UCLA was off to this rough a start as the Bruins limp into this one just above the .500 mark while Stanford comes in after giving #1 USC a decent match the day before though the Cardinal came out on the wrong end of a 6-1 score. One of the unknowns at this point is whether Gage Brymer will be back in the lineup but I’m going to assume he is after missing the last few. UCLA is 8-3 in doubles while Stanford is 7-2. UCLA’s Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki are each 7-1 in dual match play and I look for them both to win at their respective positions and I also think Dennis Mkrtchian is playing well enough to get past John Morrissey so I’m predicting a UCLA sweep at the top 3 spots. I do think Stanford will pull out the doubles point and get at least 1 win if not 2 from the bottom 3 but it won’t be enough. Prediction: UCLA 5-2
Projected Singles Lineups:
1. #26 Tom Fawcett (ST 14.14) vs. #3 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA 14.87)
2. John Morrissey (ST 14.10) vs. #35 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA 13.50)
3. David Wilczynski (ST 13.86) vs. Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.23)
4. Maciek Romanowicz (ST 13.31) vs. Gage Brymer (UCLA 13.83)
5. Nolan Paige (ST 13.32) vs. Karue Sell (UCLA 14.03)
6. David Hsu (ST 13.95) vs. Austin Rapp (UCLA 12.91)
#3 Illinois (11-2) at #14 Notre Dame (6-2) – 4pm est. – Live Scoring – This match was originally scheduled for earlier in February but due to poor weather conditions it was pushed back until today. The home team has won each of the last 10 meetings in this rivalry going all the way back to 2006 but this is probably the best team Illinois has put out since 2007 while Notre Dame is a good team but not as good as the team they had last year. Notre Dame is 6-2 in doubles while Illinois is 6-5. I like Notre Dame in doubles and I think Quentin Monaghan has a good shot of beating Farris Gosea at 1 but the rest of the Illini lineup is just too stout and I see the Illini winning at 2, 3, 4, 5, an 6 to take it. Prediction: Illinois 5-2
Projected Singles Lineups:
1. #52 Farris Gosea (ILL 14.59) vs. #24 Quentin Monaghan (ND 14.28)
2. #19 Jared Hiltzik (ILL 14.50) vs. #102 Josh Hagar (ND 13.75)
3. #33 Tim Kopinski (ILL 14.19) vs. Eddy Covalschi (ND 13.12)
4. #67 Aron Hiltzik (ILL 13.80) vs. Eric Schnurrenberger (ND 13.45)
5. #44 Aleks Vukic (ILL 14.18) vs. Billy Pecor (ND 12.99)
6. Toshiki Matsuya ((LL 13.09) vs. Nicolas Montoya (ND 12.52)
A couple of other ones to keep an eye on though I don’t expect anything close to an upset:
#7 Georgia (8-2) at #28 Auburn (11-2) – 2pm est. – Auburn has been somewhat of a surprise so far, at least record wise, though their highest ranked win is over #34 South Carolina. Georgia is undefeated against everyone except USC. I’m sure they’ll stop this one at the clinch so unless Auburn takes the doubles point they’re not going to get on the board. Prediction: Georgia 4-0
#26 Florida State (9-2) at #2 Oklahoma (11-1) – 4:30pm est. – Florida State has lost the only 2 matches that it’s played against top 25 opponents while Oklahoma already has 8 wins over top 25 opponents – Prediction: Oklahoma 4-0
Check out my live scoring page for a list of all the matches of the day with scoring/video/blog/twitter links.
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