Stanford came out strong and took the doubles point over USC but once singles got going so did Stanford’s chances of an upset.
USC grabbed 4 1st sets and would finish each of them in straight sets with Eric Johnson putting the first point on the board with his 6-3, 6-1 blowout over David Wilczynski at #3 singles. Nick Crystal would finish off David Hsu 6-1, 6-3 at #6 singles a few minutes later which then set the stage for USC to close it out on the top 2 courts. After Stanford’s Tom Fawcett fought off a match point on the deciding point of his serve, USC’s Yannick Hanfmann would hold serve at love to close out the Cardinal freshman at #1 singles by a 6-4, 6-4 score. With the score now 3-1, Roberto Quiroz would provide the final dagger by finishing off John Morrissey 6-4, 6-4 at #2 singles. The coaches agreed to play out the final 2 courts and USC would take them both with Max De Vroome coming from a set down to win 6-7, 6-1, 6-1 at #5 singles over Nolan Paige and Jonny Wang doing the same at #4 singles and winning 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (6) over Maciek Romanowicz.
All in all not a bad effort from Stanford but as I mentioned in my preview I think they are a year away from taking out a top 10 team.
FYI, the # beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of the current date of the recap. For more details about UTR check out their website.
#1 USC 6, #37 Stanford 1
Feb 27, 2015 – Marks Stadium (Los Angeles, Calif.)
DOUBLES
(1) Morrissey/Stineman (Stan.) def. #2 Hanfmann/Quiroz (USC) – 6-3
(2) #30 De Vroome/Johnson (USC) vs. #49 Fawcett/Romanowicz (Stan.) – 5-4 susp.
(3) Paige/Wilczynski (Stan.) def. Crystal/Wang (USC) – 7-5
Stanford wins doubles point.
Order of finish: 1, 3
SINGLES
(1) #6 Yannick Hanfmann (USC 15.05) def. #26 Tom Fawcett (Stan 14.14) – 6-4, 6-4
(2) #20 Roberto Quiroz (USC 14.44) def. John Morrissey (Stan 14.10) – 6-4, 6-4*
(3) Eric Johnson (USC 13.97) def. David Wilczynski (Stan 13.86) – 6-3, 6-1
(4) #31 Jonny Wang (USC 14.23) def. Maciek Romanowicz (Stan 13.31) – 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-6)
(5) #72 Max de Vroome (USC 14.14) def. Nolan Paige (Stan 13.32) – 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-1
(6) #45 Nick Crystal (USC 13.93) def. David Hsu (Stan 13.95) – 6-1, 6-3
Order of finish: 3, 6, 1, 2*, 5, 4
Baton Rouge, LA: This was a matchup between 1 team on the rise and the other on the fall as LSU took Tennessee to the woodshed and blew the Vols off the court with a 4-0 shutout that would have likely been 6-1 or 7-0 had they played it out. Tennessee falls to 8-5 as the Vols have yet to beat a ranked opponent and things won’t get any easier because next up is a visit to College Station to face Texas A&M. LSU is now 10-1 and will likely be 11-1 after Kentucky visits on Sunday. Tennessee has battled some injuries but they just haven’t seen a consistent level of play from most of the the lineup (except Libietis) with Hunter Reese the one in the biggest tailspin with him having dropped 7 of his last 9.
College Station, TX: This one was by far and away the biggest rout of the day in the SEC as Texas A&M just obliterated a reeling Kentucky team 4-0. Jeremy Efferding dropped just 1 game in his win at #1, AJ Catanzariti dropped only 3 games at #5, and Max Lunkin dropped just 4 games at #6. Texas A&M won all 9 completed sets and the only one at risk of dropping one was Rinderknech at 4. We’ve gotten used to seeing Kentucky in the top 10-15 for years now but this team is not even close to competing at the level with the Wildcats falling to 6-7 with 0 wins over anyone inside the top 200. The ITA doesn’t publish the rankings below 75 but if they did I can guarantee you that Kentucky wouldn’t be anywhere near the top 100.
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Other Notables Scores from Friday:
Wichita State upset #40 Denver 6-1 – box score
#41 Mississippi State shutout Alabama 4-0 – Miss St recap
#27 NC State held off #69 VCU 4-3 – NCST recap
#10 Ole Miss just got past #62 Tulane 5-2 – Ole Miss recap
#8 Ohio State beat #39 Penn State 6-1 though many of the courts were very close – Ohio St recap
#16 Vanderbilt blanked #67 Arkansas 4-0 – Vandy recap
#29 Drake beat #57 Iowa 5-2 – Iowa recap
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Check back later for my preview of the feature matches on Saturday.
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