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Thursday Recap: USC Over UCLA 4-2, Tennessee Survives Against Alabama

by | Apr 17, 2015 | Blog | 1 comment

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UCLA got off to a good start by going up early breaks on all 3 doubles courts and would cruise to wins at 2 and 3.  Singles would be a different story because USC’s Eric Johnson, Roberto Quiroz, Max De Vroome, and Nick Crystal would take the opening set at 2, 3, 5, and 6 and then those 4 would pretty much run away with the 2nd sets to close out a 4-2 win.  UCLA’s Mackenzie McDonald picked up the only singles point for the Bruins as he took it to #12 Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-3.

This match was supposed to be shown on TV on the Pac 12 network but the USC/UCLA women’s match ran 90 minutes long and with the singles portion of this one only lasting 80 minutes that meant it was over before the broadcast ever started.

Normally you’d think a USC/UCLA match would pack them in but when you play it on a Thursday at 2pm local time this is the kind of crowd you get.


UCLA recap
USC recap

#9 USC 4, #19 UCLA 2
April 16, 2015 – Los Angeles Tennis Center
Singles Competition:
1. #3 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA 14.99) def. #12 Yannick Hanfmann (USC 14.73) 6-3, 6-3 
2. Eric Johnson (USC 14.31) def. #32 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA 13.93) 6-3, 6-2
3. #25 Roberto Quiroz (USC 14.43) def. #102 Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.31) 6-4, 6-1
4. Karue Sell (UCLA 13.96) vs. #36 Jonny Wang (USC 14.21) 7-6, 2-2, DNF
5. #81 Max De Vroome (USC 14.12) vs. Austin Rapp (UCLA 12.88) 6-1, 6-4
6. #90 Nick Crystal (USC 13.98) def. Joseph DiGiulio (UCLA 13.35) 6-3, 6-3
Doubles Competition:
1. #9 McDonald/Redlicki (UCLA) vs. #3 Hanfmann/Quiroz (USC) 5-3 DNF
2. Di Giulio/ Sell (UCLA) def. De Vroome/Johnson (USC) 6-3
3. Mkrtchian/Rapp (UCLA) def. Crystal/Wang (USC) 6-1
Match Notes:

USC 20-4; 6-1 Pac-12; National ranking #9
UCLA 14-8; 5-2 Pac-12; National ranking #19
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (2,5,3,1,6)

The match of the day at the SEC Tournament was between Tennessee and Alabama. Tennessee jumped out to a 3-0 lead by taking the doubles point and picking up wins at 1 and 2 from Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese however Alabama would come back and tie it up with wins from Nikko Madregallejo, Danny Kerznerman, and Andrew Goodwin at 3, 5, and 6.  In the deciding match Alabama’s Stuart Kenyon would jump out to a 5-2 lead in the 3rd set against Tennessee’s Luis Valero.  Valero would hold from 40-15 for 3-5 then would break Kenyon from 30-40 to put the match back on serve.  Valero would face a match point on the deciding point but he would get the hold with a service winner to even it at 5. Valero would break for 6-5 by winning the deciding point then he would serve it out at love for the win.

Alabama recap
Tennessee recap

“Luis been doing a great job for us all year,” Tennessee head coach Sam Winterbotham said. “No one can prepare for that moment. You have to go in and see what you are made of. He just had faith that he was going to give us everything he had in that moment and he did.”
“Mikelis and Hunter were phenomenal today,” Winterbotham said. “That one-two punch, that commitment, was there for everybody to see. I’m incredibly proud of those guys.”
“Alabama deserves a tremendous amount of credit for how they competed all day,” Winterbotham said. “That was one of the toughest matches we’ve been in all year.”


#42 (8) Tennessee 4, #61 (9) Alabama 3
April 16, 2015 at College Station, Texas (George P Mitchell Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #15 Mikelis Libietis (UT 14.40) def. B. O’Shaughnessey (UA 13.42) 6-2, 6-4
2. Hunter Reese (UT 13.34) def. #115 Korey Lovett (UA 13.14) 6-3, 6-2
3. Nikko Madregallejo (UA 13.15) def. Jack Schipanski (UT 13.13) 6-4, 7-5
4. Luis Valero (UT 13.18) def. Stuart Kenyon (UA 12.48) 6-7 (5), 6-4, 7-5
5. Danny Kerznerman (UA 13.46) def. Igo Smelyanski (UT 13.29) 6-3, 6-1
6. Andrew Goodwin (UA 12.41) def. Jess Jones (UT 13.09) 6-3, 6-1
Doubles competition
1. #6 Mikelis Libietis/Hunter Reese (UT) def. #32 Korey Lovett/B. O’Shaughnessey (UA) 6-3
2. Andrew Dromsky/Igo Smelyanski (UT) vs. Sean Donohue/Stuart Kenyon (UA) 6-5, unf
3. Luis Valero/Jack Schipanski (UT) def. Sam Edwards/Andrew Goodwin (UA) 7-5
Match Notes
Alabama 17-17; National ranking #61
Tennessee 14-11; National ranking #42
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (2,1,5,6,3,4)
T-3:51

1 Comment

  1. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:01 pm

    I was at the UCLA-USC match, and the place was very packed. At least a 1000 people. Most of the stadium was full, just not on that side of the stadium because of the glaring sun! Just an unfortunate camera angle. <br />Great blog and keep up the good work!