Another action packed day of college tennis is in the books and it was the ACC giving us the 2 best matches of the day as Georgia Tech and North Carolina both pulled out 4-3 thrillers.
I’m big fan of the schools that take the time to put an audio or video interview out on twitter shortly after the match finished. TCU has done a great job all year getting a 30-second interview with David Roditi out on twitter and the last few days Georgia Tech has done the same with Kenny Thorne. It’s always better to hear the comments from someone as opposed to reading them. I’m also a fan of school’s posting video clips of match points – just gives you a feeling that you’re there and lets you see the emotion from the players after a big win.
ACC:
In one of the early matches Georgia Tech came out of the gates like a bull seeing red. GT took the doubles point by winning at 1 and 3 and then took the opening set on 4 of 6 singles courts. GT’s Eduardo Segura finished first with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Jai Corbett at #6 but VT’s Joao Monteiro would trim the GT lead to 2-1 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nathan Rakitt at #3. Christopher Eubanks would make it 3-1 GT with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Andreas Bjerrehus at #1.
VT’s Hunter Koontz would make it 3-2 with a come from behind 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Michael Kayat #4 but it looked like the Carlos Benito was just moments away from finishing off Amerigo Contini at #2.
Benito took the opening set 6-4 and had a match point on Contini’s 5-6 serve game but Contini would hold to force a tiebreak. In the TB, Benito jumped out to a 4-0 lead only to see Contini take the next 7 points to send it to a 3rd set.
Virginia Tech clearly had the momentum on its side because less than 5 minutes later they would tie up the match at 3 as Edoardo Tessaro knocked Cole Fiegel 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at #5 singles. Back over at #2, Contini would break Benito to go up 4-2 but Benito broke right back and held for 4-4. After each held once more, Benito would break again and would then serve it out at love (match point below).
Personally I thought for sure that Virginia Tech would win after Benito failed to close out the 2nd set but Benito showed some resilience to put the tiebreak behind him. Great win by Georgia Tech and it should be enough to get the Yellow Jackets into the NCAAs as an at-large.
Here’s the video of the match-winning ace! #GoJackets pic.twitter.com/6yDir0T7qs
GT Men’s Tennis (@GT_MTEN) April 24, 2015
Georgia Tech recap & Thorne Audio Clip
“Eddie’s done a great job for us of being the catalyst and getting off the court for us the last few matches,” said Thorne. “That’s been a big one for us. Everybody else battled, no one got down too quick and kept everybody in it. Chris did a great job of beating a very good player. And what can you say about Carlos. He could’ve finished in two, but he fought back and never gave in.”
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 24th For more details about UTR check out their website.
In the late quarterfinal match Duke took the court without its #1 Nicolas Alvarez but gave North Carolina all it wanted. Duke took the doubles point with wins at 1 and 2 and then TJ Pura would pick up a quick 6-0, 6-1 win over over Andrew Gores at #6 singles. It was only Gores 4th dual-match this year and the only reason he played was due to injuries to Oystein Steiro and Esben Hess-Olesen.
Robert Kelly put North Carolina on the board with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Josh Levine at #5 and then Brayden Schnur would even the match with a 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 win at #1 over Jason Tahir. Tahir trailed 5-2 in the 1st set before rallying to take the set in a tiebreak.
UNC’s #3 Brett Clark would make it 3-2 UNC with a 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win over Bruno Semenzato but Raphael Hemmeler would tie it back up with a 4-6, 7-6, 6-0 win over Ronnie Schneider at #2. Duke’s twitter said Hemmeler was fighting cramps in the 3rd set and even had to call a medical timeout for treatment.
It also came down to a 3rd set at #4 between UNC’s Jack Murray and Duke’s Chris Mengel. Murray broke Mengel to go up 5-3 but Mengel would break back and hold for 5-5. After Murray held for 6-5 he’d finish the match off by converting his 3rd match point to win it 6-2, 4-6, 7-5.
The Duke recap has more game by game details if you want to check it out below.
Schnur with a BIG 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 win on ct. 1! UNC 2, Duke 2. #GoHeels https://t.co/2J91e67Kbm
UNC Men’s Tennis (@carolinatennis) April 24, 2015
North Carolina recap
“What a great match on both sides, said UNC head coach Sam Paul. “I’m extremely proud of our team after losing the doubles point and then not looking good in singles (initially)We fought back and found a way to get back into the match. It was a great college tennis match and I’m just proud of my team.
Duke recap
“It was a really high-level match from start to finish, head coach Ramsey Smith said. “It was two teams leaving everything they had out there. Doubles was close and singles were close. There were a couple momentum swings, but it came down to a point or two here or there. I am proud of my guys. We fought so hard. We certainly put ourselves in a position to win, but just couldn’t quite finish off a very good UNC team.
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6,5,1,3,2,4)
Other ACC Matches:
Virginia dropped the doubles point against Florida State but responded by taking all 6 opening sets and would get straight set wins from Ryan Shane, Thai-Son Kwiatkowski, Alexander Ritschard, and JC Aragone at 1, 4, 5, and 6.
Wake Forest whipped Clemson 4-0 with the Deacs taking the doubles point and getting wins from Noah Rubin (6-2, 6-2), Romain Bogaerts (6-0, 6-0), and Christian Seraphim (6-2, 6-3) at 1, 2, and 5. Clemson was up a set at 4 and 6 but they were still early in the 2nd set when Wake clinched.
Big 12:
The opening match of the day between Texas and Texas Tech was played indoors due to rain and to speed things along they started with singles. Texas took the opening set on every court except #4 with Soren Hess-Olesen coming back from 5-2 down at #1 to take the set 7-5. Hess-Olesen would finish first at #1 and then Clement Homs would be off next at #6. It looked like Nick Naumann might make it 3-0 but he dropped his second set in a tiebreak and it was around that time that Texas Tech started gaining some momentum. Tech’s Alex Sendegeya would come back from a set down to win in 3 over Adrien Berkowicz at #3 and Felipe Soares would push Lloyd Glasspool to a 3rd set at #2. Glasspool would turn it around in the 3rd set and close out Soares and a short while later George Goldhoff would complete his comeback at #4 with a 3-set win over Jolan Cailleau to clinch the UT win.
Texas recap
“I saw a lot of fight and determination today,” Head Coach Michael Center said. “I wanted to see us compete at all six spots, and I saw that today. Texas Tech made a great run at us, but I was really pleased to see the final push that we made at the end to clinch the match.”
“I started figuring things out as the match went on,” Goldhoff said. “I was doing the right things, but I wasn’t executing. When I finally executed, I really started to tire him out. He’s a good player — he’s not going to give you anything. I’m just happy to step-up help the team.”
The 2nd match of the day was played outdoors but it looked like Oklahoma State left its equipment indoors because TCU absolutely throttled them on every court. TCU took all 6 opening sets and Will Stein, Facundo Lugones, Cameron Norrie, and Arnau Dachs would each win in straight sets to close out the 4-0 win. Had there not been a 55 minute rain delay the singles portion would have been over in just over an hour.
Arnau Dachs clinches point 4 as #TCUTennis downs No. 29 OSU, 4-0! #Big12TEN #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/wwWZ90FNLg
TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) April 24, 2015
Facundo Lugones makes it 2-0 for #TCUTennis with his victory on C4! #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/CJ4cs83XI7
TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) April 24, 2015
The Captain Will Stein makes it 1-0 for #TCUTennis over OSU with the big ace! #GoFrogs pic.twitter.com/NQO2YpoDoM
TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) April 24, 2015
Hear @RoditiTCUTennis‘s thoughts following a 4-0 victory over OSU in the quarters of @Big12Conference championship. pic.twitter.com/4zyqwK3h81
TCU Men’s Tennis (@TCUMensTennis) April 24, 2015
TCU recap
“I am very pleased with the way our team came out of the gate,” head coach David Roditi said. “We won every first set on all six courts and our team handled a lot of the changes well today. There were questions if we were going to play indoors or outdoors, singles or doubles first, when do we eat and finally the changing of the match time. Our guys handled it really well and got a good warm-up and came out playing as well as we could play.
Oklahoma State recap
“We are disappointed today,” coach Jay Udwadia said. “Give some credit to TCU. They have a very good team. They showed up early on in the singles, and we made a little comeback at the end that fell short. Now we’ve just got to see Tuesday, with the dance, where we go. Obviously we are not hosting but we are still going to do the same things we do in practice and get ready for it like we always do. We will bounce back and we will be ready.”
Pac 12:
A day after Cal won a 4-3 thriller over Oregon they’d have tables turned on them and drop a tight one to Stanford 4-1. Stanford got the doubles point by winning big at #1 and then taking a tiebreak at #2 (haven’t actually seen the TB score anywhere and I wasn’t paying attention during the doubles point).
Stanford got a quick 6-1, 6-3 win from David Hsu at #6 but Cal would take the opening set on the other 5 courts and would go up break leads in the 2nd at 3, 4, and 5. Oskar Wikberg would close out Robert Stineman 6-4, 6-3 at #4 to make it 2-1 but Cal just couldn’t shut the door anywhere else.
Greg Bayane led David Wilczynski 7-5, 5-2 at #3 and had a slew of match points in the next 2 games but Wilczynski weathered the storm and took 5 straight games to take the set 7-5. As a side note Wilczynski led the first set 5-3 and then proceeded to lose 7 straight games.
Billy Griffith clinched Cal’s win over Stanford last week and it looked like he was going to ring up another win today when he led Nolan Paige 6-2, 5-3 but Paige wouldn’t go away. Paige fought off multiple match points to get the second set to a tiebreak then took the TB 7-3.
Over at #2 singles, Stanford’s John Morrissey battled back from a set down to take out Filip Bergevi 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Morrissey broke Bergevi to go up 5-3 in the 3rd then served it out from 40-15 to put Stanford up 3-1. Bergevi was on the court for close to 3 hours yesterday so fatigue may have played a role in this one.
Stanford’s Tom Fawcett also battled back from a set down and would serve for the match and team win up 5-3 in the 3rd but Andre Goransson would break him from 30-40 to put it back on serve. Fawcett would then have a match point on the Goransson serve but Andre held for 5-5. Fawcett then fell behind 0-30 on his 5-5 service game but would win 4 straight points to hold for 6-5.
With the match at #1 headed towards a tiebreak it looked like Cal was finally going to get that 2nd point with Billy Griffith once against nearing the finish line with a 5-3 lead in the 3rd. However he’d be unable to serve it out with Paige breaking him at love to knot the match at 5. Paige would hold for 6-5 and would then jump out to a 15-40 lead and would ultimately break from 30-40 to clinch the Stanford win.
The match at #1 was in a 3rd set tiebreak tied at 3-3 and Bayane was up 3-0 in the 3rd at #3.
“It was a tough match today that was well within our grasp, Cal head coach Peter Wright said. “We put ourselves into good positions on almost every court, and I think we played some great tennis. Overall, I think we’re very close to the level we need to be playing at the NCAAs in two weeks. Our guys are super excited about what lies ahead for us in the postseason.
Order of Finish: 6, 4, 2, 5
In the night cap in Ojai it was USC defeating UCLA 4-1. USC crushed UCLA in doubles winning 8-0 at #1 and 8-4 at #2 but UCLA would come back in singles and take the opening set at 1, 2, 3, and 5. While Mackenzie McDonald finished his match at #1 in straight sets none of the other guys could do the same as USC would rally to force 3rd sets at 2, 3, and 5. USC’s Nick Crystal cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win at #6 and Jonny Wang had just enough to beat Karue Sell 6-4, 7-6 at #5. With both #2 and #3 singles deep in the 3rd set it would be Max De Vroome that would deliver the final blow for USC as he knocked off Austin Rapp 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 at #5 to end USC to the Championship against Stanford.
UCLA recap
USC recap
Big 10:
Not a whole lot of excitement at the B1G quarterfinals as each of the higher seeds took care of business without much issue.
#1 seed Illinois took the doubles point over Iowa then picked up singles wins from Farris Gosea (6-4, 6-1), Tim Kopinski (6-0, 6-4), and Aleks Vukic (6-0, 6-3) at 2, 3, and 5. Illinois was also up at 4 and 6 while Iowa’s Matt Hagan had a 2-0 lead in the 3rd at #1 singles.
#2 seed Ohio State took the doubles point over Nebraska then picked up singles wins from Hunter Callahan (6-2, 6-3), Kevin Metka (6-0, 6-1), and Ralf Steinbach (6-2, 6-3) at 4, 5, and 6. Nebraska took the opening set at 1 and 2 with Ohio State taking the opening set at 3.
#3 seed Minnesota took the doubles point over Michigan then picked up singles wins from Leandro Toledo (6-2, 6-3), Matic Spec (6-3, 6-1), and Ruben Weber (6-4, 7-6) at 1, 2, and 4. The other 3 courts were all early in the 3rd set.
#4 seed Northwestern took the doubles point over Indiana then picked up singles wins from Strong Kirchheimer (6-3, 5-7, 6-1), Logan Staggs (6-0, 6-3), and Alp Horoz (6-3, 6-4) at 2, 4, and 6. Indiana’s Sven Lalic won 6-3, 6-3 at #3 and Northwestern had the lead in the other 2 matches.
Other Conference Tournaments:
MAC Semifinals (DeKalb, IL) – #4 Buffalo upset #1 Northern Illinois 4-2 as Damien David won the clincher 6-3 in the 3rd at #1 singles. #3 Binghamton upset the #2 seed Western Michigan 4-3 as Sid Hazarika won the deciding match at #1 singles 6-4 in the 3rd. Buffalo is back in the conference finals for the second year in a row and fourth time in six years. Buffalo has lost in the finals to Western Michigan in each of those appearance and Western Michigan had won the MAC 7 of the previous 9 season. Binghamton will be playing in its 8th consecutive conference final but its first in the MAC after departing the America East. Binghamton will seeking its 10th NCAA bid in the last 13 years.
Binghamton’s site has a post match interview with coach Nick Zieziula and has match point int the deciding match at this link (couldn’t upload video to this site due to format/size)
West Coast (San Diego) – #1 San Diego rolled past #4 Pacific 4-0 and #2 Pepperdine edged #3 San Francisco 4-1. San Diego has won 22 consecutive WCC matches and will meet Pepperdine in the finals for the second year in a row.
For other details check out my Conference Tournament Page which has scores, schedules, and scoring/twitter links.
It's changing by the minute – as of 5pm here is what the 1st run of the rankings looks like:<br /><br />38 Pepperdine* 18.19<br />39 Tennessee* 17.92<br />40 Tulane* 17.60<br />41 San Diego State* 17.47<br />42 Georgia Tech* 17.32<br />43 New Mexico* 17.13<br />44 Dartmouth* 16.28<br />45 Memphis* 15.67<br />46 Indiana* 15.05<br />47 SMU* 14.50<br />48 South Carolina* 14.14<br />49 Denver* 13.66<br />50 Cornell* 13.54<br /><br />Denver is playing for the automatic bid tomorrow and Pepperdine is playing USD right now for the WCC. Man its going to be tight.
Bobby how do you see the bubble shaping up? #'s 40-48?