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Oklahoma Regional
Headington Family Tennis Center – Norman, OK
[1] Oklahoma (24-2) vs. [49-64] New Mexico State (11-13) – Friday 5pm – Not a whole lot of analysis needed for this one with the #1 team in the country playing the WAC champs who come in with a losing record. This will be Oklahoma’s 27th match this year but only the 2nd against an unranked opponent – Purdue was the other.
Doubles Records: Oklahoma 14-12, New Mexico State 11-11
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Oklahoma 86, New Mexico State 73
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 25th For more details about UTR check out their website.
The UTR Power 6 is the combined UTRs of the starting 6 (rounded to a whole #). An individual win/loss to anyone with a UTR difference of 1.0 or greater would be considered an upset.
Projected Singles Lineups
1. #1 Axel Alvarez (OU 14.89) vs. Strahinja Trecakov (NMSU 11.93)
2. #7 Andrew Harris (OU 14.96) vs. Paul Denele (NMSU 11.13)
3. #44 Dane Webb (OU 14.25) vs. Christofer Goncalves (NMSU 12.24)
4. #103 Alex Ghilea (OU 14.33) vs. Patrick Pfister (NMSU 12.47)
5. Spencer Papa (OU 13.88) vs. Liam Goldberg (NMSU 12.31)
6. Florin Bragusi (OU 13.65) vs. Germain Degardin (NMSU 12.33)
Oklahoma will take the doubles point and pick up wins from Alvarez, Harris, and Ghilea. Prediction: Oklahoma 4-0
[17-32] Northwestern (20-9) vs. [33-48] Harvard (19-7) – Friday 2pm – These two will meet for the second time this year with Northwestern winning a 4-3 squeaker in Evanston back on February 8th. Harvard finished the season by winning 4 of 5 however they did drop their finale at Dartmouth 4-3. Northwestern dropped 2 of its last 3 with the Wildcats falling 4-3 at Minnesota in its regular season finale and then they beat Indiana in the Big 10 Tournament before getting shutout by Illinois in the quarterfinals. Northwestern will be making its second trip to Norman this year after playing there during the kickoff weekend when it beat Arkansas before falling to Oklahoma.
Regular Season Meeting:
#26 Northwestern 4, #30 Harvard 3
Feb 08, 2015 at Evanston, Ill. (Combe Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #57 Denis Nguyen (HV) def. Sam Shropshire (NU) 7-5, 6-1
2. #108 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) def. Nicky Hu (HV) 6-3, 2-6, 6-2
3. Logan Staggs (NU) def. #86 Sebastian Beltrame (HV) 6-2, 7-6 (7-2)
4. Alex Steinroeder (HV) def. Mihir Kumar (NU) 6-1, 6-4
5. Fedor Baev (NU) def. Brian Yeung (HV) 7-5, 6-3
6. Alp Horoz (NU) def. Kenny Tao (HV) 7-6 (9-7), 7-5
Doubles competition
1. #7 Denis Nguyen/Brian Yeung (HV) def. Baev/Kirchheimer (NU) 7-5
2. Sebastian Beltrame/Nicky Hu (HV) def. Shropshire/Pasareanu (NU) 7-5
3. Alp Horoz/Mihir Kumar (NU) def. Steinroeder/Grant Solomon (HV) 6-1
Match Notes
Harvard 4-1; National ranking #30
Northwestern University 4-4; National ranking #26
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (4,3,1,5,2,6)
Official: John Coleman T-2:49 A-175
Doubles Records: Northwestern 17-12, Harvard 17-9
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Northwestern 81, Harvard 81
Projected Singles Lineups:
1. #48 Sam Shropshire (NU 14.04) vs. #34 Denis Nguyen (HV 13.70)
2. Strong Kirchheimer (NU 13.73) vs. Nicky Hu (HV 13.83)
3. Konrad Zieba (NU 13.70) vs. Sebastian Beltrame (HV 13.45)
4. Logan Staggs (NU 13.43) vs. Brian Yeung (HV 13.23)
5. Fedor Baev (NU 12.89) vs. Kenny Tao (HV 13.22)
6. Alp Horoz (NU 13.14) vs. Alex Steinroeder (HV 13.38)
1st off the bench: Mihir Kumar (NW 12.96), Grant Solomon (HV 13.16)
#1 singles – Nguyen dropped 4 of his last 6 while Shropshire saw his 8-match winning streak get snapped by Jared Hiltzik in the Big 10 quarters. Nguyen may have won the first meeting but Shropshire is playing better at the moment. Prediction: Shropshire in 2
#2 singles – Kirchheimer dropped 3 of his last 5 (2 of the losses were against top 60 players) while Nicky Hu won 3 of his last 5 (none against ranked). First match went 3 and this one probably will too. Prediction: DNF or Hu in 3
#3 singles – Konrad Zieba didn’t make his season debut until March 25th and went 6-3 while Beltrame split his last 8. Prediction: Zieba in 2
#4 singles – Staggs played at #3 for half of the season (until Zieba returned) and more than held his own going 17-10 while Yeung was solid all season picking up a team best 15 dual-match wins. Prediction: Staggs in 2
#5 singles – Baev went 16-9 on the year although he lost his last 2 while Tao went 13-4 and finished on a 7-match winning streak. Prediction: Tao in 2
#6 singles – Horoz went 17-5 on the year and finished on a 9-match winning streak while Steinroeder went 12-6 though he was just 4-3 in his last 7. Prediction: DNF or Horoz in 3
If this match were earlier in the year I’d like Harvard a little more but they just didn’t seem to have the same punch down the stretch with several tighter matches against a few of the lower ranked Ivys. I like Harvard in doubles and Hu and Tao but I think Northwestern gets wins at 1, 3, 4, and 6 to pull it out in the end. Prediction: Northwestern 4-2
UCLA Regional
LA Tennis Center – Los Angeles, CA
[16] UCLA (15-9) vs. [49-64] Florida Gulf Coast (17-5) – Friday 4pm – Florida Gulf Coast makes its first trip to the NCAAs after winning the Atlantic Sun while UCLA finished the regular season out with a 4-1 loss to USC in the Pac 12 semifinals.
Doubles Records: UCLA 17-7, FGCU 16-6
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: UCLA 84, FGCU 77
Projected Singles Lineups:
1. #3 Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA 15.07) vs. Jordi Vives (FGCU 13.96)
2. #36 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA 13.94) vs. Andres Alfonzo (FGCU 13.23)
3. #118 Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.35) vs. Ricky Ventura (FGCU 12.99)
4. Karue Sell (UCLA 13.90) vs. Tianyu Bao (FGCU 12.31)
5. Austin Rapp (UCLA 12.99) vs. Eduardo Alfonzo (FGCU 12.53)
6. Joseph Di Giulio (UCLA 13.36) vs. Michael Beiler (FGCU 12.10)
Could also play: Gage Brymer (UCLA 13.82)
UCLA is better in every slot including doubles and should roll in this one – Bruins take the doubles point and get wins from Redlicki, Sell, and DiGiulio. Prediction: UCLA 4-0
[17-32] Texas Tech (18-8) vs. [33-48] UC Santa Barbara (15-9) – Friday 1pm – UCSB is back in the tournament for the 2nd time in the last 3 years after winning the Big West with a 4-3 win over UC Irvine while Texas Tech gets in as an at-large after losing to Texas 4-1 in the Big 12 quarterfinals. Texas Tech dropped 4 of its last 6 however each of the losses was to a top 10 team and they did sandwich wins over #1 Oklahoma and #29 Oklahoma State in between the losses.
Doubles Records: Texas Tech 8-9, UCSB 13-11
UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Texas Tech 80, UCSB 77
Projected Singles Lineups:
1. Hugo Dojas (TTU 13.47) vs. Tobais Galskov (UCSB 13.49)
2. #37 Felipe Soares (TTU 13.67) vs. Nathan Eshmade (UCSB 12.84)
3. #117 Alex Sendegeya (TTU 13.74) vs. Morgan Mays (UCSB 12.91)
4. #123 Jolan Cailleau (TTU 13.43) vs. Cody Rakela (UCSB 12.96)
5. Francisco Zambon (TTU 13.00) vs. Erik Johnsson (UCSB 12.23)
6. Connor Curry (TTU 13.02) vs. Teague Hamilton (UCSB 12.67)
Neither team had great results during the doubles point but Texas Tech looks to be better at just about every spot in the singles lineup. I’m going to take UCSB in doubles and I think they’ve got a shot at #1 singles but I like Texas Tech everywhere else. Prediction: Texas Tech 4-2
Coming up tomorrow – Texas and Georgia Regionals
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