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The Madness Has BEGUN!!

by | May 9, 2015 | Blog

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The 1st round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament is in the books and while there were plenty of 4-0 blowouts (20) there were several nail-biters with 5 matches finishing with a 4-3 score and 2 of those 5 finishing in a 3rd set tiebreak.  The weather played a big role on Day 1 with several regionals experiencing delays and some having to move indoors.

Quick Summary:

  • #1 seeds went 16-0 versus #4 seeds with 15 of 16 being a 4-0 final.  Va Tech/ETSU 4-1 was the exception.
  • #2 seeds were 13-3 versus #3 seeds 
  • Drake, Pepperdine, and San Diego State were the #3 seeds to crash the party. 
  • 20 matches finished with a 4-0 final
  • 4 matches finished with a 4-1 final
  • 3 matches finished with a 4-2 final
  • 5 matches finished with a 4-3 finals (2 were 7-6 in 3rd)  
  • Teams winning the doubles point went 24-7
  • San Diego State, Pepperdine, Stanford, Minnesota, Columbia, Northwestern, and Drake were the 7 teams to lose the doubles point but yet win the match.  
  • Regionals delayed by weather: USC, UCLA, Baylor, Texas, Texas A&M, Illinois, Oklahoma


Let’s start off with the biggest upset of the day as #40 San Diego State stunned city rival #21 San Diego 4-3.  San Diego was hot going into this match and San Diego State was not. San Diego beat San Diego State 4-2 a month earlier and the Toreros were riding a 15-match winning streak while San Diego State limped to the finish line by splitting its final 6 matches including a loss to an unranked Nevada in the Mountain West semifinals.  SDSU also lost its #6 to an injury and was playing a freshman, Santiago Cevallos, that had only played in 4 dual-matches all year (2-2).  So fittingly the match would come to #6 singles and it would be Cevallos that would outlast senior Ciaran Fitzgerald 7-6 in the 3rd to clinch the win for the Aztecs.

It is a very disappointing end to the season for San Diego while San Diego State gets to take a swing at USC on Saturday.

FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of May 8th  For more details about UTR check out their website. 

[3] #40 San Diego State def. [2] #21 San Diego 4-3
May 08, 2015 at Los Angeles (Marks Tennis Stadium)

Singles competition
1. #56 Uros Petronijevic (USD 14.14) def. #121 Freddy Gelbrich (SDSU 13.64) 7-6(5), 3-3
2. Hendrik Jebens (SDSU 13.44) def. #72 Filip Vittek (USD 13.58) 6-4, 6-3
3. Jordan Angus (USD 13.79) def. Marko Goles-Babic (SDSU 13.49) 6-3, 7-6 (8)
4. Thorsten Bertsch (SDSU 12.82) def. Romain Kalaydjian (USD 12.92) 7-5, 1-6, 7-5
5. Milen Ianakiev (SDSU 13.14) def. Geoffrey Fosso (USD 12.94) 6-0, 6-1
6. Santiago Cevallos (SDSU 11.36) def. Ciaran Fitzgerald (USD 12.66) 6-4, 4-6, 7-6(3)
Doubles competition
1. #52 Jordan Angus/Filip Vittek (USD) def. #71 Gelbrich/Jebens (SDSU) 8-1
2. Thorsten Bertsch/Jonas Meinzer (SDSU) vs. Kalaydjian/Petronijevic (USD) 5-4, unfi
3. Alex Araouzos/Ciaran Fitzgerald (USD) def. Cevallos/Goles-Babic (SDSU) 8-4
Match Notes:

Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (5,2,3,1,4,6)

The 2nd biggest upset of the day in terms of ranking came when #39 Pepperdine came back from 3-1 down to upset #22 Florida 4-3.  The Gators took the doubles point and picked up wins at 2 and 5 but Pepperdine won at 1, 3, 4, and 6 with Stefan Menichella clinching it at #3 singles beating Gordon Watson 7-6, 7-6.

Quotes from Pepperdine Recap
“I am incredibly happy for my guys,” said first-year head coach Marcelo Ferreira. “The whole team has worked relentlessly since the beginning of the season, always believing that we could turn this year into something special with such a young squad. We’ve had our ups and downs but they never once gave up.”

“I am so proud of the way the team represented Pepperdine today, and how they refused to lose even after being down against a very good Florida team,” continued Ferreira. “I’m especially happy for Stefan. He lost a couple of heartbreakers in dual-clinching situations earlier this year, but today he was huge for us. We are ready for another battle tomorrow and will try our best to get Pepperdine to the Sweet 16.”
Quotes from Florida recap
Shelton’s Notes Head Coach Bryan Shelton
On today’s match
“We showed that we weren’t quite tough enough today. We certainly got off to a good start all over the place. We played pretty well in the doubles on all three courts, again. That’s something that we have done well in the ladder stages of the season. But we are just putting ourselves in situations where we are up in a match and we’re ready to close the door, but for whatever reason we’re balking as a team. Too many of our guys are up break points consistently and we’re missing the return of a serve or just making unforced errors on those points. When we do that, we’re not even able to see what the other guy can do. I think that was the biggest thing today. When we had the momentum and lost it, we didn’t respond. And you have to respond. The other team is going to make a push, it’s the NCAA Championships. I’m just really disappointed that we didn’t respond better and believe in ourselves in those moments when we had chances to close the door.
On what UF needs to improve upon going into next season
“We have to be physically and mentally tougher. We have to find ways to ramp up the pressure each day so that we can develop more in those areas. We’re hitting the ball well as our serving, returning and volleying is all better as a team. I think our real weakness this year is that we weren’t mentally tough enough. We just didn’t play with enough conviction and confidence in the key moments of matches. So that’s an area that we have to improve upon. Also, we have some guys that have to just get physically tougher as some of them are still boys out there. We wilted in a couple of matches today. So we just have to get them in the gym and get them in better shape.
[3] #39 Pepperdine def. [2] #22 Florida 4-3
May 08, 2015 at Winston-Salem, N.C.
Singles competition
1. Guilherme Hadlich (PEP 13.39) def. #63 Diego Hidalgo (UF 14.05) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
2. Elliott Orkin (UF 14.19) def. Rakshay Thakkar (PEP 13.05) 6-4, 6-3
3. Stefan Menichella (PEP 13.27) def. Gordon Watson (UF 13.77) 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5)
4. Pedro Iamachkine (PEP 13.02) def. Chase Perez-Blanco (UF 13.78) 6-3, 7-5
5. #102 Maxx Lipman (UF 13.53) def. Luca Marquard (PEP 12.59) 6-0, 6-0
6. Lautaro Pane (PEP 12.99) def. Jordan Belga (UF 13.04) 6-0, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. #35 Maxx Lipman/Elliott Orkin (UF) def. Hadlich/Thakkar (PEP) 8-2
2. #55 Diego Hidalgo/Gordon Watson (UF) vs. Pane/Iamachkine (PEP) 6-3, unf
3. Chase Perez-Blanco/Joshua Wardell (UF) def. Menichella/Tom Hill (PEP) 8-5
Match Notes
Pepperdine 18-9; National ranking #39
Florida 14-9; National ranking #22
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (5,6,2,4,1,3)

The third #3 seed to advance was #33 Drake as the Bulldogs beat #32 Louisville for the second time this season.  Louisville started off fine by taking the doubles point and picking up three first sets however Drake would turn two of those around in addition to closing out two of its own.  The biggest upset came at #1 singles as Drake’s Alen Salibasic blew out ITA #5 Seb Stiefelmeyer 6-1, 6-2 though despite the lopsided score it wasn’t the first match to finish.  Ravi Patel was first off the court with a 6-3, 6-1 win at #4 over Chris Simich.  Michael Lippens would pick up a win at #6 over Ben Stride but Drake closed out the final two courts with both Ben Mullis and Ben Lott holding on down the stretch to seal the win.

Notes: play was suspended twice due to rain


Quotes from head coach Davidson Kozlowski via the Drake recap:

On losing the doubles point
“Losing the doubles point was tough when you go up against a team as strong as Louisville. You want to get every single point out there.
On the first rain delay
“Louisville got off to a great start in singles. We were very fortunate and benefited greatly from the rain delay. Danny (Manlow) and I did our best to get the guys as fired up as we could during that rain delay, and when we got back it was like it was a completely new match.”
On Alen’s play today
“Alen’s effort today was by far the most complete match his has played since I have coached him,” said Kozlowski. “Right from the start of the match, the kind of look i