There were just 4 matches on the Friday’s schedule and none of them were particularly close with USC, Tulane, Illinois, and Northwestern each rolling into the second round.
Tulane started off the day by really taking it to Pepperdine with the Green Wave cruising to the doubles point and then getting runaway singles wins from Dominik Koepfer, Sebastian Rey, and Chi-Shan Jao at 1, 4, and 6.
USC sat its #1 Max DeVroome and still rolled to a 7-0 win over UC Davis in a match where all courts were played to conclusion which is something that I like to see. The only Trojan to drop a set was newcomer Laurens Verboven who dropped his opening set before rallying to win in 3-sets at #2 singles.
I think the USC/Tulane match is going to come down to the final court and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to see Tulane pull off the upset.
#37 Tulane 4, #33 Pepperdine 0
Jan 22, 2016 at Los Angeles (Marks Stadium)
Singles competition
1. #1 Dominik Koepfer (TLN) def. Stefan Menichella (PU) 6-2, 6-2
2. #63 Constantin Schmitz (TLN) vs. Pedro Iamachkine (PU) 6-1, 5-5, unf
3. Lautaro Pane (PU) vs. Alex Van Cott (TLN) 6-2, 3-5, unf
4. #111 Sebastian Rey (TLN) def. Gabriel Sidney (PU) 6-1, 6-2
5. Nikolas Tukic (TLN) vs. Tom Hill (PU) 6-2, 4-2, unf
6. Chi-Shan Jao (TLN) def. Jack Van Slyke (PU) 6-3, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. #17 Chi-Shan Jao/Dominik Koepfer (TLN) def. Pedro Iamachkine/Lautaro Pane (PU) 6-2
2. Ian Van Cott/Alex Van Cott (TLN) def. Tom Hill/Stefan Menichella (PU) 6-2
3. Constantin Schmitz/Sebastian Rey (TLN) vs. Jack Van Slyke/Gabriel Sidney (PU) 5-4, unf
Match Notes:
Tulane 3-0; National ranking #37
Pepperdine 0-1; National ranking #33
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (4,1,6)
Comments from Tulane’s recap:
“This was a great team effort from start to finish, Tulane men’s tennis head coach Mark Booras stated. “We came out with a bang in doubles, stuck to the game plans, stayed aggressive and got the point to give us nice momentum into the singles round.
“In singles, we were up a break or more on all six matches within the first 15 minutes so that kept the momentum rolling, Booras added. “Pepperdine kept on fighting and turned it around on some of the courts but our guys stayed focused and closed well to finish them off.
“There was a lot of good energy from both teams today and I liked how our guys stayed focused with their emotions and tactics throughout the match, Booras concluded. “We’ll need to turn right around and do the same tomorrow to put ourselves in a good position to be successful.
#8 USC 7, #57 UC Davis 0
Jan. 22, 2016 – Marks Stadium (Los Angeles, Calif.)
DOUBLES
(1) Crystal/Verboven (USC) def. Adamson/Levie (UCD) – 6-1
(2) de Vroome/Jaede (USC) def. Bacharach/Whittle (UCD) – 6-2
(3) DeVine/T. Smith (USC) vs. Lam/Wade (UCD) – 4-3 susp.
USC wins doubles point.
Order of finish: 1, 2
SINGLES
(1) #41 Nick Crystal (USC) def. #38 Alec Adamson (UCD) – 6-1, 6-0
(2) Laurens Verboven (USC) def. James Wade (UCD) – 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
(3) #69 Logan Smith (USC) def. Brett Bacharach (UCD) – 7-6 (4), 6-4
(4) #83 Jake DeVine (USC) def. Bryce McKelvie (UCD) – 7-5, 7-5
(5) Jack Jaede (USC) def. Everett Maltby (UCD) – 6-2, 6-4
(6) Rob Bellamy (USC) def. Eli Whittle (UCD) – 6-2, 6-4*
Order of finish: 1, 5, 6*, 4, 2, 3
I figured Illinois would beat Notre Dame but I didn’t think they’d dominate like they did on Friday night. The Illini won the doubles point with a couple of new pairings and then Aleks Vukic and the Hiltzik Brothers cleaned up at 1, 2, and 3 to give Illinois the 4-0 win.
Northwestern jumped on Tulsa by taking the doubles point with 6-3 wins at #1 and #3 and then picked up singles wins from Konrad Zieba, Strong Kirchheimer, and Fedor Baev. Tulsa got a win from Juan Matias-Gonzalez at #5 but couldn’t get any traction anywhere else.
#7 Illinois 4, Notre Dame 0
January 22, 2016 – Champaign/Urbana, IL (Atkins Tennis Center)
Singles Results
1. Aleks Vukic (ILL) def. #37 Quentin Monaghan (ND) 6-3, 6-4
2. #21 Jared Hiltzik (ILL) def. Eddy Covalschi (ND) 6-0, 6-2
3. #41 Aron Hiltzik (ILL) def. Alex Lawson (ND) 6-4, 6-2
4. #67 Julian Childers (ILL) vs. Josh Hagar (ND) 6-2, 4-3, unf
5. Grayson Broadus (ND) vs. Alex Jesse (ILL) 6-6(5-6) unf
6. Asher Hirsh (ILL) vs. Nicolas Montoya (ND) 6-1, 5-3, unf.
Doubles Results
1. No. 6 Alex Lawson/Quentin Monaghan (ND) def. Jared Hiltzik/Alex Jesse (ILL) 7-5
2. Aron Hiltzik/Aleks Vukic (ILL) def. Eddy Covalschi/Josh Hagar (ND) 6-4
3. Julian Childers/Brian Page (ILL) def. Grayson Broadus/Eric Schnurrenberger (ND) 6-3
“I have a ton of respect for Notre Dame and their coaching staff, so to get through that match without dropping a set tells me our guys were ready to go in singles play,” head coach Brad Dancer said. “We are looking forward to another great challenge tomorrow.
#25 Northwestern 4, #24 Tulsa 1
January 22, 2016 – Champaign/Urbana, IL (Atkins Tennis Center)
Singles Results
1. #16 Konrad Zieba (NU) def. #51 Or Ram-Harel (TU), 6-4, 6-2
2. #50 Sam Shropshire (NU) vs. Carlos Bautista (TU), 2-6, 6-4, 5-3, unf
3. #55 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) def. Majed Kilani (TU), 7-6, 6-3*
4. Fedor Baev (NU) def. Matthew Kirby (TU), 7-6, 3-6, 6-2
5. Juan Matias-Gonzalez (TU) def. Alp Horoz (NU), 7-5, 6-2
6. Ben Vandixhorn (NU) vs. Mitchell Pritchard (TU), 3-6, 7-5, 3-2 unf
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 3*
Doubles Results
1. #52 Baev/Kirchheimer (NU) def. McCloskey/Kirby (TU), 6-3
2. Zieba/Shropshire (NU) vs. Kellerman/Kellerman (TU), 5-5 unf
3. Kumar/Horoz (NU) def. Matias-Gonzalez/Bautista (TU), 6-3*
Order of Finish: 1, 3*
“The guys fought very hard today,” head coach Arvid Swan said. “Tulsa is a very good team, and the match was extremely competitive. It was great to see a complete team effort with singles and doubles.”
“We expect another competitive match tomorrow against either Illinois or Notre Dame,” Swan said. “There is a lot on the line with a spot at national indoors.”
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The biggest surprised of the day took place off the court as Cal announced that it’d be unable to make it to Durham, North Carolina due to the bad weather taking over much of the east coast.
Due to the storm affecting much of the East Coast, Cal is unable to travel to compete in the #ITAKickoff Weekend this weekend in Durham, NC.Cal Men’s Tennis (@CalMensTennis) January 23, 2016
I had actually picked Cal to win the regional but with them out that opens the door for Duke since they’ll be able to get a walkover into the regional final.
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