Bruins Bounce the Bulldogs, Aggies Tame the Lions, Buckeyes Roll the Bears, UNC Gives Red Raiders the Heel

The action is heating up in Charlottesville with half of the day’s Round of 16 matches already in the books. The first two matches of the day didn’t have a ton of suspense as #8 Ohio State ran over #4 Baylor 4-0 and #7 North Carolina overcame the loss of the doubles point to beat #14 Texas Tech 4-1.

The second set of matches though were both thrillers with #3 Texas A&M holding off hard charging #14 Columbia 4-2 and #9 UCLA coming back from 3-2 down to beat #11 Georgia 4-3.

UCLA head coach Billy Martin wasn’t exactly looking forward to another match with Georgia despite the Bruins success versus them two weeks ago, “I thought there were a couple of teams we might face in the opening round but Georgia wasn’t one of them and I wasn’t necessarily looking forward to seeing them again. I knew Manny would have them ready for us and knew it’d be a tough match and it was.”

The doubles point between UCLA and Georgia mirrored the doubles point from their previous meeting two weeks ago. UCLA’s Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki beat Georgia’s Austin Smith and Ben Wagland 6-3 at #1 (6-1 last meeting). The Bruin #1s broke serve to go 4-2 then held from 5-3 to seal the win.

Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan and Jan Zielinski got a 6-4 win at #2 over UCLA’s Joseph Di Giulio and Karue Sell (6-4 last meeting). Oosterbaan and Zielinksi had a 4-2 lead but UCLA held and broke to even it at 4-4.  The Bulldog #2s broke back and held to take it 6-4.

The deciding match was at #3 between UCLA’s Austin Rapp/Gage Brymer and Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery/Emil Reinberg. Georgia broke serve to start the match but UCLA broke back and held for a 2-1 lead. They stayed on serve until UCLA broke to go up 5-3 then they served it out for a 6-3 win (7-6(2) last meeting).

“The doubles point was huge after being down an early break at #3”, said UCLA head coach Billy Martin. “However once singles got underway it didn’t look good for us early on.”

Georgia got off to a quick start in singles with Wayne Montgomery, Austin Smith, Jan Zielinski, and Emil Reinberg taking the opening sets at #1, #2, #3, and #5 while Karue Sell and Austin Rapp took the opening sets at #4 and #6 for UCLA. I asked Billy Martin about Rapp getting the nod in singles over Joseph Di Giulio, “Austin had been practicing really well and played well in doubles both today and on Tuesday against Virginia. Joey hadn’t adjusted as well to the speed of the indoor courts so I thought Austin gave us a little better chance.”

Karue Sell extended UCLA’s lead to 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over the big-serving Paul Oosterbaan. “Nobody on our team returns serve better than Karue, going in we liked the matchup and Karue was one of the guys I was counting on to get us a point”, said Martin.

Georgia’s Austin Smith cut the deficit to 2-1 when he defeated Gage Brymer 6-3, 6-3 at #2 singles and a short while later Emil Reinberg tied it at 2-2 with a back and forth 7-5, 6-4 win over Logan Staggs at #5. Staggs jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the first set but Reinberg took five straight games to take the set 6-4. In the second set Reinberg went up 5-2 only to see Staggs take the next three to even it at 5-5. Reinberg would take the final two to close it out 7-5, 6-4.

Each of the three remaining matches was headed to a third set with McDonald and Redlicki getting the equalizer at #1 and #3 while Wood did the same at #6 for Georgia.

Nick Wood, in just his second dual-match of the year after returning from a wrist injury, put Georgia ahead 3-2 with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Austin Rapp at #6.

Martin Redlicki would even it at 3-3 with a wild 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over Jan Zielinski at #3. Zielinski jumped out to a 5-1* lead in the opening set before Redlicki won the next three to make it *5-4. Zielinski held to take the set 6-4 but Redlicki cruised through the second taking it 6-1. Redlicki raced out to a *5-0 lead in the third and served for the match with a three-break lead but Zielinski kept fighting. The freshman from Poland broke Redlicki twice and held twice himself to pull within 5-4. Redlicki was finally able to close the match out on his third attempt and the Bruins were now just a point away.

Martin talked about Redlicki’s slow start, “Zielinski went up early and then Martin got his first serve going and got a little more aggressive. Zielinski got a little tentative in the third set but then Martin did as well and luckily he held on his third attempt to win the match.”

The final match on court was at #1 between UCLA’s Mackenzie McDonald and Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery. Montgomery broke McDonald to take first set 7-5 but McDonald turned it around in the second set breaking Montgomery twice to take it 6-2. Montgomery held serve to the start the third set but McDonald took the next 6 to close it out 6-1 in the third.

“Give it to Mackie for coming back despite being a little rusty in that opening set. Once he got his rhythm going in the second set I knew he’d play his best in the third. Mackie kept up his conditioning during his time away from the court (wrist injury) so I wasn’t worried at all about his fitness down the stretch.”

Match point below via UCLA’s twitter:

ITA National Team Indoor First Round
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The other mid-afternoon match between #3 Texas A&M and #15 Columbia was also a battle that came down to a couple of third sets.

All three doubles courts finished with a 6-4 score with Texas A&M winning at #2 and #3 while Columbia took #1. Texas A&M’s Max Lunkin and Jordi Arconada broke to go up *5-2 at #3 but Columbia’s Chris Grant and Eric Rubin broke back and held for 5-4*. Lunkin/Arconada would hold on their second attempt to close it out. Texas A&M’s Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant closed out the doubles point by holding serve on the deciding point to win 6-4 at #2.  On that deciding point Mike Vermeer crushed a service return at Adams’s feet and Adams hit a half-volley off his frame that hit the top of the net and fell over for a winner.

The teams split opening sets with Shawn Hadavi, Mike Vermeer, and Timmy Wang getting them for Columbia at 1, 4, and 6 while Shane Vinsant, Jordi Arconada, and AJ Catanzariti took sets at 2, 3, and 5 for Texas A&M.

AJ Catanzariti extended Texas A&M’s lead to 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Richard Pham at #5 but a few minutes later Mike Vermeer would put Columbia on the board after holding serve on the deciding point to win 6-2, 6-4 win over Harrison Adams at #4.

It’d be another 30 minutes before another court finished but when it did Columbia had evened the match at 2-2 after Shawn Hadavi upset #8 Arthur Rinderknech 6-2, 1-6, 6-2 at #1. Hadavi held serve to open the third set and then broke Rinderknech at love to go 2-0. After five consecutive holds, Hadavi broke Rinderknech at love to close out the win.

Shane Vinsant would put Texas A&M ahead 3-2 when he knocked off Victor Pham 6-4, 7-5 at #2. Pham led 4-2 in the first set but Vinsant won the final four games to take the opening set 6-4. Pham held on the deciding point and broke on the deciding point to go up 2-0 in the second. Pham held for 3-0 before Vinsant got an easy hold for 1-3. Vinsant broke on the deciding point to put it back on serve at 2-3 and then consolidated the break for 3-3. Vinsant broke again to go up 4-3 but Pham broke back and held to go up 5-4. Vinsant then held, broke, and held at love to close out Pham 6-4, 7-5.

Both of the remaining matches on court would go to a third set after Columbia’s Eric Rubin got the split at #3 by winning the second set in a tiebreak while Texas A&M’s Jackson Withrow did the same at #6. In fact both guys took the tiebreak by identical 7-4 scores.

Rubin and Texas A&M’s Jordi Arconada stayed on serve in the third set until Arconada broke Rubin to go up 4-3. Arconada would hold for 5-3 and then break again to close out Rubin and send the Aggies on to the quarterfinals.

The remaining match at #6 was abandoned with Wang serving at 3-4 in the third. Wang had a chance to finish off his match in straight sets when he led Withrow 6-4, 6-6 (4-2) but he lost five straight points to drop the tiebreak 7-4.

ITA National Team Indoor First Round

Post-Match Quotes from Texas A&M’s recap:

ITA National Team Indoor First Round

Post-Match Quotes from Texas Tech’s recap
“It’s a disappointing loss because of the fact that we got outplayed and didn’t match the level of the intensity that our competition played with following the huge win we had in doubles,” Texas Tech Brett Masi said. “If you beat team like North Carolina, you have to be ready for their best each point. Hats off to UNC for their efforts. We’ve got a quick turnaround ahead to play Baylor tomorrow morning. I feel confident that we can learn from our mistakes and raise our level of play.”