Semifinal Saturday was a busy one with two of the closest matches taking place at the same time in Stillwater at the Big 12 Championships.
TCU edged Oklahoma in the regular season 4-3 and even though Andrew Harris wasn’t playing today you figured it would be still be a close one. TCU’s usual No. 4 Eduardo Nava was out as well so each team had to shuffle its lineup a bit.
TCU took the doubles point but it was anything but easy – well it was easy at No. 3 but not on the other two courts. Cameron Norrie and Alex Rybakov won 6-1 at No. 3 but OU’s Spencer Papa and Alex Ghilea picked up a 7-5 win at No. 1. OU’s Axel Alvarez and Austin Siegel broke to go up 6-5 but TCU’s Guillermo Nunez and Trevor Johnson would break Siegel to send it to a tiebreak. OU was serving up 5-4 in the tiebreak but TCU would win three of the next four points to close it out 7-5.
OU took all six first sets in singles and they’d go ahead 2-1 when Florin Bragusi and Andre Biro won at No. 4 and No. 6.
OU’s Spencer Papa led Alex Rybakov 6-2, 4-2 at No. 2 but Rybakov would take the next four games to force a third set. Rybakov broke Papa to go up 4-2 in the third and he’d break him again to win it 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.
TCU’s Cameron Norrie would put the Horned Frogs back in front after coming back from a set down to beat Axel Alvarez No. 1. After dropping the first set 7-5, Norrie would break Alvarez to go up 2-1 in the second and then he’d break again to go up 4-1 and would ultimately take the set 6-2. Norrie broke Alvarez to go up 3-2 in the third then he’d win the last three to take it 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.
OU’s Maxime Mora went up 2-0 in the third on Trevor Johnson at No. 5 but Johnson broke back and held for 2-2. The match would go to a tiebreak and Johnson would take it 7-5 after Mora double faulted while serving at 5-6.
The match at No. 3 was abandoned with it all even at 2-2 in the third.
#5 TCU 4, #10 Oklahoma 2
Apr 30, 2016 at Stillwater, Oklahoma (Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center)
Post-Match Quotes from David Roditi via TCU’s recap
“Anytime anybody beats Oklahoma, it is a hell of a win. They have such a good program and for us to lose six first sets and come back and find a way to win three matches in three sets tells a lot about our resilience and our youth. We did not freak out, we stayed calm and bounced back. Obviously with Andrew Harris out of the lineup is always a huge boost to us, but at the same time they still have a lot of great players.
“The doubles was crazy. I thought we won it and then I thought we lost it and it just kept going back and forth. It was a huge performance by Trevor and Guillermo to find a way win on court two and secure that doubles point for us. I still feel like we need to do a better job in the first sets and we have to handle the moment a little bit better in doubles. I thought our emotions kind of got in the way. There is a little room for improvement, but at the same time if it was easy, everybody would be in the finals of the Big 12 Championship.
“We played well in doubles and just came up a point or two short, but we competed, head coach John Roddick said. “In singles we started extremely well, but we have start finishing matches. We have some time to work on that before we head to NCAAs. ___________________________________________________________
The No. 1 seed Texas Tech advanced to the finals of the Big 12 Tournament for the first time ever with a tough 4-3 win over Baylor. Baylor took the doubles point, just as it had done in the two previous meetings this season, but Tech fought back in singles especially in the lower half of the lineup.
Bjorn Thomson handed Tyler Stayer a double bagel at No. 6 and Jolan Cailleau knocked off yesterday’s hero, Jimmy Bendeck, at No. 4 to put Texas Tech in front 2-1.
Connor Curry made it 3-1 after he defeated Tommy Podvinski 6-2, 7-5 at No. 5. Curry broke Podvinski to go up 6-5 in the second and then he served it out for the win.
Baylor’s Julian Lenz kept the Bears hopes alive after he came back from 4-1* down in the third set to defeat Felipe Soares 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 at No. 1. Felipe Rios tied the match at 3-3 after his 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 win over Alex Sendegeya at No. 3.
Texas Tech senior Hugo Dojas opened up a 5-1 lead in the third against Max Tchoutakian at No. 2 but the Baylor junior would hold, break, and hold to pull within 5-4. Dojas would hold from 40-15 with a service winner to close out Tchoutakian 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
“Hugo won some big points in the third set, head coach Brett Masi said. “There were three or four deuce points that decided games that could have gone either way. He played very aggressive and was dictating the match after the first set. That was key for him. Hugo also was able to draw from the match earlier this season where he beat the same opponent in a third set tiebreaker on the road. He served out a great final game to get to the finish line, and I’m very happy for him.
“It’s a tremendous feeling because we have given ourselves a chance to win the Big 12 Tournament, Dojas said. “Beating Baylor is unbelievable. I knew what I had to do to win the match. I had been working on my serve with Coach over the last week. It got me through pretty easy which allowed me to focus on breaking his service games.
“The bottom of the lineup has been our strength for a majority of the season, Masi said. “Jolan, Connor and Bjorn gave us three huge points quickly and really put the pressure on Baylor. What they were able to do was give Felipe and Hugo a chance to get back into their matches after they lost emotional first sets. We’re pretty tough to beat when we’re playing solid like that four through six in the lineup.
“I wasn’t upset with their doubles effort, Masi said. “The message going into singles was more focused on awareness. We weren’t making shots, and we weren’t playing the right way. I told them to go back out there, execute and be solid. Baylor has been tough on us over the years. It was partly a mental thing because sometimes you feel like you have to go out there and do more even though we were able to beat them twice already this year.
“They’ve got some spots where they’re just better than us, and I think honestly that sort of wears you down after a while. I think our guys are competing incredibly hard, but then again they’re No. 8 in the country for a reason. They’re a little better than us. We’ve just got to continue to get better and try to get ready for the NCAA’s.” –head coach Matt Knoll on the close 4-3 loss
“We’ve got to take finals, so we’ve got to take a little step back for that. We’ve got some clear ideas of what our weaknesses are, so we’re going to go out and work on those. We’re also going to work on our strengths, and we’re going to try to be a tough draw.” —Knoll on preparing for the NCAA postseason __________________________________________________________
It will be Ohio State and Illinois meeting in the finals of the Big Ten Tournament after each pulled through on Saturday. Ohio State took the doubles point and collected straight set wins from Mikael Torpegaard, Hugo Di Feo, and Martin Joyce to post a 4-0 shutout over Michigan.
#4 Ohio State 4, #24 Michigan 0
April 30, 2016 at Minneapolis, MN (Baseline Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #1 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) def. #123 Alex Knight (UM) 6-2, 6-2
2. #96 Chris Diaz (OSU) vs. #95 Jathan Malik (UM) 3-6, 7-5, unfinished
3. #41 Hugo Di Feo (OSU) def. Carter Lin (UM) 6-1, 7-5
“The Big Ten is tough, said Director of Tennis Ty Tucker. “It was a very tricky day today, and credit to Michigan for giving us a great war, but that’s with 52 degrees and 20 miles an hour wind. It’s not going to be tennis, it’s going to be heart and guts, and some discipline. In some spots we were very good and some spots we need to work on for tomorrow.”
Illinois and Northwestern were meeting for the third time this season with each team having won on its home court. Northwestern took the doubles point but Illinois took the opening set in singles on four of six courts.
Northwestern freshman Ben Vandixhorn defeated Illinois freshman Asher Hirsch 6-1, 7-5 at No. 5 to make it 2-0. Illinois answered with a three-set win from Aleks Vukic at No. 1 and a straight set win from Julian Childers at No. 4.
Strong Kirchheimer came back from a set down to defeat Aron Hiltzik at No. 3 but that would be the last point the Wildcats would get.
Illinois senior Jared Hiltzik won a three-setter over Sam Shropshire at No. 2 and freshman Pengxuan (Aiden) Jiang clinched the match with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Alp Horoz at No. 6. Jiang came into the match with a 1-4 dual-match record which made his win over Horoz all the more surprising.
#17 Illinois 4, #13 Northwestern 3
April 30, 2016 at Minneapolis, MN (Baseline Tennis Center)
“Number one, it was a great college tennis match. Northwestern has a great team. Hats off to them and the season they’ve had. They’re going to represent the Big Ten incredibly well in the NCAA Tournament and I wish them the best of luck,” Dancer said. “Second, we did some great things in doubles today but it wasn’t enough to get the doubles point and Northwestern built off that. The guys came out very focused for singles. To be honest, it was just a great college match in that it was just a battle on all the courts, all the way through.”
“It’s exciting for our program and we obviously look forward to playing Ohio State,” Dancer said. “This has been kind of the tour of avenging recent Big Ten losses, so we get one more shot at that.” _________________________________________________________
San Diego won its third straight West Coast Championship, and 30th straight conference match, with a 4-0 win over Pepperdine. USD took the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 then the Toreros took five of six first sets in singles. Uros Petronijevic, Jordan Angus, and Jaan Kononov only dropped a combined 5 games in their wins at 1, 2, and 4.
“These guys were on top of their games this weekend, head coach Ryan Keckley said. “The last three weeks we really hit our stride and that was evident in today’s match. The energy, the composure, the mentality, the fight… everything was impressive!
Keckley added, “We competed extremely well to win the doubles point amongst a very hostile Pepperdine crowd.
“I was lucky, Angus said. “Some days you play great, I had one of those days and won 11 love but it’s not everyday, so I appreciate that.
“Our three seniors who clinched the match for us lost 5 games collectively. Keckley noted. “These seniors were on a mission to make sure they finished their careers here at USD on top.
“We came together as a team and finished as a team today and that’s what I am most proud of!
“30-0 in the WCC is no small accomplishment and this team deserves all the praise. I am very excited to see where we can go from here.”
UC Santa Barbara won the Big West for the second year in a row with a 4-1 win over Cal Poly. UCSB took the doubles point and then grabbed five of six first sets in singles. Cal Poly’s Axel Damiens won in straight sets at No. 5 but UCSB rolled everywhere else. Nicolas Moreno de Alboran, Anders Holm, and Teague Hamilton won in straight sets with Holm clinching the championship at No. 4.
UCSB’s women’s team also won the Big West Championship so it was a clean sweep for the Gauchos.
“I am so pleased with how our team played today,” Head Coach Marty Davis said. “We were so dominant in every way and I really feel like were deserving of this championship.”
“Hamilton got off the court so quick and I really think that gives us huge momentum when we can get out to a fast 2-0 lead,” said Davis. “It’s amazing to have a guy on our team that’s 12-0 in singles.”
“I am so proud of these guys and they are really students of the game,” Davis explained. “I really think we can do some damage in the NCAA Tournament.” _________________________________________________________
Top-seed Western Michigan won its 11th MAC Championship with a 4-0 shutout over the No. 3 seed Ball State.
“I am very proud of our team and especially happy for our seniors,” Head coach Dave Morin said. “They get to end their careers with a MAC Tournament Title. We’ve had a target on our back since the beginning of the season. We got together and realized how special this team could be.”
“They played so great today and they really played very loose as a team,” Morin said. “Doubles set the tone and we just got rolling. It was obvious these guys were hungry for a second title and we are super excited about winning the league and now we want to accept the next challenge and advanve in the NCAA Tournament.”
“Western Michigan has been the best team all year and they didn’t falter today,” Ball State head men’s tennis coach Bill Richards said. “Credit to them. I’m proud of our guys for the way finished the season but it’s always disappointing to lose a championship match. I think the Buffalo win yesterday drained us some both physically and emotionally and we didn’t quite have the energy we needed today but Western Michigan had a lot to do with that.” _________________________________________________________
Denver entered the Summit League in the fall of 2013 and has now won the conference title in each of its three season after defeating Oral Roberts 4-0. This will be the fourth year in a row that Denver has gone to the NCAA Tournament with the Pioneers also winning the WAC Championship back in 2013 which was the only year they were in that conference.
#1 Denver 4, #3 Oral Roberts 0
Saturday, April 30 at Omaha, NE
Singles Competition
1. Henry Craig (DEN) vs. Barnabas Koncz (ORU) 6-4, 3-1, unfinished
2. Diogo Rocha (DEN) def. Jan Pehnec (ORU) 6-2, 6-2
3. Yannik James (DEN) def. Amar Saletovic (ORU) 6-2, 6-1
4. David Fox (DEN) vs. Kenneth Boykin (ORU) 7-5, 3-0, unfinished
5. Alex Gasson (DEN) def. Michael Sosnowski (ORU) 6-1, 6-2
“It feels great to win the conference championship, head coach Ricardo Rubio said after the match. “These guys worked hard throughout the year in really tight matches, which I think helped us in this situation to manage some of the matches in the Summit League championship. Winning the conference is not easy and for the team to do it now, three years in a row, is a great accomplishment. I’m very happy for them and we’re looking forward to finding out who we will play in the upcoming NCAA tournament.
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