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Rematch Time – Virginia/Oklahoma To Meet Once Again For The National Championship

by | May 24, 2016 | Blog | 6 comments

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It was an interesting day at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa with rain forcing one of the two semifinal matches indoors. Virginia had little trouble dispatching Cal in the indoor semifinal while Oklahoma won a 4-3 thriller in the nightcap which was played outdoors.

Sooners Win (Photo By Ty Russell – SoonerSports)

The Oklahoma/Georgia match was originally scheduled to start at 4 p.m. central time but due to periodic showers it was put on hold while Virginia and Cal went indoors with a 5:25 p.m. central start. The reason Virginia and Cal couldn’t start until 5:25 was because the second women’s semifinal didn’t finish until 4:20 and neither Virginia or Cal had been able to hit since the morning so they needed an hour to get warmed up. Since Virginia was the highest remaining seed they were given the earlier start time which meant Oklahoma and Georgia had the chance to go outdoors if it dried up. The official starting time of 7 p.m. wasn’t announced until close to 6 p.m. so a lot of the local OU fans probably didn’t get the memo because the crowds weren’t anywhere near what I thought they would be. Coincidentally the paid attendance of 1197 was actually the best this week but many of those fans came for the Oklahoma State women’s match at 10 a.m. and were long gone by the time the men’s matches started.

Oklahoma didn’t have nearly the home court advantage that I thought it would plus Georgia’s play early on in doubles kept most of the noise at bay. Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery and Emil Reinberg broke the Austin Siegel serve to start the match at No. 3 and then Reinberg held on the deciding point for 2-0.

Georgia’s Ben Wagland and Austin Smith went up 15-40 on Andrew Harris’s opening service game at No. 1 but Harris was able to battle back and hold for 1-0. After that opening game, neither team would get get much traction on the others service return with very few service games even reaching 40-30.

Break opportunities at No. 2 doubles were few and far between as well with each player holding serve pretty easily until OU’s Alex Ghilea faced a pair of break points at 3-3, 30-40. Ghilea was able to get the hold for 4-3 with a pair of service winners.

Meanwhile back at No. 3, Georgia had maintained its break advantage and led 4-2 but Biro would hold from 40-15 for 3-4 and then Montgomery would find himself in a 15-40 hole. Montgomery and Reinberg got it to the deciding point but OU would get the break when they attacked the net and put one down at Reinberg’s feet which he was unable to scoop up. Siegel would get a quick hold for 5-4 and all of a sudden Reinberg was serving to stay in the match.

While Georgia’s lead at No. 3 had evaporated the Bulldogs were also in some trouble at No. 2 with Paul Oosterbaan serving at 4-5, 30-30. OU’s Alex Ghilea hit a forehand that hit the net cord and kicked up over the head of the 6′ 7″ Oosterbaan and landed perfectly on the back line for a winner which gave OU a pair of match points. Oosterbaan fought off the first match point but he couldn’t fight off the second after Spencer Papa drilled a return at his feet and OU had the 6-4 win.

Less than 45 seconds later the doubles point would be over because after falling behind 15-40, Emil Reinberg would double fault at 30-40 to give OU the 6-4 win.

After the way Georgia started off I really thought they were going to take the doubles point because they seemingly had the upper hand the majority of the time but they just couldn’t take advantage of the opportunities that were presented to them. Oklahoma’s guys didn’t get a ton of break opportunities but they made sure to convert the few that they got and ultimately that was the difference.

This was the third match in a row that Oklahoma had won the doubles point so that had to be a confidence booster for them knowing they had the extra point in the bank.

Once singles got underway the break point opportunities that were few and far between in doubles were plentiful in singles. Oklahoma’s Andrew Harris jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on Austin Smith at No. 1 while Axel Alvarez went up 3-1 against Wayne Montgomery at No. 2. Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan broke Spencer Papa for a 3-2 at No. 3 while Oklahoma’s Florin Bragusi and Andre Biro went up 4-2 on Jan Zielinski and Nick Wood.

Andrew Harris’s 2-0 lead at No. 1 quickly evaporated as Austin Smith won the next eight games to take the opening set 6-2 and go up a break at 2-0 in the second. Harris would finally stop the streak by breaking Smith for 1-2 but Smith would break back and then hold for 4-1. Smith would get broke serving for the match up 5-3 but he’d break Harris from 30-40, on a double fault, to close it out 6-2, 6-4. Coincidently Harris also double faulted the first set away as well.

Georgia’s Paul Oosterbaan would put the Bulldogs ahead 2-1 after he got past Spencer Papa at No. 3. Ooosterbaan served extremely well all night long and after going up that break at 3-2 in the first he’d hold to take the opening set 6-4. Oosterbaan would break Papa’s 5-5 service game in the second set and then he’d serve it out from 40-15 to win 6-4, 7-5. Of the 12 guys playing singles Oosterbaan was the only one not to get broke all night long.


So Georgia had it’s first lead of the night but it still needed to find two more courts if it was going to win the match.

One of the courts that Georgia was banking on was at No. 6 as senior Nick Wood was battling OU freshman Andre Biro. Biro won the deciding match against UCLA in the quarterfinals and it looked like that added confidence was giving him a boost because he played from ahead virtually the entire night. Biro broke Wood to go up 4-2 in the opening set but Wood broke back on the deciding point to make it 3-4. It would stay on serve until the tiebreak though Biro had to hold on the deciding point for 6-5 while Wood fought off two set points to hold on the deciding point for 6-6. Wood was up 5-3* in the tiebreak but Biro won the last four points to take the opening set 7-6(5). Biro broke Wood to go up 3-2 in the second but Wood broke back for 3-3. Biro would break again for 4-3 but once again Wood broke back for 4-4. After consecutive holds Biro would break Wood to go up 6-5 and then he’d serve it out to win it 7-6(5), 7-5.

The team match was now tied at 2-2 but it looked like Oklahoma was going to close it out any minute because Axel Alvarez was serving for the match at No. 2 up 5-4 in the third while Florin Bragusi was receiving up 5-2 in the third at No. 5.

Bragusi got off to a quick start in his match at No. 5 against Georgia freshman Jan Zielinski by going up an early break at 4-2 and he’d break Zielinski again to take the opening set 6-2. Zielinski went up a break at 3-2 in the second but Bragusi would break back and hold for 4-3. Zielinski would then hold, break, and hold again to send the match to a third set. Bragusi quickly turned it around and won the opening three games of the third set including a hold on the deciding point for 3-0. Zielinski held for 1-3 and then he had a break point on the deciding point but Bragusi fought it off to May 24, 2016

“>hold for 4-1. Zielinski held for 2-4 and then once again he’d have a break point on the deciding point but Bragusi hit a service winner to go up 5-2. Bragusi jumped out to a 15-40 lead on Zielinski’s serve and would break to win it by showing a tremendous of hustle – watch the clip below.


Bragusi’s win put OU ahead 3-2 but Georgia wasn’t done yet because Wayne Montgomery would break Axel Alvarez from 15-40 to even it at 5-5. Montgomery held for 6-5 and then he’d break Alvarez at love to win it 1-6, 6-2, 7-5.


With the match tied at 3-3 it’d come to a third set at No. 4 between Oklahoma junior Alex “The Machine” Ghilea and Georgia freshman Walker Duncan. Ghilea and Duncan played an epic first set that took an hour and eight minutes to complete with Duncan taking it 10-8 in the tiebreak. Ghilea actually served for the first set up 5-4 and 6-5 but Duncan broke back on both occasions. Ghilea broke Duncan on the deciding point to go up 3-1 in the second but Duncan broke back on the deciding point and then held for 3-3. Ghilea would hold, break, and hold again to take the second set 6-3.

Ghilea would break Duncan to open the third set and then he’d hold for 2-0. Duncan went up 40-0 on his 0-2 service game but it took a forehand winner on the deciding point to get the hold for 1-2.

Ghilea held from 40-15 for 3-1 and then he’d break Duncan from 15-40 with a laser forehand that he hit on the run.

Ghilea would hold on the deciding point for 5-1 after hitting a big forehand and then following it up with a volley winner at the net.

Duncan would hold from 40-15 for 2-5 but Ghilea would serve it out from 40-30 to sent Oklahoma back to the NCAA Championship match for the third year in a row. The first clip is mine, the second is OUs, and the third is the NCAAs (best one).

This was a fantastic 3 hour and 12 minute thriller that teetered back and forth. There was a good 15-20 minute period where Georgia really seemed to be taking over because they had just got wins on 1 and 3 plus Montgomery and Zielinski had earned splits on 2 and 5. Plus at that time Duncan was still up a set at 3 and Wood had close to forcing a third set at 6. Oklahoma was able to ride it out and the Machine was able to use his big-match experience to stay calm and bring it home.

I know someone of you aren’t big twitter users but if you want to check out a slew of video clips from the match you can go back through my timeline to watch them. I linked several here but there were probably about 75 that I didn’t.

Video

#11 Oklahoma (20-10) def. #7 Georgia (24-5), 4-3
Michael D. Case Tennis Center 4 p.m. (Delayed until 7 p.m.)
Head Coaches: Manuel Diaz (Georgia) and John Roddick (Oklahoma)
Doubles
1. #24 Axel Alvarez/Andrew Harris (OU) vs. #11 Austin Smith/Ben Wagland (UGA), 5-4 DNF
2. Alex Ghilea/Spencer Papa (OU) def. Paul Oosterbaan/Jan Zielinski (UGA), 6-4
3. Andre Biro/Austin Siegel (OU) def. Wayne Montgomery/Emil Reinberg (UGA), 6-4
Order of Finish: 2, 3
Singles
1. #17 Austin Smith (Georgia) def. #97 Andrew Harris (Oklahoma), 6-2, 6-4
2. #32 Wayne Montgomery (Georgia) def. #25 Axel Alvarez (Oklahoma), 1-6, 6-2, 7-5
3. #64 Paul Oosterbaan (Georgia) def. #82 Spencer Papa (Oklahoma), 6-4, 7-5
4. #61 Alex Ghilea (Oklahoma) def. #123 Walker Duncan (Georgia), 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-2
5. Florin Bragusi (Oklahoma) def. Jan Zielinski (Georgia), 6-2, 4-6, 6-2
6. Andre Biro (Oklahoma) def. Nick Wood (Georgia), 7-6 (5), 7-5

Order of Finish: 1, 3, 6, 2, 5, 4

Oklahoma Head Coach John Roddick
On his team’s win…
“I’d like to congratulate Georgia. What a match, two nights in a row. It’s a shame people have to lose those matches. Especially our teams have a lot of crossover, a lot of mutual respect. It’s a great program they have. It was just a hell of a match tonight.
On the last match OU won…
“As you sit there as a coach and watch, you can see the scoreboard and maybe you don’t know exactly what’s going on on all the other courts. It looked like we were in position on some other courts, I think at #2 singles with Axel (Alvarez) up a break in the third. We had just broken with Biro
to go up a break in the second, and Florin (Bragusi) was up a break in the third. You look, and that’s when Alex (Ghilea) hadn’t won the second set yet. It looks good, and you’re hoping to close it out so it doesn’t come down to that. But we’ve seen all these matches before, and to close out three matches against three very good Georgia players is a big ask. That’s what I told Alex. I said you have to dig in here, and there’s a very good chance that you’re going to be the guy here. That’s what he wants. He loves that. Florin and Alex, our two remains, have won probably more clinching matches than anyone in OU history. Either one of them out on the court is who we want to have out there. Alex loves that position, as you can see. He did a good job of taking control of that third set early.
On emotions after this match, given his relationship with Georgia Head Coach Manuel Diaz…
“It’s harder now than during the match. When you’re shaking hands it’s harder. But when you’re out there, you want to win and you want your team to win. You want your team to execute. We don’t focus a lot on winning and losing. We focus on doing our job and trying to execute and doing what we need to do to give ourselves the best chance to win matches. Because in tennis, there’s no forgone conclusion ever. So that’s what we focus on. That’s what we do during the matches. Afterwards, yeah it’s bittersweet at this point. If we’re not playing, I’m cheering for the Dogs. That’s just the way it is, the way it’ll always be.
On the importance of winning the doubles point in this match…
“If we didn’t turn our doubles around, we would’ve lost the last two matches. The other two teams matched us in singles. We won three points the last two nights. If we don’t play the kind of doubles we’ve been playing this week, then we’re not sitting here trying to get ready for the finals. So
it’s been a huge boost to play. We’ve spent a lot of time, and Florin can attest to it, in the last three or four weeks just focusing on doubles, and not knowing if that’s enough time or not to really see a big improvement, and it’s been I’m proud of the guys to be able to come on this stage and be able to start executing a lot of different things. We just decided we had to do something different, because what we were doing wasn’t working.
On playing Virginia in the final…
“(Virginia Head Coach) Brian (Boland) and I are good friends too, so that’s another one where, it’s fun to play them in these moments, and we always talk about trying to play in the finals, Manny and I, Brian and I. We’ve had good matches with Virginia over the last few years. I expect tomorrow to be another good one. They’ve been probably, them and USC, over the last 10 years, one of the dominant programs. So we’re just trying to break in to that. Tomorrow is a step in that direction. For us, if this team can do that, we’ve come a long way. We’ve come a long way regardless. Virginia got out of here quick, and we have a lot of preparing to do. I know my guys are going to fight tomorrow. Our team is competitive, and you don’t lose that just because you’re a little bit tired. I think we’re going to feel good tomorrow.
On what Alex Ghilea did to turn the match around…
“He hit the ball a lot better. In the third set, he hit the ball a lot better than he did in the first set. He had a lot of chances. He wasn’t making errors up until 40-30, deuce that’s when he was making errors, on those points in the first set. I think that caused him to be a little tentative. Once he finally it’s like it’s time and pressure, you have to keep doing it. You’re right there, you have to win a couple of the big points, and he had them on his racket, he was just making errors. I just said there’s nothing to change, it’s just execution. Tennis is a funny sport. All of a sudden you execute two or three times, and the train started going out of the station, and you saw in the third set, he was rolling. Walker (Duncan) was fighting like crazy in the third set, and it got interesting there. Walker made it interesting there, I think at the 4-1 game, maybe to break. It’s a big difference between 5-1 and 4-2, and Walker had a chance there and he fought really hard. But Alex was really going. His forehand up the line caught fire a little bit and he hit some winners, and that’s why he was able to extend his lead in the third set.
On whether his players try to hit winners…
“We don’t really talk about hitting winners. If it happens to be a winner, that’s great. If you hit it to the right spot enough times with enough pressure, you’re going to end up hitting winners. Sometimes you start getting a guy off balance and you can hit it up the line. It might look like a guy is trying to hit a winner, but I promise you my guys aren’t trying to hit winners. That’s not what we do. We try to construct points, and he (Alex) did a fantastic job at the end. When you play that way and you’re trying to use your forehand and he missed a couple but in the third set, I know we don’t keep stats at the NCAA, but I’d love to see the forced winners and unforced errors. It has to be pretty remarkable there.
On the tension going to the third set of the last match, knowing what’s at stake…
“It’s weird. Every match is different. For me, it’s strange because it’s different every time. I think it depends on how your guys are playing. It’s differ- ent every time. Tonight, once Alex really established what he wanted to establish, I wasn’t nervous at all, because I felt like he was doing what he needed to do to have a very good chance of winning that match. Sometimes when guys aren’t doing it, it’s nail-biting. It feels like it takes years off your life. Tonight, I don’t think that was the case. I have a lot of confidence in Alex out there, and even Andre (Biro) and Florin, when I was looking at the scores, I knew what they were doing and how they were doing it, and they did a great job.
Florin Bragusi, Oklahoma (#5 singles)
On if he was aware of the match scores…
“I wasn’t really trying to look at the scoreboard because I don’t really like that, I can’t be nervous. So I just try and focus on my match and then just win that. I was just trying to focus on my match and that was it pretty much.
On what he did at the completion of his match…
“I looked at the scoreboard and saw Alex was the last match, so I just ran to his court.
On what is going through his mind about advancing to the championship match again…
“It’s crazy that we are in the finals but we got one more match to go so we just have to get ready for our match and drink everything we can, get treatment and all that stuff and then we just have to be ready to play a great match tomorrow against a very good team, Virginia.

Georgia Head Coach Manuel Diaz
On the match tonight…
“Well, it was a tremendous college match, all the credit goes to Oklahoma. They were able to pull the doubles (point) out. I thought we had some pretty good momentum early on in the doubles. We seemed to be controlling play on least a couple courts, up a break at No. 3 (court). Oklahoma just seemed to win the big points in doubles and took the momentum. It wound up being the difference (of the match). You have to give them credit. They won at No. 5 and No. 6, where I thought we had chances to win, one or two of those (matches). I thought our guys played with a lot of heart, and really put it all on the line. Oklahoma just sneaked out one more match than we needed to win. The credit goes to them.
___________________________________________________________

While the nightcap was a barnburner the early match was a relative walk in the park for the top-seed Virginia. Cal really needed to get off to a quick start to have any chance but Virginia was able to jump on them in doubles at both No. 2 and No. 3.

Collin Altamirano and J.C. Aragone broke Mads Engsted on the deciding point to go up 3-2 and then they’d break J.T. Nishimura on another deciding point to go up 5-2. Altamirano would serve it out from 40-30 to win it 6-2.

Thai-Son Kwiatkowski and Mac Styslinger broke Oskar Wikberg from 15-40 to go up 4-2 and then Styslinger would hold for 5-2. Goransson held for 3-5 and then Kwiatkowski held on the deciding point to give Virginia the 6-3 win and early 1-0 lead in the match (video clarity wasn’t the best – sorry about that I needed to be about 25 feet closer to get a better shot).

The doubles point took 28 minutes and after a 10 minute break singles would get underway. Virginia came out of the shoot pretty quickly and went up breaks on five of six courts.

Thai-Son Kwiatkowski would only need 48 minutes to roll over Billy Griffith 6-3, 6-0 at No. 4. Kwiatkowski jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the opening set then made that lead hold up the rest of the way.


J.C. Aragone needed just an hour and two minutes to defeat Oskar Wikberg 6-3, 6-4 at No. 5 and then two minutes later Henrik Wiersholm would close out Mads Engsted 6-3, 6-4 at No. 6. All said and done the match last 1 hour and 42 minutes.

#1 Virginia (29-4) def. #13 California (21-7), 4-0

Michael D. Case Tennis Center 4 p.m. (Delayed until 5:25 p.m.)
Head Coaches: Brian Boland (Virginia) and Peter Wright (California)
Doubles
1. #4 Luca Corinteli/Ryan Shane (UVA) vs. #9 Filip Bergevi/Florian Lakat (Cal), 4-4 DNF
2. #16 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski/Mac Styslinger (UVA) def. A Goransson/Oskar Wikberg (Cal), 6-3
3. Collin Altamirano/J.C. Aragone (UVA) def. Mads Engsted/J.T. Nishimura (Cal), 6-2
Order of Finish: 3, 2
Singles
1. #8 Ryan Shane (Virginia) vs. #30 Florian Lakat (California), 6-1, 6-6 DNF
2. #33 Collin Altamirano (Virginia) vs. #31 Andre Goransson (California), 6-4, 2-3 DNF
3. #9 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (Virginia) def. #85 Billy Griffith (California), 6-3, 6-0
4. #119 Filip Bergevi (California) vs. #78 Alexander Ritschard (Virginia), 6-3, 4-3 DNF
5. #110 J.C. Aragone (Virginia) def. #124 Oskar Wikberg (California), 6-3, 6-4
6. Henrik Wiersholm (Virginia) def. Mads Engsted (California), 6-3, 6-4

Order of Finish: 3, 5, 6

Virginia Head Coach Brian Boland
On his team’s win
“Congratulations to Cal-Berkeley on a tremendous season. Making a run to the Final Four is a great accomplishment. I’m sure they would have liked to have gone further, but they fought hard today. I was just pleased with how well we played throughout the entire match.
On his team’s experience in the finals
“We’ve been in the final, this is at least my fifth time. Obviously in ’13 and ’15 we had some success. I don’t think there is anything more important than experience. I think it’s invaluable, and everyone on the court was there last year when we won the NCAA Championship. I think that’s really helpful, and I certainly feel we’re fortunate to have the veterans on the court that we do.
On the mindset going into the finals
“We’re hungry. We’re eager. We love being together. It’s an incredible group of guys who love being around each other. They’re the best of friends. They have an incredible culture that they’ve developed, and I’m just proud to be part of the journey. I know it’s been enjoyable. This is my 20th year as a head coach, and certainly one of my favorites, in terms of the journey that we’ve taken. Like any season, you have some adversity. We’ve had that this year. We’re healthy and we’re playing our best tennis right now, so we’re right where we want to be.
On potential opponents Georgia and Oklahoma
“They’re both great programs, and regardless of who we play, we’ll be ready. We played Oklahoma last year, and they’ve certainly had another run this year late in the season. They’ve had some struggles throughout the year. We played them earlier in the year, here in Tulsa. We won a close 4-3, and both of us were missing a player due to injury. With Georgia, we haven’t seen them this year, but they’re having a great run in the tournament. We’ll see what happens tonight, and we’ll be ready regardless.
Luca Corinteli, Virginia (#1 doubles)
Opening Statement…
On having played in last year’s championship match and how that will help in tomorrow’s match…
“I think that just having the experience from being in the finals last year and coming out on top helps. We have always had a target on our back all year long, and embracing that is something we have gotten comfortable with. You can never really put it into words, but we are just grateful to be in this position. We are all really excited.

California Head Coach Peter Wright
On the match today…
“It was a tough match for us today, Virginia is just an incredibly strong team and the doubles point was a critical piece of it for us today. But when I reflect on today’s match, I reflect on the run this team has had this year and it has been an incredible run. Our senior class has done an amazing job, I am proud of how we competed today. Virginia is strong, solid and our guys fought back and we actually had some opportunities in a few of the matches there to really bring this thing back. Overall, I am not disappointed with our performance.
On bringing a 13 seed in the semifinals…
“We never saw ourselves as the 13 seed coming in here. We saw ourselves as a team that if somebody is going to beat us they are going to have to play well to beat us. We just didn’t have the same picture that everybody else had and we didn’t look at the numbers and the seeding the way that everybody else did and I think that reflected in our play throughout the tournament. Today, that was a very strong Virginia team and they beat us so we have to tip our hat to them, a well-coached, strong team.
On having both California teams in the semifinals…
“It says a lot about our tennis program, our kids that we have and both teams in the semifinals of the national championships is incredible. It is a wonderful feat and we haven’t done it in the past so it is the first time at California to have that. Our guys are extremely proud of what they have been able to accomplish here and I know our women are as well. I know for us, we feel like we are a program on the rise and we would like to have two national champions next year.

6 Comments

  1. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    It definitely came down to doubles. I think Alvarez let his slip away yet Montgomery battled and battled. Montgomery showed that good things happen when you battle.<br /><br />Give OU's bottom of the lineup credit in that they battled like Montgomery.

  2. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    It felt like a kick to the gut – it's definitely easier to write about a great win for your school than a loss but it's not like they gave it away. It would have been really bad had they had a big lead and let it slip but several OU's guys stepped up and seized the moment. I really felt if Georgia took the doubles point they had it. <br />

  3. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    Bobby, how big of a heartbreaker was that for the Georgia fan side of you? Also big props to you for taking your fandom out of the recaps

  4. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    Yeah I agree. Virginia did not have a great regular season. Lost to UNC twice, were not conference champions and hell lost to Illinois for God's sake. Yet somehow thanks to the kooky formulas got to be #1 and then got the easiest path possible to the final where they get to face a dead tired Oklahoma team?

  5. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    If Virginia wins, it would have had to beat the #16, 9, 13, and 11 seeds. Has there ever been an easier road to the championship, at least according to seeding numbers? This is not to discredit Virginia, which can only play the teams presented to them, but it does raise questions about the seeding process, and how Virginia got seeded #1 again. And I know it will have to beat the (very tired) team that beat UCLA and Georgia, and the overachieving team that beat TCU, but those three teams would have probably done just as well if they had the same path as Virginia. Just sayin. Maybe the tennis gods are making it up to Virginia for all those heartbreaking losses in the past NCAAs when they were the favorites.

  6. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:26 pm

    "The sky is falling, the sky is falling" after all of the panic about no-ad. It's still UVA-OKL