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The USTA College MatchDay Series has already lined up six matches at the soon to be completed 100-court USTA National Campus in Orlando. The first match will take place on January 21st when Adam Steinberg’s Michigan Wolverines square off against George Husack’s Alabama Crimson Tide and then in February there will be a pair of women’s matches including a national championship rematch on February 17th between Stanford and Oklahoma State. In addition to these matches in Orlando there will also be several others in the MatchDay series including Virginia/Wake Forest in Winston-Salem on March 31st. 

Six of the eight singles quarterfinalists at the $25K USA F40 Futures in Tallahassee have college ties though only two of them are seeded. Virginia senior JC Aragone booked his first-ever spot in a Futures quarterfinal after a 21-minute 2-1 retirement win over the sixth seed Christian Harrison. Aragone held on a six-deuce game to start the match and then two games later Harrison retired with an injury while serving at 15-30. Aragone will meet the second seed Tim Van Rijthoven on Friday after TVR defeated Florida State junior Guy Iradukunda 7-5, 6-3. Iradukunda earned his first ATP point in over two years when he upset recent Virginia graduate Ryan Shane in the opening round.

Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16) came back from a 4-2 third set deficit to defeat Winston Lin (Columbia ’15) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in a two hour and twenty-one minute match in which Lin actually won more total points (92 to 88). 
 
Brayden Schnur (North Carolina ’16*) advanced to his third quarterfinal of the year after coming back from a set down to defeat Jared Hiltzik (Illinois ’16) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. The pivotal break in the third set came when Schnur broke Hiltzik’s 4-4 service game from 30/40 and then Schnur served out the match from 40/30. 
 
Second Round Results:
[1] Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11*) def. Andrew Carter (Louisville ’12) 6-4, 6-4
[8] Brayden Schnur (North Carolina ’16*) def. Jared Hiltzik (Illinois ’16) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
Lukas Ollert (Auburn ’15) def. Farris Gosea (Illinois ’15) 7-6(5), 7-6(0)
Wil Spencer (Georgia ’12) def. Lucas Poullain (Florida State Jr) 6-1, 6-0
Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16) def. Winston Lin (Columbia ’15) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
[3] Kaichi Uchida def. Gonzales Austin (Vanderbilt ’15) 6-4, 7-5
[Q] JC Aragone (Virginia Sr) def. [6] Christian Harrison 2-1 ret.
[2] Tim Van Rijthoven def. Guy Iradukunda (Florida State Jr) 7-5, 6-3
 
Quarterfinals
[1] Sekou Bangoura (Florida ’11*) vs. [8] Brayden Schnur (North Carolina ’16*) 
Lukas Ollert (Auburn ’15) vs. Wil Spencer (Georgia ’12) 
[3] Kaichi Uchida vs. Dominik Koepfer (Tulane ’16)
[2] Tim Van Rijthoven vs. [Q] JC Aragone (Virginia Sr)
 
Doubles Quarterfinals
Aziz Dougaz (FSU Soph)/Guy Iradukunda (FSU Jr) def. [1] Hans Hach (Abl Christian ’13)/Kaichi Uchida 6-4, 6-4
[3] Tim Kopinski (ILL ’15)/Alex Lawson (ND ’16) def. Nathan Pasha (UGA ’15)/Korey Lovett (UCF Jr) 7-6(3), 6-4
[4] Robert Galloway (Woff ’15)/Nate Lammons (SMU ’16) def. Andrew Carter (Louisv ’12)/Mico Santiago 6-2, 6-0
Winston Lin (CU ’15)/Brayden Schnur (UNC ’16*) def. Wil Spencer (UGA ’12)/Dragos Ignat (Columbia ’16) 6-2, 4-6, 10-8
 
Semifinals
[3] Tim Kopinski (ILL ’15)/Alex Lawson (ND ’16) vs. Aziz Dougaz (FSU Soph)/Guy Iradukunda (FSU Jr)
[4] Robert Galloway (Woff ’15)/Nate Lammons (SMU ’16) vs. Winston Lin (CU ’15)/Brayden Schnur (UNC ’16*)
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Below are some features that I enjoyed reading/watching/listening to over the last few days. 
 

Pete DeLuca of WUVA News did a nice video piece about what makes tennis head coach Brian Boland so good (click here if video below doesn’t play).  

 

 

 

Nicole Gibbs appeared on a Sports Illistrated podcast hosted by Jon Wertheim where she talked about a number of topics including her time at Stanford. 

 

 

Recent Stanford graduate Krista Hardebeck wrote a nice piece on the ITA’s website about her decision to end her tennis career and what her life looks like after college. 

The Parenting Aces’s Lisa Stone had a Q&A with Auburn women’s head coach Lauren Spencer on the ITA’s website. Stone asks Spencer about her own recruitment process, why she choose Louisiana Tech, how she approaches recruiting at Auburn, and more. Read the full article here.

The Red and Black’s Collin Huguley wrote a nice piece about Georgia freshman Alex Diaz who will be the second of head coach Manuel Diaz’s sons to play for the Bulldogs. 

 

 

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