It was a bit of a slow week in women’s college tennis, with a few top teams not even playing this week. The biggest upset of the week went to the USC Trojans, who hosted No.4 Michigan and ran off with a 5-2 win. No. 2 Ohio State had a successful trip out west, defeating No. 9 Pepperdine and No. 35 Arizona State. Below are the results from last weekend for the Top 10:
3/3
No. 1 Florida def. No. 37 LSU 7-0
No. 3 North Carolina def. Clemson 6-1
No. 32 Southern Cal def. No. 4 Michigan 5-2
No. 5 Georgia Tech def. No. 48 Virginia Tech 6-1
No. 6 Auburn def. No. 33 Mississippi State 6-1
No. 9 Pepperdine def. No. 35 Arizona State 4-3
3/4
No. 2 Ohio State def. No. 9 Pepperdine 6-1
No. 8 Texas Tech def. No. 22 TCU 4-0
3/5
No. 2 Ohio State def. No. 35 Arizona State 4-0
No. 3 North Carolina def. Boston College 7-0
No. 5 Georgia Tech def. Clemson 5-2
No. 8 Texas Tech def. No. 29 Rice 4-0
3/6
No. 1 Florida def. No. 20 Texas A&M 4-0 (delayed from 3/5)
You can check out upcoming schedules here on College Tennis Today.
In the professional circuit, there wasn’t as much action as last week. At the International tournament in Acapulco, Mexico, both Jamie Loeb and Jennifer Brady qualified for the main draw, joining Nicole Gibbs.In the challengers, Catherine Harrison had her best week of the year at the 25k in Australia, reaching the quarterfinals and Yuki Chiang reached her first professional semifinal in singles at the 15k in Spain.
$226,750 Abierto Mexicano TELCEL – Acapulco, Mexico
1R: Nicole Gibbs (Stanford ’13*), Jamie Loeb (North Carolina ‘15*), Jennifer Brady (UCLA ‘15*)
Q: Jacqueline Cako (Arizona State ‘13*), Giuliana Olmos (Southern Cal ’16)
Doubles: Gibbs (QF), Cako (1R), Olmos (1R), Caitlin Whoriskey (Tennessee ’10, 1R)
$226,750 Alya WTA Malaysian Open – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
1R: Irina Falconi (Georgia Tech ’10*)
Doubles: Jessy Rompies (Clemson ’15, 1R), Beatrice Gumulya (Clemson ’15, 1R)
$25,000 ITF Clare, Australia
QF: Catherine Harrison (UCLA ’16)
2R: Kristie Ahn (Stanford ’14)
Doubles: Ahn/Harrison (1R)
$25,000 ITF Curitiba, Brazil
Q: Magdalena Ekert (Lynn ’11)
$15,000 ITF Macon, France
SF: Elixane Lechemia (South Carolina ’15)
Doubles: Lechemia (SF)
$15,000 ITF Gwalior, India
1R: Alexandra Walters (Charleston Southern ’14)
Doubles: Walters (SF)
$15,000 ITF Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt
1R: Aleah Marrow (Syracuse ’14)
Q: Kanika Vaidya (Columbia ’16)
Doubles: Vaidya (1R)
$15,000 ITF Manacor, Mallorca, Spain
SF: Yuki Chiang (Pepperdine ’14*)
1R: Andrea Ka (San Francisco ’16)
Q: Andrea Villarreal (Southeastern Louisiana ’16)
Doubles: Chiang/Villarreal (1R)
$15,000 ITF Hammamet, Tunisia
QF: Eleni Kordolaimi (Houston ’15)
2R: Connie Hsu (Penn ‘12*)
Doubles: Hsu (SF)
$15,000 ITF Antayla, Turkey
1R: Daiana Negreanu (Texas Arlington ’11)
Q: Akiko Okuda (Dartmouth ’15), Xue Zhang (Wake Forest ’16)
Doubles: Negreanu (QF), Okuda (1R), Zhang/Shu-Ying Hsieh (BYU Hawaii ‘16*) (1R)
* denotes player turned professional before completing eligibility
Next week, there will be plenty of updates on the professional side, thanks to the BNP Paribas Open and the 15k held at USTA’s National Campus. In college, the week is highlighted by the USTA College MatchDay between No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Ohio State on March 14th at 6:30 pm– which will be broadcasted on ESPN3. Judging off of the lineups for their last match, I have my predictions below:
Doubles
#1 Doubles: No. 15 Brooke Austin (11.46 UTR)/Kourtney Keegan (11.49 UTR) (Florida) vs. No. 31 Sandy Niehaus (11.13 UTR)/Gabriella De Santis (11.13 UTR)(Ohio State)
#2 Doubles: No. 55 Anna Danilina (11.62 UTR)/Spencer Liang (11.01 UTR) (Florida) vs. No. 63 Francesca Di Lorenzo (11.59 UTR)/Anna Sanford (10.61 UTR) (Ohio State)
#3 Doubles: No. 36 Josie Kuhlman (11.29 UTR)/Belinda Woolcock (11.10 UTR) (Florida) vs. Ferny Angeles Paz (10.79 UTR)/Miho Kowase (10.86 UTR) (Ohio State)
Notes: Di Lorenzo/Kowase may team up at No. 1, where they are ranked No. 10 in the nation. Neel (12.34 UTR)/Danilina are ranked No. 11 in the nation and could also team up). Sneed (10.46 UTR)/Angeles Paz are a 4th team ranked for Ohio State at No. 79.
Singles
#1 Singles: No. 19 Belinda Woolcock (Florida, UTR 11.63) vs. No. 1 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State, UTR 12.24)
#2 Singles: No. 14 Ingrid Neel (Florida, 11.80 UTR) vs. No. 61 Anna Sanford (Ohio State, 10.90 UTR)
#3 Singles: No. 22 Anna Danilina (Florida, 11.65 UTR) vs. No. 41 Gabriella De Santis (Ohio State, 10.84 UTR)
#4 Singles: No. 12 Josie Kuhlman (Florida, 12.07 UTR) vs. No. 53 Miho Kowase (Ohio State, 11.74 UTR)
#5 Singles: No. 125 Brooke Austin (Florida, 11.56 UTR) vs. No. 54 Sandy Niehaus (Ohio State, 10.92 UTR)
#6 Singles: No. 32 Kourtney Keegan (Florida, 11.44 UTR) vs. Ferny Angeles Paz (Ohio State, 11.37 UTR)
Reserve: No. 56 Spencer Liang (Florida, 10.83 UTR) and Olivia Sneed (Ohio State, 10.51 UTR)
I expect a lot of tight matches in singles and my predictions – especially on Nos. 4-6 – can flip the other way. Pay attention to those courts as those players bring a big portion of the wins to both programs. The doubles point should be close, but it will be critical, especially for the Buckeyes if they want to pull off the upset. As a proud Buckeye alum, I hope they prove me wrong and we get a classic college tennis match on Tuesday.
* denotes player turned professional before completing eligibility
Joey’s Bio – I got hooked on college tennis as a high school junior and would eventually attend The Ohio State University where I worked at the Varsity Tennis Center for 3 years and was a Student SID for the men’s tennis team my senior year in 2014. Upon graduation, I interned at the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) before serving time as their Digital Coordinator. Aside from CTT, I contribute on the Tennis Recruiting Network and you can follow me on Twitter at @JoeyDillon
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