Select Page

NCAA Singles & Doubles Champions Crowned

by | May 28, 2018 | Blog

Tagged with: , , , , ,

The 2017-18 college tennis season officially came to a close today with a few historic firsts in the finals of the singles and doubles championships. Ole Miss senior Arianne Hartono won the school’s first NCAA Women’s Singles Championship with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Pepperdine sophomore No. 17 Ashley Lahey in a match that was played indoors due to rain. Hartono, who finished the regular season ranked No. 7 and was seeded No. 6, defeated Pepperdine’s top three in the final three matches with the other wins coming over No. 22 Mayar Sherif 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(2) in the semifinals and No. 27 Luisa Stefani 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. Hartono also had wins over Georgia Tech’s No. 14 Paige Hourigan, Washington’s No. 47 Vanessa Wong, and Oklahoma State’s No. 20 Vladica Babic. 

Ole Miss’s only other NCAA Singles Championship came in 2009 when current men’s assistant Devin Britton won the title as a freshman. 

Quotes from Wake’s NCAA Championship Site

Arianne Hartono, Ole Miss (NCAA Singles Champion)
On winning the title:
I am so happy to achieve this title. You play against the best players in the country and to end my senior year like this, Im speechless.

On coming back after trailing early:
In womens tennis, I think one moment, one point, can change the momentum, At 4-3 and 5-4 of the first, I made the plays to take control. She is a hard hitter and indoors, I knew the ball was going to come fast. I just tried to make the rallies as long as possible and when I whenever I get my shot, Ill take it. I wanted to stay consistent and patient and really work each point.

Mark Beyers, Ole Miss head coach
On Hartono:
She is such a great kid. Everything she does, in the classroom and on the court, she has been successful and she will be successful in whatever she does in life. She is going to go out and play on tour and I think she can have a great career there. I would love to have six players like that and have her to have 22 more years of eligibility, because there arent many players like her. 

 

Wake Forest junior Petros Chrysochos defeated his teammate sophomore Borna Gojo 6-3, 6-3 to win the NCAA Men’s Singles Championship which was also the school’s first NCAA Men’s Singles Championship. Chrysochos, who was ranked and seeded No. 4, defeated the top seed UCLA’s Martin Redlicki 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in the semifinals and Ohio State’s No. 6 Mikael Torpegaard 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(2) in the quarterfinals. Chrysochos’s other wins came over Memphis’s No. 36 Ryan Peniston, Kentucky’s No. 50 William Bushamuka, and Portland’s No. 57 Michail Pervolarakis. The final between teammates was just the fourth since 1977 with Stanford’s Bob Bryan defeating Paul Goldstein in the 1998 final, Georgia’s Mikael Pernfors defeating George Bezecny in 1985, and Stanford’s Tim Mayotte defeating Jim Gurfein in 1981. 

Wake Forest’s only other NCAA Singles Championship came in 2002 when Bea Bielik won the women’s title. 

Quotes from Wake’s NCAA Championship Site

Petros Chrysochos, Wake Forest (NCAA Singles Champion)
On playing his teammate, Borna Gojo, in the final:
You saw at the end I didnt celebrate. I didnt need to because the biggest accomplishment was walking on that court with my teammate, my friend. I didnt care which one of us won. It was a team effort that got us both there. Most of the time, when you make it to a final, it is an individual accomplishment, but I felt like Borna helped me get to this point. It was a huge advantage to play this tournament at home
and we made the best of it.

On winning the singles title after winning the team title:
In my mind, I keep thinking about the team accomplishment, the team win we had over Ohio State. I dont think I will look back at this as much as I will the team win. Sharing the moments with my teammates, on the court, being next to them instead of across the net from them, it is so much better.

Tony Bresky, Wake Forest head coach
On having two players play each other in the final:
They handled it amazingly because it is so hard to play your teammate. There is so much respect between the two of them. It is hard for both of them to not want to win, but how they treated each other shows their character as players and people. This final means more than what you would think after winning a team title. It shows how passionate our guys are, how tough they are, how mentally and physically fit they are. To do that after winning the team, at home, when it is so emotionally draining is tough. To be able to refocus and do what those two guys did is incredible.

 

LSU junior Jessica Golovin and freshman Eden Richardson won the school’s first NCAA Women’s Doubles Championship with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Oklahoma State’s Vladica Babic and Sofia Blanco. Golovin and Richardson, who were ranked No. 29 in the final regular season rankings, defeated North Carolina’s No. 33 Alle Sanford and Sara Daavettila 3-6, 6-4, 10-6 in the semifinals and Arizona State’s No. 12 Lauryn John-Baptiste and Ilze Hattingh 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals. Golovin and Richardson also had wins over Ole Miss’s No. 5 Arianne Hartono and Alexa Bortles and FIU’s No. 24 Ulyana Grib and Maryna Veksler.

Quotes from Wake’s NCAA Championship Site

Jessica Golovin, LSU
On winning the NCAA Championship:
I honestly have no words and this is the most amazing feeling ever. I could have only dreamt of something like this. I am so proud of Eden, as a freshman, to have played so well on this stage. This was an unbelievable way to end my junior season and I can wait to get back out on the court next year.

Eden Richardson, LSU
On the straight-set win in the final:
Today, all the hard work we have put in all year and all we learned throughout the tournament came through. We were so focused from the start and we didnt have any dips in our play all match. I am so proud of Jess and what we just accomplished.

Michael Sell, LSU Co-Head Coach
On the duo of Golovin and Richardson:
We had a lot of confidence in this pairing when we put them together. These girls have so much heart and so much courage. This is the first national championship we have won and has done wonders for our program. The hard work and belief that these two had in each other has contributed to a good run in the end.

 

UCLA’s Martin Redlicki and Evan Zhu won NCAA Men’s Doubles Championship in the closest match of the day with a thrilling 6-7(8), 7-6(4), 11-9 win over Ohio State’s Mikael Torpegaard and Martin Joyce. Redlicki and Zhu, who became the school’s 13th NCAA Doubles Champions, fought off a match point on Joyce’s serve at 9-8 in the third set supertiebreak. On that 9-8 point, Torpegaard had a couple of volleys at the net but after the second one Zhu hit a screaming forehand that must have just clipped the line to even it at 9-all. Both Joyce and Torpegaard signaled that the ball was out but the line judge on the baseline called it good. UCLA went ahead 10-9 after Redlicki hit a forehand winner down the line and then the Bruin senior closed it out with a service winner to become the third two-time NCAA Doubles Champion joining fellow Bruins Bob Perry (1953/1954) and Ian Crookenden (1965/1966). Redlicki’s other doubles title came with Mackenzie McDonald in 2016. 

Quotes from Wake’s NCAA Championship Site

Martin Redlicki, UCLA
On finishing his career with a national title:
There is no better way to go out at the end. I was just telling Evan that a month ago we were ranked No. 79 in the country and we couldnt really find our footing. We really hit our stride and got into the tournament as one of the last teams in. We knew we were one of the best teams in the tournament if we got to work, good things would happen.

Evan Zhu, UCLA
On the win in three tiebreak sets:
We had played them at National Indoors, we had an idea of how they played, but they also knew how we played. Every set literally came down to one or two points. We each had set points in the first set before they won it. We won the second set and then we each had match points in the third. We were just able to win the last point.

Billy Martin, UCLA Head Coach
On the victory:
It was just like the match yesterday when that Ohio State team beat our other team. A few points here or there were the difference. It looked like each team had a moment where they looked like they had it, but we caught a line on their match point and we took advantage of ours. It certainly was a fun one to get.

 

To see all the results from the past week you can check out the final brackets down below

Men’s Singles

Women’s Singles

Men’s Doubles

Women’s Doubles