Select Page

Sunday Recap: USC Upsets #3 Texas; Mississippi State Fortunate To Get Past Georgia; Ohio State Routs Michigan; Cline Clinches Again For South Carolina

by | Mar 24, 2019 | Blog | 1 comment

Tagged with: , , , , , , , , ,

After a pretty ho-hum Saturday, Sunday brought us several good matches with a few upsets and a few near-upsets. #15/#11 USC pulled off the biggest upset of the day by going to Austin and defeating #3/#1 Texas 4-2. The Trojans grabbed the early lead with doubles wins at No. 2 and No. 3 and then the teams split opening sets in singles. All matches that finished did so in straight sets with USC getting wins from Brandon Holt, Riley Smith, and Mor Bulis at 1, 5, and 6 while Texas picked up wins from Yuya Ito and Harrison Scott at 2 and 4 while Leo Telles led 6-4, 4-4 on 3. 

#8/#12 Mississippi State extended its home winning streak to 24 with a late rally to get past #22/#19 Georgia 4-3. Georgia claimed the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but Mississippi State fought back in singles with four opening sets. Strahinja Rakic and Nuno Borges rolled to straight set wins at No. 4 and No. 1 to make it 2-1 but Georgia’s Trent Bryde would tie it at 2-2 with a straight set win at No. 3. Georgia senior Walker Duncan made it 3-2 with a 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 win at No. 6 and it looked like match at No. 4 was all but over with Georgia freshman Philip Henning serving up 4-6, 6-2, 5-2 (30/0) against MSU senior Trevor Foshey. However on the 30/0 point Henning would go down on the baseline with what appeared to be a pretty severe ankle sprain.

Henning did his best to continue after a lengthy medical timeout but he could barely put any weight on his injured ankle and Foshey quickly won point after point. With the outcome of that match all but certain the focus went to No. 2 where MSU junior Giovanni Oradini led Georgia senior Jan Zielinski 5-4 in the third. Oradini had jumped out to a 4-1 lead early in the set but Zielinski managed to get it back on serve at 4-4. After Oradini held for 5-4 he’d get the pivotal break to close it out 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 to make it 3-3. Moments later Foshey would close out Henning 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 to extend the home winning streak to 25. Unlike most match clinchers there was no celebration in this one with Foshey and Henning hugging at the net while the teams exchanged handshakes. 

#1/#2 Ohio State completed a weekend sweep of the Michigan schools with a 6-1 win in Ann Arbor over #16/#18 Michigan. After taking the doubles point the Buckeyes quickly added three straight set singles wins with JJ Wolf winning 6-2, 6-0 at No. 1, Kyle Seelig winning 6-3, 6-2 at No. 4, and Alex Kobelt winning 6-1, 6-2 at No. 5. The remaining matches were played out with Ohio State getting a straight set win from Tim Seibert at No. 6 and a three-set win from John McNally at No. 2 while Michigan’s lone point came from Andrew Fenty at No. 3. Ohio State has now defeated Michigan 26 straight times dating back to April 2001. 

#10/#7 TCU outlasted #35 Arizona State 4-3 in a three-hour thriller in Fort Worth. ASU took the doubles point and in singles five of six matches would go three sets with the lone straight setter coming at No. 1 where TCU senior Alex Rybakov edged ASU junior Nathan Ponwith 7-5, 7-5. TCU’s Alastair Gray (6-3, 3-6, 6-4) won at No. 2 and Bertus Kruger (6-1, 2-6, 6-4) won at No. 4 while ASU picked up wins from Justin Roberts (4-6, 6-3, 6-1) at No. 3 and Makey Rakotomalala (6-2, 4-6, 6-3) at No. 6. TCU freshman Luc Fomba won the decider at No. 5 singles with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 win over ASU sophomore Tim Ruehl. 

#36 San Diego won the San Diego Spring Classic with a 4-0 win over Memphis on Friday, a 4-1 win over #50 Princeton on Saturday, and then a 4-3 win in the finals over #49 Tulane. The match against Tulane came down to a third set at No. 3 with sophomore Nico Borter edging Tulane’s Luis Erlenbusch 5-7, 6-2, 6-4. 

Nebraska picked up its first top 20 win in over 9 years with a 4-3 win at home over #18/#17 Minnesota. The Huskers won the doubles point and then extended the lead to 3-1 with straight set wins from Toby Boyer and William Gleason at No. 1 and No. 3 while Minnesota got a straight set win from Marino Alpeza at No. 4. Minnesota’s Vlad Lobak cut the deficit to 3-2 with a straight set win at No. 6 but Nebraska sophomore Isaac Nortey would clinch at No. 5 with a 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 win. 

#30 NC State went on the road to South Bend and defeated #14/#23 Notre Dame 5-0. NC State won all but one set in singles against a Notre Dame squad that has now dropped 9 of its last 11 matches. ND played without Alex Lebedev and Richard Ciamarra (#1 and #2 singles) for the fifth match in a row.

 

Other Notable Men’s Results

  • Virginia Tech def. #44 Georgia Tech 4-2
  • #11 North Carolina def. #23 Miami FL 4-1
  • #19 Tennessee won at #33 Ole Miss 4-2 
  • #20 Oklahoma def. #46 South Florida 7-0
  • #41 LSU def. #25 Arkansas 5-2

 

Sixth-ranked South Carolina picked up its second top 25 road win of the weekend with a 4-3 win at #23 Kentucky. South Carolina senior Paige Cline clinched the win on Friday against Vanderbilt and she’d do it again on Sunday with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 win in the only match that went three sets. 

#32 Syracuse came back from 3-1 down to upset #15/#11 Florida State 4-3. Cuse sophomore Sofya Golubovskaya won the match decider at No. 3 singles 3-6, 6-4, 7-5.

In a match that was played before the Texas/USC men’s match, it was #18/#8 Texas edging #16/#18 Kansas 4-3. Texas dropped the doubles point but came back with three straight set wins in singles to go in front 3-1. Kansas evened it at 3-3 with three set wins at No. 4 and No. 5 but Texas junior Bianca Turati pulled away in the third set at No. 1 to clinch with a 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 win over Anastasia Rychagova. 

#5/#6 Vanderbilt edged #31 Florida 4-3 in a match that was played indoors at Vandy’s five-court indoor facility. The Commodores jumped out to a 3-0 lead before Florida answered with a straight set win and a pair of three set wins to tie it at 3-3. The final match to go on court at No. 6 singles ended up being the decider with VU’s Emily Smith winning 6-3, 6-3.

#3/#4 Duke rolled over #22/#20 Virginia 6-1. Kaitlyn McCarthy clinched at No. 5 singles with a straight set win to make it 4-1. 

#26/#23 UCF extended its winning streak to 15 with a 4-1 win at home over #34 Illinois. The Knights took the doubles point and added three straight set wins in singles including a 6-0, 6-0 win at No. 2 singles from Ksenia Kuznetsova.

#1/#2 North Carolina defeated #25/#16 Miami (FL) 4-3 in a match that was clinched at 4-2 when Alexa Graham won 6-4, 7-6(7) at No. 2 singles. All six singles matches finished in straight sets and only the top two slots were very close. 

Baylor snapped a 14-match losing streak with a come from behind 4-3 win at home over #36 Kansas State. The Bears trailed 3-0 before winning the final four matches with Jessica Hinojosa winning the decider at No. 1 singles 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. 

 

Other Notable Women’s Results

  • #2/#1 Georgia def. #50 Mississippi State 4-0
  • #11 Texas A&M won at #46 Arkansas 4-3
  • #29 Tennessee def #48 Ole Miss 4-0 

 

To see other results head to the ITA’s result portal. 

*If there are two rankings listed the first ranking is the ITA ranking and the second is the USTA rankings

1 Comment

  1. 181
    181 on Thu March 19, 2020 at 5:39 pm

    very classy move by MS State. Good win but hard way to win it.