Top seed Vanderbilt knocked off top ranked Florida 4-3 to win the SEC Championship in match that was played indoors at Vanderbilt. Florida played without Josie Kuhlman (#2 singles/#3 doubles) who was sick with a stomach illness but the Gators still rolled through the doubles point to take the early lead. Vandy’s Astra Sharma tied the match with a win at No. 1 but Florida’s Kourtney Keegan made it 2-1 with a win at No. 5. Vandy’s Sydney Campbell pulled out a three set win at No. 2 to even the match at 2-2 but Florida’s Anna Danilina put the Gators back in front with a three set win at No. 4. Vandy’s Christina Rosca tied the match at 3-3 with a three set win at No. 3 so the final match to go on court in the five-court facility would decide the championship. 

Vanderbilt sophomore Fernanda Contreras won the first nine games of the match to go in front of Florida senior Spencer Liang 6-0, 3-0 but Liang came back to take the next five to go up 5-3. Contreras broke Liang from 15/40 with a lob winner to make it 5-4 and then she hit a service winner on the no-ad point to hold for 5-5. Contreras would go on to win the next eight points to close it out 6-0, 7-5 to give Vanderbilt its second SEC Tournament Championship in school history. 

After attending the Conference USA final in Murfreesboro I made it to Vanderbilt for the conclusion of the match at No. 6 –  due to the large crowd I didn’t have the best viewpoint but here was a clip of match point from the gallery. 

#2 Vanderbilt 4, #1 Florida 3
Apr 23, 2017 at Nashville, Tenn. (Currey Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #4 Astra Sharma (VANDY) def. #6 Belinda Woolcock (UF) 6-4, 6-1
2. #11 Sydney Campbell (VANDY) def. #29 Ingrid Neel (UF) 6-1, 4-6, 6-4
3. #96 Christina Rosca (VANDY) def. Brooke Austin (UF) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4
4. #37 Anna Danilina (UF) def. Emma Kurtz (VANDY) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
5. #44 Kourtney Keegan (UF) def. Georgina Sellyn (VANDY) 6-3, 6-2
6. #69 Fernanda Contreras (VANDY) def. #75 Spencer Liang (UF) 6-0, 7-5
Doubles competition
1. #17 Anna Danilina/Ingrid Neel (UF) def. #3 Emily Smith/Astra Sharma (VANDY) 6-2
2. #20 Brooke Austin/Kourtney Keegan (UF) def. Emma Kurtz/Sydney Campbell (VANDY) 6-2
3. #72 Fernanda Contreras/Christina Rosca (VANDY) vs. Peggy Porter/Belinda Woolcock (UF) 4-4, unfinished
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (1,5,2,4,3,6)

Quotes from Quotes from UF Head Coach Roland Thornqvist via UF’s recap
“I thought we once again, payed fantastic doubles. That’s been the highlight all weekend. We have become a much more aggressive team in doubles. It paid off all three days – we won all three doubles points against incredible doubles teams.

“I thought we played well in singles today, too. Vanderbilt, you have to give them credit. They have great ball tolerance and in a couple of matches that really made a difference.

“I was really pleased with our effort, our attitude and the way that we are fighting. I really feel good after this weekend. We have great talent, great fighters on this team. Although we fell short today against a really good Vanderbilt team, I’m really proud of our effort.

“It’s been a long year and we have a stretch here of three weeks when we are going to do everything we can to use those three weeks and maximize every minute of those.”

Between Friday and Saturday four of the top seven men’s teams in the country went down and on Sunday we nearly saw a fifth lose in Champaign. Second-ranked Ohio State hadn’t dropped a doubles point in almost two months but they dropped one today after No. 25 Illinois picked up a pair of 6-4 wins at No. 2 and No. 3. Each team took three opening sets in singles and five of the six matches would finish in straight sets. Illinois junior Aleks Vukic ran over the ITA No. 1 Mikael Torpegaard 6-1, 6-3 and freshman Aleks Kovacevic extended the lead to 3-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 4. Ohio State answered with straight set wins from Hugo Di Feo, Kyle Seelig, and Herkko Pollanen at No. 3, No. 5, and No. 6 to tie the match at 3-3. The match would be decided in a third set at No. 2 between Illinois junior Aron Hiltzik and Ohio State freshman JJ Wolf. Wolf broke Hiltzik to start the third set and would go up 3-1 before Hiltzik held and broke for 3-3. Wolf broke back for 4-3 but Hiltzik broke and held for 5-4. Wolf held and broke for 6-5 but Hiltzik broke back to send it to a tiebreak. Hiltzik won the first point of the tiebreak but Wolf took the next seven to close it out 6-7, 6-4, 7-6(1) to give Ohio State a perfect 12-0 record in the Big Ten.

Highlights from Illinois’s match against Ohio State ?#Illini https://t.co/ZQueDiNLq9

— Illini M Tennis (@IlliniMTennis) April 24, 2017

#2 Ohio State 4, #25 Illinois 3
April 23, 2017 at Champaign, IL (Atkins Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #5 Aleks Vukic (ILL) def. #1 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) 6-1, 6-3
2. #75 JJ Wolf (OSU) def. #32 Aron Hiltzik (ILL) 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-1)
3. #8 Hugo Di Feo (OSU) def. Gui Gomes (ILL) 6-4, 6-1
4. Aleks Kovacevic (ILL) def. Martin Joyce (OSU) 6-3, 6-4
5. Kyle Seelig (OSU) def. Zeke Clark (ILL) 6-4, 6-4
6. #120 Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Noe Khlif (ILL) 6-1, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. Alex Jesse/Aleks Kovacevic (ILL) vs. #27 Martin Joyce/Hugo Di Feo (OSU) 4-5, unfinished
2. Vuk Budic/Aleks Vukic (ILL) def. #13 Mikael Torpegaard/Herkko Pollanen (OSU) 6-4
3. Aron Hiltzik/Gui Gomes (ILL) def. JJ Wolf/Hunter Tubert (OSU) 6-4
Match Notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (1,4,6,3,5,2)

Quotes from head coach Brad Dancer via Illinois’s recap
“This has been our season. We have guys that come out and play well, but there are way too many courts where we are not strong enough down the stretch and I think that was the case today. I think we are better than what we showed today. I think Ohio State is better than what they showed today too. It was weird match where they already have the Big Ten title clinched and are on the backend of a road trip. So, it was really a match, where given all of the logistics, we should have won. We just didn’t take care of business today and it is disappointing.”

Top seeded Rice repeated as Conference USA Champions with an exciting come from behind 4-3 win over the No. 2 seed Old Dominion. ODU’s No. 1 doubles team of Adam Moundir and Javier Jover Maestre got off to a slow start but after dropping the first two games they’d win the next six to take it 6-2. ODU’s No. 3 team of Michael Weindl and Jacob Nicolussi went up an early break at 2-1 and they’d clinch the doubles point with a 6-2 win which put the Monarchs in front 1-0.

Rice came back in singles and took four opening sets but ODU’s Adam Moundir was the first off the court with a straight set win at No. 1 over Jamie Malik. The hard hitting Moundir jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the first set but Malik broke, held, and broke to go up 4-3. Moundir broke back for 4-4 and then went on to win eight of the next nine games to close it out 6-4, 6-1. 

Rice appeared to be on the verge of putting some points on the board but ODU was able to get splits at No. 3 and No. 6 while putting both No. 2 and No. 4 back on serve after going down a break in the second set. 

ODU’s Aziz Kijametovic made it 3-0 with an abbreviated three set win at No. 5. After splitting sets, Rice’s Eric Rutledge broke for 2-1 and then he went up 40/0 on his serve. Kijametovic came all the way back to break on the no-ad point after Rutledge was overruled on an out call on the sideline next to the chair (from my vantage point I thought the shot was out). It was also Rutledge’s third overrule which meant Kijametovic started up 15/0 on his next service game. There was a point earlier in the game where Rutledge started to call a shot out, that I thought was out, but he reversed course because he didn’t want to get his third overrule. Just two games later Rutledge would get overruled for a fourth time (which carries a game penalty) and then he was coded for a verbal outburst which resulted in a default. 

Rice had its backs up against the wall but it came back fighting and one by one would start closing out each court. Tommy Bennett was broke serving for the match at No. 2 up 7-5, 5-4 but after breaking back he served it out for a 7-5, 7-5 win. Less than three minutes later Rice’s Emanuel Llamas pulled out a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win at No. 6 which cut the ODU lead to 3-2. As Llamas won his match, Rice’s David Warren and Jake Hansen were both serving for the match on their respective courts. 

Warren, who clinched the semifinal win over Middle Tennessee, served his match out to take it 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 but Hansen would get broke from 30/40 by ODU’s Jacob Nicolussi to even the second set at 5-5. Hansen broke back from 30/40 and then served it out at love to clinch the championship with a 7-5, 7-5 win at No. 4. Below is match point and below that is about 25 minutes of footage that I shot during the match.

No. 1 Rice 4, No. 2 Old Dominion 3
April 23, 2017 at Murfreesboro, TN (Adams Tennis Complex)
Singles competition
1. #50 Adam Moundir (ODU) def. Jamie Malik (RICE) 6-4, 6-1
2. Tommy Bennett (RICE) def. Michael Weindl (ODU) 7-5, 7-5
3. David Warren (RICE) def. Javier Jover Maestre (ODU) 6-1, 4-6, 6-2
4. Jake Hansen (RICE) def. Jacob Nicolussi (ODU) 7-5, 7-5
5. Aziz Kijametovic (ODU) def. Eric Rutledge (RICE) 6-2, 2-6, 3-3, default
6. Emanuel Llamas (RICE) def. Justin Herrera (ODU) 6-3, 3-6, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. Adam Moundir/Javier Jover Maestre (ODU) def. #50 David Warren/Tommy Bennett (RICE) 6-2
2. Jake Hansen/Eric Rutledge (RICE) vs. Aziz Kijametovic/Jose Nunez Navarro (ODU) 2-4, unfinished
3. Michael Weindl/Jacob Nicolussi (ODU) def. Daniel Warren/Henrik Munch (RICE) 6-2
Match Notes:
No. 2 Old Dominion 19-6
No. 1 Rice 23-7
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (1,5,2,6,3,4)
C-USA Championship Match
Official: Ted Mason
T-2:41 A-53

Quote from ODU’s recap
“It’s hard to find the right words right now, but I couldn’t be more proud of our group today,” said ODU head coach Dominik Mueller. “We poured our hearts out for each other and for ODU. Our nine guys represented our University in a first class manner, like they did all year long. We will come back even stronger next year.”

Top seed Georgia State won its second Sun Belt Conference Championship by coming back from 3-2 down to defeat the No. 2 seed South Alabama 4-3. South Alabama took the doubles point and would eventually lead 3-2 but Georgia State’s Andrei Andrukhou fought off a few match points to win a third set tiebreak 12-10 to even the match at 3-3. Georgia State’s Jannis Koeke trailed 5-2 in the third set against USA’s Olivier Gingras but Koeke came back to win the final five games to clinch the championship. You can rewatch the thrilling final here –> ESPN3 Broadcast

#37 Georgia State 4, #47 South Alabama 3
Apr 23, 2017 at New Orleans, La. (City Park/Pepsi Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #104 Jacobs, Tuki (USA) def. #84 Kennedy,Zackery (GSU) 2-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-3
2. Andrukhou,Andrei (GSU) def. Soria, Juan Cruz (USA) 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (12-10)
3. Koeke,Jannis (GSU) def. Gingras, Olivier (USA) 6-2, 5-7, 7-5
4. Cloes, Loic (USA) def. Coulaud,Quentin (GSU) 6-2, 6-4
5. Acuna,Sebastian (GSU) def. Gonzalez, Lucas (USA) 6-3, 6-2
6. Jaworski,Felipe (GSU) def. Noyon, Pierre (USA) 6-2, 7-5
Doubles competition
1. Cloes, Loic/Soria, Juan Cruz (USA) def. Andrukhou,Andrei/Kennedy,Zackery (GSU) 6-3
2. Gonzalez, Lucas/Jacobs, Tuki (USA) def. Acuna,Sebastian/MacFarlane,Jack (GSU) 6-2
3. Gingras, Olivier/Noyon, Pierre (USA) def. Coulaud,Quentin/Jaworski,Felipe (GSU) 5-4
Match Notes:
South Alabama 23-6; National ranking #47
Georgia State 19-6; National ranking #37
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (5,6,4,1,2,3)
2017 Sun Belt Men’s Tennis Championship Championship Match
#1 Georgia State vs. #2 South Alabama
Official: Dale Williamson T-3:24 A-111

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