Texas Rally Stuns Ohio State, New USTA Rankings Released, San Diego Spring Break Tournament

Most of the best tennis is usually reserved for the weekend but there was a barnburner on Wednesday afternoon in Austin between No. 8 Texas and No. 2 Ohio State. Ohio State’s Martin Joyce and Hugo Di Feo cruised to a quick 6-0 win at No. 2 doubles and then about 10 minutes later Ohio State’s No. 1 team of Mikael Torpegaard and Herkko Pollanen would break Texas on the no-ad point for 5-4 and then serve it out for 6-4. The match at No. 3 was abandoned at 5-5. Ohio State would take four of six first sets in singles but none of the matches would finish in straight sets. 

Ohio State managed to put the next two points on the board with wins from Mikael Torpegaard and JJ Wolf at No. 1 and No. 2. Torpegaard came back from an early break down to take the first set 6-4 and then he went up a break to start the second set. Sigsgaard would immediately break back and then he broke Torpegaard’s 2-3 service game and went on to take the set 6-3. The third set stayed on serve until Torpegaard broke for 4-2 and then he held and broke again to take it 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.

JJ Wolf and Texas’s Harrison Scott exchanged breaks midway through the first set but Wolf would break again to go up 4-3 and he’d go to take the opening set 6-4. In the second set, Scott gained the early advantage by breaking for 2-0 but Wolf broke back and held for 2-2. Scott would hold for 3-2, break for 4-2, and then hold for 5-2 and would go on to take the set 6-3. The third set started off the same way as the second except it was Wolf going up 2-0 and then Scott broke back and held for 2-2. Wolf would break for 5-3 and then serve it out to win 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. 

Ohio State’s lead was now 3-0 plus Herkko Pollanen had just broke George Goldhoff to go up 3-2 in the third at No. 4. After Pollanen held for 4-2 it looked like a Buckeye win was imminent however Goldhoff would be the ignitor that sparked the comeback and he’d take the next four games to put Texas on the board with a 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win. 

Over at No. 5, Ohio State’s Martin Joyce had come back from 4-2 down in the third against Leo Telles to even it at 4-4 but after a Telles hold Joyce was facing two match points at 4-5 (30/40). Joyce fought off both match points to hold for 5-5 but Telles quickly held for 6-5. Joyce held to send it to a tiebreak but Telles raced out to a 6-3* lead and closed it out 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) to pull Texas to within 3-2. 

Texas freshman Yuya Ito would be the second Longhorn to come back from a set to win in three set after he held off Hugo Di Feo at No. 3. Di Feo came back from an early break down to take the first set 6-4 and then he went up 3-1 in the second. Ito held, broke, and held to go up 4-3 would end up taking the set in a tiebreak by a 7-4 score. In the third set, Ito broke Di Feo for 2-1 but Di Feo broke back to even it at 2-2. Ito made it three breaks in a row then he held for 4-2 and would go on to win it 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4.

The match was now tied at 3-3 but seconds later Ohio State’s Kyle Seelig would break Texas’s Rodrigo Banzer on the no-ad point to go up 5-4 in the third. Seelig was just a hold away from clinching the win but Banzer wouldn’t go away and fought back to break from 15/40 to tie it up at 5-5. Banzer held for 6-5 and then after going up 40/0 Seelig would hold from 40/30 to send it to a deciding third set tiebreak. Banzer jumped out to a 4-0 lead and led 5-1 at the changeover. After Banzer went up 6-2, Seelig fought off one match point but he wouldn’t fight off another as Banzer closed it out 7-3 to win 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(3).  

#8 Texas 4, #2 Ohio State 3
Mar 15, 2017 at Austin, Texas (Caswell Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #1 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU) def. #12 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
2. JJ Wolf (OSU) def. #70 Harrison Scott (UT) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3
3. #34 Yuya Ito (UT) def. #3 Hugo Di Feo (OSU) 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4
4. George Goldhoff (UT) def. #66 Herkko Pollanen (OSU) 6-2, 4-6, 6-4
5. #108 Leo Telles (UT) def. #111 Martin Joyce (OSU) 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-5)
6. Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Kyle Seelig (OSU) 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3)
Doubles competition
1. #15 Mikael Torpegaard/Herkko Pollanen (OSU) def. Leo Telles/George Goldhoff (UT) 6-4
2. #32 Martin Joyce/Hugo Di Feo (OSU) def. Colin Markes/Yuya Ito (UT) 6-0
3. Christian Sigsgaard/Julian Zlobinsky (UT) vs. JJ Wolf/Hunter Tubert (OSU) 5-5, unfinished
Match Notes:
Ohio State 16-2; National ranking #2
Texas 15-4; National ranking #8
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (2,1,4,5,3,6)
T-3:40

Post-Match Quotes from Texas’s recap

Texas head coach Michael Center
On the win today: Playing Ohio State is just tough. They’ve gotten the best of a lot of people. They don’t lose much, they’re very competitive and they’re just a great, well-coached team up and down the line. Today, I told the guys, “This is a 50/50 match. Who’s going to make that extra move? Who’s going to have the aggressive play to go get it?” The very last point, I told Rodrigo [Banzer], “Go for it. Take that serve.” He did a great job. I talk about team efforts a lot, but that was the ultimate team effort. Even the guys that lost, they went three sets, which keeps the momentum from turning on us too quickly. It was a great win for us today.

On the resilience of the team: Everyone throws that word around. It’s such a coaching word, but it really was a resilient effort today on their part. To be down 3-0 to that team and come back and win is a heck of a resilient effort. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen that happen.

On Banzer’s win: He’s a very good player. He was up 5-0 in the first today, and then the guy got it back. There were some areas where he was really up and down, but at the very end, when he really needed it, I thought he came up with some really great plays. I love having him in that situation and in that moment.

On how the past two top-10 victories prepare them for postseason: If you look at our schedule, counting Cal all the way through April, we have no easy matches. It’s going to be like this every single match. I told the guys, “That was a great win. It was a great effort. We’re going to enjoy it tonight, but tomorrow we have to come back and have a good hit because Columbia is a very good team. They beat TCU. They’re a top-10 to top-15 team, and we’ve got to be professional and build and go forward with this. This isn’t something we can sit around and relish too long. If we keep working match after match, day after day, I do think by May we will have the chance to compete with anyone.

On the crowd today: That was awesome. I just can’t thank the fans enough. For them to show up today at 1:00 on a Wednesday afternoon and pack the place like that was just amazing. You could feel it. I think that was a big difference in the match. It kept the guys motivated. Thank you to the fans and hopefully we will see you guys again on Friday.

Texas sophomore Rodrigo Banzer
On the resilience of the team: The other guys lost a couple of first sets and then they came back, and then they were fighting for the third set. We are a team that fights a lot. It’s not easy to play Ohio State. They have really good players. It was a special match today.

On his emotions down the stretch: I had a pretty bad start in the match. Then I started to play much better. I lost some deuces points. The second set I got more confidence with my game and my service, and I finished playing really well.

On having his teammates there to support him at the end: They helped me a lot. It was four-all in the third set, and I was pretty tired. At one point, I was down 4-5 in the third set and receiving. The other guys came and gave me a lot of support. I played for them, for me, and for Texas.

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There were no changes to the top four in the latest USTA Top 25 though there were some teams that made pretty big jumps. On the men’s side USC jumped four spots to No. 6 while Oklahoma State jumped three spots to No. 5. Cal tumbled five spots to No. 10 after losing all three matches last week and Northwestern fell four spots to No. 23 despite not playing last week. Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and South Carolina dropped out while Stanford, TCU, and Arkansas each entered.

On the women’s side, Georgia and Kentucky each rose five spots to No. 6 and No. 18 respectively while USC fell four spots to No. 19. Texas A&M and TCU fell out while Arkansas and Mississippi State entered. 

USTA Poll Information: there are eight college tennis “experts” on the voting panel, including yours truly, and each of us ranked 25 teams from numbers 1 to 25, with the first-place team receiving 25 points and the last-place team receiving one. When voting we were to consider strength of schedule, Top 25 wins/losses, road wins/losses and personnel adjustments for each program while also basing our vote on performance, not reputation or preseason speculation. For control, the highest and lowest outlying ranking for each team on the ballot was removed. Therefore, the maximum number of points a team can receive is 150. First-place votes were not tallied. 

My ballot can be viewed at this link, Universal Tennis’s ballot is available here and here, and Tennis Recruiting’s ballot is available here. 

The San Diego Spring Break Tournament will get underway on Thursday morning with the University of San Diego and San Diego State co-hosting the three day event which guarantees each team three matches. Below is the schedule for Thursday and I have the bracket down below that.