What was expected to be an exciting Friday of college tennis didn’t disappoint as both Notre Dame and Duke picked up tough hard fought wins over Northwestern and Illinois. Oklahoma went on the road to Winston-Salem and put it to Wake Forest
In Champaign, Illinois had a 17 match home court winning streak get snapped by a game bunch of Blue Devils from Durham. Duke started things off by taking the doubles point but Illinois quickly tied it up as freshman stud Aleks Vukic steamrolled Bruno Semenzato at #4 singles 6-1 6-1. It looked like Illinois was going to take a 2-1 lead with senior Ross Guignon up 6-1 5-0 on Duke junior Josh Levine at #6 singles however Levine wouldn’t go away taking 1 game, then 2, then before you knew it he had it to a tiebreak which he took 7-3. As Guignon/Levine moved into a 3rd set Duke put up a pair of straight wins from Chris Mengel at #5 singles and Jason Tahir at #1 singles to push the lead to 3-1. Tim Kopinski would then finish off his comeback from a set down to defeat Raphael Hemmeler at #3 singles 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 which cut the Duke lead to 3-2. While Illinois’s #2 Jared Hiltzik was up a break in the 3rd it would be Josh Levine that would put the final dagger in the hearts of the Illini comeback with Levine closing out a 0-6 7-6(3) 6-4 win. After the match was clinch Hiltzik was able to close out Nicolas Alvarez at #2 to make the final score 4-3 Duke.
Note: Duke and Illinois have met every year since 1999. Duke has now won 3 of the last 4 in the series after losing 10 straight from 2003-2011.
Duke recap
Illinois recap
#11 Duke 4, #8 Illinois 3
Jan 30, 2015 at Urbana, Ill. (Atkins Tennis Center)
Doubles competition
1. Nicolas Alvarez/Raphael Hemmeler (DU) def. #3 Ross Guignon/Tim Kopinski (ILL) 6-3
2. Jason Tahir/Josh Levine (DU) def. Aron Hiltzik/Jared Hiltzik (ILL) 6-3
3. Chris Mengel/Bruno Semenzato (DU) led Farris Gosea/Aleks Vukic (ILL) 5-3, unfinished
Singles competition
1. #36 Jason Tahir (DU) def. Farris Gosea (ILL) 6-4, 7-6 (9-7)
2. #31 Jared Hiltzik (ILL) def. #18 Nicolas Alvarez (DU) 5-7, 6-4, 6-4
3. #40 Tim Kopinski (ILL) def. #103 Raphael Hemmeler (DU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-0
4. #44 Aleks Vukic (ILL) def. #112 Bruno Semenzato (DU) 6-1, 6-1
5. Chris Mengel (DU) def. Blake Bazarnik (ILL) 6-2, 7-5
6. Josh Levine (DU) def. Ross Guignon (ILL) 0-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4
Match Notes
Duke 5-0; National ranking #11
Illinois 3-1; National ranking #8
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (4,5,1,3,6,2)
T-2:30 A-600
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In South Bend, Notre Dame and Northwestern had 4 singles matches go the distance but in the end it was Quentin Monaghan closing the door on Northwestern as he finished off Sam Shropshire 6-4 in the 3rd at #1 singles this despite letting a 5-1 lead in the 2nd set slip away. The doubles point ended up being huge for the Irish and if the tandem of Cavalschi/Hagar hadn’t rallied from 5-2 down in the tiebreak the outcome of the match very well could have been different.
Notre Dame recap
Northwestern recap
#14 Notre Dame 4, #30 Northwestern 3
Jan 30, 2015 at Notre Dame, Ind. (Eck Tennis Pavilion)
Doubles competition
1. #8 Alex Lawson/Billy Pecor (ND) def. Fedor Baev/Strong Kirchheimer (NU) 6-4
2. #9 Eddy Covalschi/Josh Hagar (ND) def. Alex Pasareanu/Sam Shropshire (NU) 7-6 (8-6)
3. Mihir Kumar/Alp Horoz (NU) def. Quentin Monaghan/Eric Schnurrenberger (ND) 6-3
Singles competition
1. #37 Quentin Monaghan (ND) def. Sam Shropshire (NU) 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-4
2. #108 Strong Kirchheimer (NU) def. #82 Josh Hagar (ND) 6-2, 6-7 (7-9), 7-5
3. Logan Staggs (NU) def. Eddy Covalschi (ND) 6-4, 6-4
4. Eric Schnurrenberger (ND) def. Mihir Kumar (NU) 6-2, 6-2
5. Billy Pecor (ND) def. Fedor Baev (NU) 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-5
6. Alp Horoz (NU) def. Alex Lawson (ND) 6-7 (6-8), 6-1, 6-2
Match Notes
Northwestern 2-2; National ranking #30
Notre Dame 2-1; National ranking #14
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (4,3,6,5,1,2)
T-3:29 A-152
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What was expected to be a tight match between an up and comer in Wake Forest and a top 5 team in Oklahoma never really materialized as OU closed out the doubles point then picked up 3 fairly quick straight sets wins at 1, 3, and 6 singles from Andrew Harris, Dane Webb, and Alex Ghilea. After the match was clinched, the 3 remaining matches all played 10 point super-tiebreaks in lieu of a full 3rd set and it was Wake Forest taking 2 of those 3 to get us to the final score of Oklahoma 5-2.
Oklahoma recap
Wake Forest recap
#2 Oklahoma 5, #19 Wake Forest 2
Jan 30, 2015 at Winston-Salem, N.C. (Wake Forest Tennis Complex (indoor))
Singles competition
1. #20 Andrew Harris (OU) def. Noah Rubin (WF) 6-3, 6-3
2. #14 Axel Alvarez (OU) def. #12 Romain Bogaerts (WF) 2-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-6)
3. #33 Dane Webb (OU) def. Skander Mansouri (WF) 6-0, 6-2
4. #52 Jon Ho (WF) def. Spencer Papa (OU) 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 1-0 (10-8)
5. Christian Seraphim (WF) def. Jose Salazar (OU) 4-6, 7-6 (11-9), 1-0 (10-5)
6. #50 Alex Ghilea (OU) def. #102 Maksim Kan (WF) 6-1, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. #38 Dane Webb/Axel Alvarez (OU) def. Jon Ho/Noah Rubin (WF) 7-6 (7-2)
2. Andrew Harris/Spencer Papa (OU) def. Christian Seraphim/Skander Mansouri (WF) 6-4
3. Keivon Tabrizi/Romain Bogaerts (WF) vs. Florin Bragusi/Alex Ghilea (OU) 6-6, unfinished
Match Notes
Oklahoma 4-0; National ranking #2
Wake Forest 3-2; National ranking #19
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (3,6,1,2,4,5)
T-2:30 A-527
Other notable scores from Friday:
#37 Tulsa def. Wichita State 6-1 – recap
#38 Drake University def. Nebraska 5-2 – recap
#46 Minnesota def. #51 Dartmouth 6-1 – recap
#12 California def. UNLV 5-2 – recap
What’s in store for Saturday – see below and follow along with the scoring links:
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