Pac-12 Conference (Ojai, CA) April 22-26 – UCLA is defending champion. Participants include USC, UCLA, Cal, Stanford, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Arizona
Wednesday Schedule
#5 Oregon 4, #8 Arizona 1
#6 Washington 4, #7 Utah 0
Thursday Schedule
#4 California 4, #5 Oregon 3
#3 UCLA 4, #6 Washington 0
Friday Schedule – Live Scoring
#1 Stanford def. #4 California 4-1
#2 USC vs. #3 UCLA 4-1
Saturday Schedule:
#2 USC def. #1 Stanford 4-3
Tonight’s Pac 12 Championship match was the rubber match in the USC/Stanford series with each winning at home. Stanford would take the doubles point for the 3rd time this year against USC by winning 8-6 at 1 and 8-5 at 2 while USC won 8-2 at 3.
USC turned up the heat in singles by taking the opening set on every court except #5 although the scoreboard showed De Vroome taking the set at #5 until it was switched a couple of games into the 2nd set. Jonny Wang cut through Nolan Paige like a buzz-saw and racked up a 6-2, 6-2 win at #4 to even the match at 1.
Wang is first off in singles with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Paige. The Trojans are tied 1-1 with Stanford in Ojai #usc pic.twitter.com/4RrgjKZqX9
USC Men’s Tennis (@USCMensTennis) April 26, 2015
Roberto Quiroz would put USC up 2-1 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #3 over David Wilczynski. Video clip is set point in the 1st set. USC’s twitter had a video of match point but the picture was black with audio only.
Boom! Quiroz gets the first set 6-4 at line 3 singles over Stanford #usc #usctennis #trojans #fighton pic.twitter.com/mN0W7syB4O
USC Men’s Tennis (@USCMensTennis) April 26, 2015
David Hsu would even the match at 2 with a somewhat surprising 7-5, 6-4 win over Big Max De Vroome at #5. Hsu had a nice fall then hit a rough patch early in the dual-match season but rebounded to win his last 10 matches. De Vroome’s 9-match winning streak was snapped.
Tom Fawcett would come back from a set down to roll over Yannick Hanfmann 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 at #1. This was the second time in the last 2 weeks that Fawcett came back from a set down to beat Hanfmann. Hanfmann finishes the regular season by dropping his final 5.
Nick Crystal would tie it at 3 with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Maciek Romanowicz at #6. Crystal broke Romanowicz to go up 5-4 and then served it out at love.
Exactly 3 minutes later the match would come to a conclusion as Eric Johnson put the finishing touches on his 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over John Morrissey at #2 singles. Morrissey was the hero in the last meeting when he came back 7-6, 5-2 down to beat Roberto Quiroz but Johnson wasn’t going to let the same thing happen to him. Below is match point courtesy of USC’s Twitter.
Johnson clinches it 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. The Trojans defeat Stanford 4-3 and are the Pac-12 Conference Tournament Champions pic.twitter.com/5qouumpisG
USC Men’s Tennis (@USCMensTennis) April 26, 2015
I also wanted to give props to USC for taking these short video clips – it really helps tell the story when you’ve got video to go with it.
Your 2015 #pac12ten men’s team champions: USC! pic.twitter.com/O9meoMpfz0
Pac-12 Conference (@pac12) April 26, 2015
Order of finish: 4, 3, 5, 1, 6, 2*
Friday Results:
A day after Cal won a 4-3 thriller over Oregon they’d have tables turned on them and drop a tight one to Stanford 4-1. Stanford got the doubles point by winning big at #1 and then taking a tiebreak at #2 (haven’t actually seen the TB score anywhere and I wasn’t paying attention during the doubles point).
Stanford got a quick 6-1, 6-3 win from David Hsu at #6 but Cal would take the opening set on the other 5 courts and would go up break leads in the 2nd at 3, 4, and 5. Oskar Wikberg would close out Robert Stineman 6-4, 6-3 at #4 to make it 2-1 but Cal just couldn’t shut the door anywhere else.
Greg Bayane led David Wilczynski 7-5, 5-2 at #3 and had a slew of match points in the next 2 games but Wilczynski weathered the storm and took 5 straight games to take the set 7-5. As a side note Wilczynski led the first set 5-3 and then proceeded to lose 7 straight games.
Billy Griffith clinched Cal’s win over Stanford last week and it looked like he was going to ring up another win today when he led Nolan Paige 6-2, 5-3 but Paige wouldn’t go away. Paige fought off multiple match points to get the second set to a tiebreak then took the TB 7-3.
Over at #2 singles, Stanford’s John Morrissey battled back from a set down to take out Filip Bergevi 3-6, 6-2, 6-3. Morrissey broke Bergevi to go up 5-3 in the 3rd then served it out from 40-15 to put Stanford up 3-1. Bergevi was on the court for close to 3 hours yesterday so fatigue may have played a role in this one.
Stanford’s Tom Fawcett also battled back from a set down and would serve for the match and team win up 5-3 in the 3rd but Andre Goransson would break him from 30-40 to put it back on serve. Fawcett would then have a match point on the Goransson serve but Andre held for 5-5. Fawcett then fell behind 0-30 on his 5-5 service game but would win 4 straight points to hold for 6-5.
With the match at #1 headed towards a tiebreak it looked like Cal was finally going to get that 2nd point with Billy Griffith once against nearing the finish line with a 5-3 lead in the 3rd. However he’d be unable to serve it out with Paige breaking him at love to knot the match at 5. Paige would hold for 6-5 and would then jump out to a 15-40 lead and would ultimately break from 30-40 to clinch the Stanford win.
The match at #1 was in a 3rd set tiebreak tied at 3-3 and Bayane was up 3-0 in the 3rd at #3.
“It was a tough match today that was well within our grasp, Cal head coach Peter Wright said. “We put ourselves into good positions on almost every court, and I think we played some great tennis. Overall, I think we’re very close to the level we need to be playing at the NCAAs in two weeks. Our guys are super excited about what lies ahead for us in the postseason.
Order of Finish: 6, 4, 2, 5
In the night cap in Ojai it was USC defeating UCLA 4-1. USC crushed UCLA in doubles winning 8-0 at #1 and 8-4 at #2 but UCLA would come back in singles and take the opening set at 1, 2, 3, and 5. While Mackenzie McDonald finished his match at #1 in straight sets none of the other guys could do the same as USC would rally to force 3rd sets at 2, 3, and 5. USC’s Nick Crystal cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 win at #6 and Jonny Wang had just enough to beat Karue Sell 6-4, 7-6 at #5. With both #2 and #3 singles deep in the 3rd set it would be Max De Vroome that would deliver the final blow for USC as he knocked off Austin Rapp 6-7, 6-1, 6-3 at #5 to end USC to the Championship against Stanford.
UCLA recap
USC recap
Thursday Results:
So close, yet so far away – that’s how Oregon has to feel after todays match. The Ducks jumped on Cal early by taking the doubles point with wins at 2 and 3 and then took 4 opening sets in singles. Cormac Clissold was the only Duck to finish in straight sets with a 6-3, 6-2 win at #5, which put Oregon up 2-0, but then Billy Griffith put Cal on the board with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #6. The 4 other singles matches would each go the distance with the person losing the 1st set winning in the end. There were so many twists and turns in each match along the way that it got tough to keep track of.
Cal’s Andre Goransson would even the match at 2-2 with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 win at #1 singles over Daan Maasland. Goransson sprinted out to a 5-2 lead in the 3rd set and served for the match but Maasland would break, hold, and break again to even the match up at 5-5. Goransson would then break back and serve it out to finally secure the win.
Cal’s Oskar Wikberg would put Cal ahead 3-2 when he completed his comeback at #4 singles with a 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 win over Jayson Amos. It looked like Amos was going to finish off Wikberg in straight sets when he led 6-3, 5-3 but Wikberg held for 4-5, broke Amos serving for the match to even it at 5, then held serve for 6-5. If I remember correctly Amos had at least 1 match point on the 5-4 serve game. Amos would then come back from 0-40 down to hold and send it to a tiebreak but Wikberg would take the final 2 points of the TB to take it 7-5 and send the match to a 3rd set. Wikberg broke Amos to go up 2-1 in the 3rd but Amos would break right back and then hold to go up 3-2. After 3 straight holds, Wikberg would break Amos to go up 5-4 and then he’d serve it out to put that 3rd point on the board.
Oregon’s Daniel Sardu would tie it up at 3-3 with a come from behind 2-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(5) win over Filip Bergevi at #2 singles. It looked like Bergevi would close this one out in straight sets when he led 6-2, 5-4 but Sardu fought off a slew of match points to hold for 5-5 and would ultimately push the 2nd set to a tiebreak. Bergevi led 6-5 in the tiebreak but Sardu would take the final 3 points to take it 8-6. Sardu jumped out a 5-2 lead in the 3rd before Bergevi charged back to tie it at 5-5. Each would hold 1 more time to send it a tiebreak then Sardu got the early mini-break and held on to take it 7-5.
The final remaining court left was at #3 singles as Cal’s Greg Bayane opened up a 4-0 lead in the 3rd over Oregon’s Simon Stevens. Before we proceed forward lets go back to the 2nd set where it looked like Stevens was going to close out Bayane in straights after leading 6-4, 5-3. Bayane held for 4-5 then would break Stevens in a lengthy service game that had at least 5 deuces with Stevens having at least 2 match points (may have been 3). Bayane held for 6-5 then Stevens held to send it a tiebreak but the TB was all Bayane as he cruised 7-2. Jumping back to where we started, after Bayane held for 4-0 Stevens would finally snap out of his slump and hold for 1-4. Bayane quickly held for 5-1 and then had 2 match points on the Stevens’ serve before Stevens held for 2-5. Bayane went up 40-15 on his 5-2 service game but Stevens got it back to deuce. Bayane got the next point to give himself another match point but then Stevens would take the next 3 points to break for 3-5. Stevens would then go down 30-40 on his service game but would fight back to hold for 4-5. It just seemed like this one was heading for a dramatic 3rd set tiebreak but Bayane finally righted the ship and would hold from 40-15 to propel Cal into Friday’s semifinals against rival Stanford.
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 23rd For more details about UTR check out their website.
Order of Finish: 6, 5, 1, 4, 2, 3
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
Wednesday Results:
Order of Finish: 3, 2, 4
Latest Comments