No. 4 Virginia went to Tulsa, the site of this year’s NCAA Championships, and rolled over No. 26 Tulsa 6-1. Virginia won a pretty tight doubles point by breaking Tulsa’s 5-6 service game at No. 3 to claim the point. Ryan Shane, Collin Altamirano, Mac Styslinger, and Henrik Wiersholm won in straight sets for Virginia at 1, 2, 5, and 6 while Thai-Son Kwiatkowski won a three-set battle over Dylan McCloskey at 3. Tulsa’s Juan Matias Gonzalez earned the lone point for the Golden Hurricane with a straight set win at No. 4.
No. 4 Virginia 6, No. 26 Tulsa 1
“I was pleased with our performance tonight against an extremely-competitive Tulsa team,” said Virginia head coach Brian Boland. “I was particularly pleased with the performances of Mac Styslinger and Henrik Wiersholm. They really stepped up tonight in singles which created tremendous momentum. This team keeps improving with each match. Now we will focus on getting ready to play Oklahoma on Saturday.”
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UCLA played without its No. 1 Mackenzie McDonald, due to him getting a main draw wild card in Indian Wells, but the Bruins still had more than enough to shutout No. 55 BYU 7-0.
The Bruins took the doubles point with wins at 1 and 3 then won five of six singles matches in straight sets with Ryoto Tachi winning the final match at No. 6 in three-sets. Below is the clincher from Karue Sell which officially gave the Bruins the win:
Karue clinches for the Bruins with a service winner! UCLA leads BYU 4-0. #GoBruins #UCLA pic.twitter.com/9pLrkVj0FwUCLA Men’s Tennis (@uclatennis) March 11, 2016
South Carolina’s Gabriel Friedrich tied the match at 1 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Daniel Valent at No. 1 and then Thomas Mayronne put the Gamecocks ahead 2-1 with a 6-3, 7-6 win over Baker Newman at No. 4. Vandy’s Kris Yee tied the match at 2 with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Yancy Dennis at No. 5 but that’d be the last set that the VU would win.
Andrew Schafer came from behind to beat Cameron Klinger 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 at No. 2 and Harrison O’Keefe clinched the Gamecocks win with a 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 win over Rhys Johnson at No. 3. The final match at No. 6, which didn’t start until the match at No. 1 finished, was declared a South Carolina win with Sam Swank leading 5-0 in the first set.
South Carolina also picked up another win earlier in the day when it beat Murray State 6-1.
“Vanderbilt is a tough, well-coached team, and they didn’t give us anything at all. They made us earn everything we got today. Every one of our guys had to dig real deep, and that’s exactly what this team needed to start believing in all of the hard worked they’ve put in. I couldn’t be more proud of the boys today.” – head coach Josh Goffi
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No. 29 San Diego had a successful day as it swept a doubleheader over No. 70 Penn and Arizona. San Diego took the doubles point in both matches and then picked up more than enough singles matches to get the wins. Jaan Kononov got the game ball for winning both of his matches.
“Great effort today despite the loss, said head coach Tad Berkowitz. “It’s nice to have Naoki back in the lineup and he picked up a great win over a very strong player.
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There are several schools that are entering spring break and while some are taking time off others are traveling for out of conference matches. South Florida is hosting the USF Spring Break Tournament with No. 23 Penn State, No. 65 UNC Wilmington, No. 75 Florida Gulf Coast, and Troy coming to town to play multiple matches over the next three days.
There are only two matches this weekend matching up teams inside the top 15 with both taking place on Saturday. Last year’s NCAA Championship match participants, No. 4 Virginia and No. 13 Oklahoma, will meet in a neutral site match in Tulsa. Oklahoma is looking to rebound after a tough loss to Ohio State while Virginia got acclimated to the surroundings on Thursday by winning outdoors at Tulsa.
The other top 15 matchup takes place on Saturday in Evanston as No. 11 Northwestern tries to avenge an early-season 4-0 loss at No. 8 Illinois. Northwestern hasn’t beat Illinois since 1997 so to say they’d be thrilled with a win over the Illini would be a huge understatement. Northwestern’s best route to a win will probably be the doubles point, one of the top three, and two of the bottom three.
There are three several good SEC matches on Friday with the best ones being No. 32 Arkansas hosting No 7 Texas A&M and No. 44 Mississippi State hosting No. 12 Kentucky. Both Arkansas and Mississippi State are up and coming team so I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of them score an upset.
No. 1 North Carolina, who has been kind of quiet since winning the NTIs, goes to Florida for the weekend to play No. 51 Florida State and No. 75 Miami (FL).
I think there’s a really interesting match on Saturday in Ann Arbor as No. 24 Michigan welcomes in No. 31 Columbia. Both teams would like to find a way to get in the top 16 by the end of the season, to host a NCAA regional, and winning a match like this would go a ways towards achieving that goal.
No. 26 Tulsa welcomes in No. 15 USC on Saturday afternoon. It was a little over a year ago that Tulsa pulled off one of the biggest stunners in recent memory when it went to LA and beat No. 1 USC 4-3. USC did beat Tulsa a few weeks later in Indian Wells but you have to figure the loss will still be used as extra motivation for this encounter.
Follow everything at the below live scoring links.
Friday, March 11th
#23 Penn State vs. #65 UNC Wilmington (Tampa) – 10am est – Penn State Twitter
IUPUI at Louisville – 10am est – Live Scoring
#38 Notre Dame at Clemson – 11am est – Live Scoring
#58 Pacific vs. Hawaii (Albuquerque) – 11am est/9am mst – Pacific Twitter
#71 Utah State vs. New Mexico State (Albuquerque) – 11am est/9am mst – USU Twitter
#54 Middle Tennessee State at Florida Atlantic – 1pm est – MTSU Twitter
Santa Clara vs. Grand Canyon (Albuquerque) – 2pm est/12pm mst – Santa Clara Twitter
San Francisco at #63 New Mexico – 2pm est/12pm mst – New Mexico Twitter
#66 Duke at #74 Miami FL – 2:30pm est – Live Scoring/ESPN3
#75 Florida Gulf Coast vs. Troy (Tampa) – 2:30pm est – FGCU Twitter
#67 East Tennessee State at Central Florida – 3:30pm est – ETSU Twitter
UNLV at #52 UC Santa Barbara – 4pm est/1pm pst – UCSB Twitter
UC Riverside at Loyola Marymount – 4pm est/1pm pst – Live Scoring & Video
#7 Texas A&M at #32 Arkansas – 4pm est/3pm cst – Live Scoring
#42 Georgia Tech at Louisville – 4pm est – Live Scoring
Boston College at #9 Wake Forest – 4pm est – Live Scoring/Video & WF Blog
#70 Penn at San Diego State – 5pm est/2pm pst – Penn Twitter
#1 North Carolina at #51 Florida State – 5pm est – Live Scoring
#64 Auburn at #25 Florida – 5pm est – Live Scoring & Video
#72 Tennessee at #50 Alabama – 6pm est/5pm cst – Live Scoring
#43 LSU at #22 Ole Miss – 6pm est/5pm cst – Live Scoring & Rebel Blog
Gonzaga at #35 Washington – 6pm est/3pm pst – Live Scoring/Video
Brown at #36 Drake – 7pm est/6pm cst – Live Scoring
Nebraska at #47 Iowa – 7pm est/6pm cst – Live Scoring
USF Spring Break Tournament – #16 South Florida, #23 Penn State, #65 UNC Wilmington, #75 Florida Gulf Coast, Troy
Saturday, March 12th
#23 Penn State at #16 South Florida – 10am est – Live Scoring
#31 Columbia at #24 Michigan – 11am est – Live Scoring/Video
Oral Roberts at Wichita State – 11am est/10am cst – Live Scoring
#12 Kentucky at #44 Mississippi State – 11am est/10am cst – Live Scoring
Tennessee Tech at #1 Georgia Gwinnett (NAIA) – 12pm est – Video
New Orleans at #33 Rice – 12pm est/11am cst – Live Scoring/Video
#15 USC at #26 Tulsa – 12pm est/10am cst – Live Scoring/Video
#8 Illinois at #11 Northwestern – 1pm est/12pm cst – Live Scoring & Video $
Louisiana-Lafayette at #59 Georgia State – 1pm est – Live Scoring
#65 UNC Wilmington vs Troy (Tampa) – 2pm est – UNCW Twitter
#49 Wisconsin vs. Brown (Des Moines) – 2pm est/1pm cst – Wisconsin Twitter
Fresno State at #20 Oregon – 2pm est/11am pst – Live Scoring/Video
Air Force at Stetson – 2pm est – Live Scoring
Arizona at San Diego State – 3pm est/12pm pst – Arizona Twitter
Michigan State at Boise State – 3:30pm est/1:30pm mst – Live Scoring
#4 Virginia vs. #13 Oklahoma (Tulsa) – 4pm est/3pm cst – Live Scoring/Video
UT Rio Grande Valley at #33 Rice – 6pm est/5pm cst – Live Scoring/Video
Toledo at #24 Michigan – 6pm est – Live Scoring/Video
Detroit at #11 Northwestern – 7:30pm est/6:30pm cst – Live Scoring & Video $
Sunday, March 13th
#65 UNC Wilmington at #16 South Florida – 9am est – Live Scoring
Air Force vs. Army (Orlando) – 10am est – Air Force Live Stream (click away)
#47 Iowa at #5 Oklahoma State – 11am est/10am cst – Live Scoring & Video
#49 Wisconsin at #36 Drake – 12pm est/11am cst – Live Scoring
#66 Duke at #51 Florida State – 12pm est – Live Scoring
#42 Georgia Tech at #27 NC State – 12pm est – Live Scoring & Video
#1 North Carolina at #74 Miami FL – 12pm est – Live Scoring/ESPN3
#39 Virginia Tech at Boston College – 12pm est – VT Twitter
#38 Notre Dame at #9 Wake Forest – 12pm est – Live Scoring/Video & WF Blog
Clemson at Louisville – 1pm est – Live Scoring
Prairie View A&M at #37 SMU 1pm est/12pm cst Live Scoring
#17 Georgia vs. #56 Vanderbilt – 1pm est/12pm cst – Live Scoring
#12 Kentucky at #50 Alabama – 2pm est/1pm cst – Live Scoring
#7 Texas A&M at #22 Ole Miss – 2pm est/1pm cst – Live Scoring & Rebel Blog
#72 Tennessee at #44 Mississippi State – 2pm est/1pm cst – Live Scoring
#43 LSU at #32 Arkansas – 2pm est/1pm cst – Live Scoring
Troy at #16 South Florida – 3:30pm est – Live Scoring
Lamar at #5 Oklahoma State – 4pm est/3pm cst – Live Scoring & Video
#45 Purdue at #14 Cal (Burlingame) – 2:30pm est/11:30am pst – Cal Twitter
#19 Texas at #29 San Diego – 3pm est/12pm pst – Live Scoring
Morehead State at #9 Wake Forest – 5pm est – Live Scoring/Video & WF Blog
Ball State at #56 Vanderbilt – 5pm est/4pm cst – Live Scoring
Northern Colorado at #37 SMU 5:30pm est/4:30pm cst Live Scoring
The Citadel at #50 Alabama – 6pm est/5pm cst – Live Scoring
Northern Kentucky at Louisville – 6pm est – Live Scoring
#47 Iowa vs. Lamar (Stillwater) – 8pm est/7pm cst – Iowa Twitter & Video
Monday, March 14th
Prairie View A&M at #18 Baylor 2pm est/1pm cst Live Scoring/Live Blog/Live Video
#10 Texas Tech vs. Indiana (San Diego) – 3pm est/12pm pst – Texas Tech/Indiana Twitter
Prairie View A&M at #18 Baylor 5pm est/4pm cst Live Scoring/Live Blog/Live Video
Prairie View A&M at #18 Baylor 8pm est/7pm cst Live Scoring/Live Blog/Live Video
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