Ninth-ranked Texas A&M (15-4) and No. 25 Mississippi State (11-3) were originally supposed to play on Friday evening but due to the potential for rain the match was moved up to noon central. Last weekend Texas A&M split road matches with a loss to Arkansas and a win over Ole Miss while Mississippi State swept its matches against Kentucky and Tennessee. Texas A&M hasn’t lost a conference match at the Mitchell Tennis Center in over three years (3/15/13 – LSU) and I don’t see them losing today either.

The BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Challenge gets underway today in Indian Wells with No. 11 Illinois (7-6) taking on No. 21 Baylor (11-4). Baylor is coming off a Monday triple-header against Prairie View A&M (yes they won all three) while Illinois is coming off a tough 4-3 loss at Northwestern. Both teams have a fairly similar makeup with a stronger top three but things start to trail off after that. I don’t see Baylor winning this match without the doubles point but even if they take the point a win is still no guarantee. Illinois should win at 2, 3, 4, and probably 6 and the others will be toss-ups so a lot will have to go Baylor’s way for them to win.

Twenty-fourth ranked Florida (7-4) hosts possibly the hottest team in the SEC when No. 13 Arkansas (13-3) comes to town for a 5pm meeting. Arkansas has won 3 straight and 10 of its last 11 while Florida is coming off a shutout win over Auburn. Florida is a perfect 5-0 at home and has outscored its opponents by a 34-1 score so I think you can throw the teams rankings out the window in this one. I look Florida to pull off the mild upset by taking the doubles point and picking up wins from Orkin, Perez, and Watson at 2, 3, and 5.

Play continues in San Diego at the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic with No. 8 Texas Tech (17-2) and No. 36 Princeton (12-4) meeting in one semifinal while No. 34 San Diego (9-6) hosts No. 28 Tulane (10-3) in the other. Princeton overpowered Memphis yesterday 4-2 while Texas Tech gutted out a 4-3 win at San Diego State. Texas Tech is the more talented team, and should win 4-1 or so, but if it doesn’t get better performances out of the middle of its the lineup it could be in for a long day. San Diego and Tulane would be a toss-up on a neutral court but I think the home court advantage puts the Toreros on the right side of a 4-3 win.

Another Friday match to keep an eye on is No. 23 Florida State at No. 40 Virginia Tech. FSU is coming off a tremendous week that saw the Noles upset then No. 1 North Carolina but winning on the road is going to be a different story. Virginia Tech is a lot better than the 40th ranked team and I think they’ll be singing Hokie, Hokie, Hokie, Hy, Tech, Tech, VPI after they pull off the mild upset.

The top matches on Saturday are USC and Oklahoma in Indian Wells and Pepperdine and Oklahoma State in Malibu. The Waves are coming off a nice win over Memphis while the Cowboys have won ten straight. On paper Oklahoma State should roll but I have a feeling this is going to be a fight to the finish and I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Pepperdine pull the upset.

Sunday’s schedule is pretty loaded and I’ll be in Athens for the top-20 showdown between No. 19 Georgia and No. 4 Ohio State. I’ll have a preview of that one and a few others on Sunday morning.

Sit back and enjoy the weekend and track all these great matches at the below live scoring links.

Friday, March 18th