I think we now know that nothing is going to be easy for anyone in this year’s NCAA Tournament as evidenced by yesterday’s women’s matches and today’s first three men’s matches.
Ohio State and Texas were supposed to start at 9 a.m. this morning but due to the wet courts outside they got put on hold and stayed on hold for a while. It seemed like the plan was to have them play indoors after the conclusion of the TCU/Cal match but the decision was made to move them outdoors so at 12:12 p.m. central time doubles finally begin under grey skies.
Ohio State would take the all-important doubles point for the 31st time in 35 tries when Martin Joyce and Ralf Steinbach pulled out a 7-6(5) tiebreak at No. 2.
Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioState_MTEN) May 20, 2016
Each team three opening sets in singles though for a while it looked like Texas would get four. Adrian Ortiz led Chris Diaz 5-2 at No. 2 but Diaz fought back to take the opening set 7-6(2).
Herkko Pollanen would put the Buckeyes up 2-0 after he took it to Julian Zlobinsky 6-2, 6-0 at No. 5.
Tremendous match for Pollanen as he pushes the lead to 2-0 with a dominant 6-2, 6-0 win. pic.twitter.com/V4QDuQQyVM
Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioState_MTEN) May 20, 2016
Texas senior Michael Riechmann would put the Longhorns on the board with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over Ralf Steinbach at No. 4.
Texas junior George Goldhoff tied the match at 2-2 with a huge 7-6(4), 6-0 win over the top-ranked Mikael Torpegaard at No. 1. Torpegaard came into the match with a perfect 23-0 dual-match record which made the result that much more surprising.
Ohio State senior Chris Diaz put the Buckeyes back in front with a 7-6(2), 6-0 win over Adrian Ortiz at No. 2.
Great match from the captain. Diaz makes it 3-2 Buckeyes with a 7-6, 6-0 win. pic.twitter.com/X5BiGBdpRn
Ohio State M Tennis (@OhioState_MTEN) May 20, 2016
Texas freshman Harrison Scott tied the match at 3-3 with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Ohio State redshirt freshman Hugo Di Feo. Scott led 5-2 in the third and but Di Feo held and then broke to put it back on serve at 5-4. Scott would then break back to seal it (sorry no video).
The match would be decided at No. 6 between Ohio State freshman Martin Joyce and Texas sophomore John Mee. Joyce came into the match with a perfect 19-0 dual-match record while Mee was playing in just his 10th dual match this year due to Rodrigo Banzer’s injury.
Mee took the opening set 6-3 with Joyce countering with a 6-3 second set. Joyce broke Mee to go up 3-2 in the third and then he’d hold at love to go up 5-3. Mee fought off a match point serving at 3-5, 40-40 when Joyce pushed his second serve return long (clip below)
Mee would then break Joyce at love to even it at 5-5 but Joyce broke back on the deciding point to go up 6-5. Mee would break Joyce at love, for a second time, to send it to a match deciding tiebreak. Joyce jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak before Mee won two in a row to make it 6-3. Joyce would close it out on the next point to win it 7-3 and send Ohio State back to the quarterfinals.
2. Martin Joyce/Ralf Steinbach (OSU) def. Adrian Ortiz/Julian Zlobinsky (Texas), 7-6 (5)
3. John Mee/Harrison Scott (Texas) vs. Hugo Di Feo/Matt Mendez (OSU), 6-5 DNF
Order of Finish: 1, 2
Singles
1. #68 George Goldhoff (Texas) def. #1 Mikael Torpegaard (Ohio State), 7-6 (4), 6-0
2. #88 Chris Diaz (Ohio State) def. Adrian Ortiz (Texas), 7-6 (2), 6-0
3. Harrison Scott (Texas) def. #45 Hugo Di Feo (Ohio State), 2-6, 6-2, 6-4
4. Michael Riechmann (Texas) def. Ralf Steinbach (Ohio State), 6-4, 6-4
5. #103 Herkko Pollanen (Ohio State) def. Julian Zlobinsky (Texas), 6-2, 6-0
6. Martin Joyce (Ohio State) def. John Mee (Texas), 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3)
Order of Finish: 5, 4, 1, 2, 3, 6
Ohio State Head Coach Ty Tucker
Opening Statement…
“First thing, I want to give a lot of credit to Coach Center and Texas. They (Texas) have done an amazing job of having a group of young guys ready to play. I was shocked a little bit today, and I spent the first hour of the singles point thinking that we were getting out-competed in a couple of spots, and usually that is unlike the Buckeyes. We played Texas earlier this year and they fought hard then, and it was a great college tennis match today.
On how you prepare for the delay
“You can’t prepare for it. You just have to have good guys that know that they are in the final 16 of the tournament. They are going to crown a winner and you want to keep surviving and advancing, and that’s pretty much what it was. We got out here at 6:30 this morning and everybody was up at 5:45 a.m. and eating breakfast by 6:15 a.m. We finally took the court for play at 12:05 p.m. It’s not going to be easy for anybody. It wasn’t easy for us, Texas or our girls last night who got sent to Oklahoma State at 11:00 p.m. It was nice to win a match when we didn’t compete at our best in my opinion.
On Martin’s performance in clinching the winning point
“Poor Martin, he didn’t know what was going on. All he knew was that he had three Ohio State coaches in his face every point, and so we didn’t give him any time to think for himself. Martin and Torpegaard have been horses for us all year. Torpegaard got beat who’s the No. 1 ranked player in the country. To us it is a tough day. It is probably the hottest day weather-wise that we have played in all year.
Martin Joyce, Ohio State (#6 singles)
On his match
“It was tough for sure, and I feel like in the first set he (John Mee) definitely out-competed me. I got a couple lucky breaks in the second, and was able to get a lead and get to the third. I also felt some of that momentum from the second set carried over to the third set for sure.
On what he was thinking knowing the match depended on him
“It’s tough when you start seeing everybody come over to your court, especially when there was only a couple of people there in the beginning. I just tried to think about it as little as possible, and just focused on what I was doing out there.
Texas Head Coach Michael Center
Opening Statement…
“It was a great match. Ohio State is one of the favorites to win the national championship and we’re a tiebreaker in the third set, last match on to win the match. We came a long way this year. Couldn’t be prouder of these guys, what they did, the commitment they made to each other, the commitment they made to their tennis. It was just a phenomenal, phenomenal effort today and we just came up a little bit short at the end. _________________________________________________________
Top-seeded Virginia got all it wanted from Oklahoma State but in the end the Cavaliers were just a little too strong and pulled out a 4-2 win. Virginia won the doubles point for the 27th time in 31 matches by picking up a 6-2 at No. 1 and a 6-1 win at No. 2.
Virginia took four of six first sets and both Alex Ritschard and Henrik Wiersholm would win in straight sets at No. 4 and No. 6 to put Virginia up 3-0.
Oklahoma State’s Lukas Finzelberg put the Cowboys on the board with a three-set win over J.C. Aragone at No. 5 and then Julian Cash won in three-sets over Ryan Shane at No. 1 to make it 3-2.
Oklahoma State’s Lucas Gerch opened up a 5-2 lead in the third set at No. 3 but Thai-Son Kwiatkowski would fight off a few match points to put it back on serve at 4-5.
Meanwhile at No. 2, Virginia’s Collin Altamirano was starting to pull away from Arjun Kadhe in the third set. Altamirano broke Kadhe at love to go up 2-1 and then he’d hold on the deciding point to go up 3-1. Altamirano would break again for 4-1 and then hold for 5-1. Kadhe would hold for 2-5 but Altamirano served it out from 40-30 to clinch a 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-2 win and send Virginia back to the quarterfinals.
“We came out and played really well in doubles. I thought our energy and execution was great. Credit to Oklahoma State as they hung in there during singles and made it really challenging for us, but in the end we were able to finish the match. We would expect nothing less from a team as strong as Oklahoma State as they have had an incredible year and they are able to compete with anyone in the country. They (Oklahoma State) made it a tough match, and it certainly was a bit challenging for us. Survive and advance. We are happy to be moving on to the quarterfinals.
On playing at a venue where Oklahoma State presence was heavy…
“This team has a tremendous amount of experience, and as you know at this time of the year that is invaluable. Every match is going to be a chal- lenge and you can see that throughout the tournament so far. There are great matches and there is a tremendous amount of parody. We will just continue to focus on what we can control, and we are looking forward to moving on. It is all about just staying composed in those big moments.
Luca Corintelli, Virginia (#1 doubles)
On how important it was to get the doubles point…
“We knew coming in that Oklahoma State was really good in doubles, and they are really good up and down the line. It was crucial for us to come out with a lot of energy after waiting an extra hour to play. I thought that our warm-up was really good. We respected our opponents and executed our game plans really well. Doubles is always some what of a toss up, but we gave ourselves the best chance today with our energy and preparation.
On a turning point in his match…
“To be honest I thought that we came out of the gates really hot, and Ryan was serving really well. I felt like we were really playing our game, and it all happened so fast. I don’t know if there was a specific turning point, but we played on our terms and things went our way. We are fortunate to get the win.
Oklahoma State Head Coach Jay Udwadia
Opening Statement…
“Yeah, I’m still kind of in match mode. That was a very close match there. The guys fought extremely hard. I think this was kind of a depiction of how we’ve played all season. We were just battling. It was no different today. The overall season, I think I told someone once we’re done you can look back and see what we did. We did some good, special things and I like the direction of our program, where we’re going. As a coach you want to keep on building and that’s going to continue to be our goal. But, I want to say a huge thank you for our whole staff here, Nate, my assistant, Nick, our strength coach, our trainers, everyone, its the athletic department that really helps us out as well. I want to send a huge thank you to them and the team, for every match, being there and making a special season for the Pokes.
4 Comments
181
on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:24 pm
Typical Form/Style over Substance by the NCAA. Why were some of the umpire chairs facing West in the afternoon matches? The Chair official has it hard enough already, since the NCAA doesn't allow any sideline help on the match from the pool of officials who are currently off court. They did put an umbrella on some chairs to help with the sun shining directly into the chair ump eyes. Ct. 1 , 3 , 5, 7 all are facing West. Ct. 2,4,6,8, 9, 10, 11, 12 all face East. Some further research indicates that the player benches cannot be moved and that the umpire chair has to be on the same side as the players. So now you have these key 4:00 matches with the sun directly facing the chair umpire. During the regular season all the chairs were facing East in the afternoon. No sun problems!!
181
on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:24 pm
The first thing he said was how good wake was and he congratulated Bresky and the team on their season. He was asked a question about the difference with Harris in this time and he answered the question in detail. What more would you like him to do?
181
on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:25 pm
How gracious a winner is John Roddick. In lieu of remarking how tough a team Wake is, he went into a diatribe about how they lost the first two matches to Wake because their top player was injured. He neglected to mention the situation was reversed today because Wake's #4 was essentially playing crippled. But in Roddick's world this is as gracious as it gets.
181
on Thu March 19, 2020 at 6:25 pm
0-6 in the second set for OSU Torpegaard? <br />Seems unusual for him, <br />Any word re. Cramps again or just a strong performance by Goldhoff?
Typical Form/Style over Substance by the NCAA. Why were some of the umpire chairs facing West in the afternoon matches? The Chair official has it hard enough already, since the NCAA doesn't allow any sideline help on the match from the pool of officials who are currently off court. They did put an umbrella on some chairs to help with the sun shining directly into the chair ump eyes. Ct. 1 , 3 , 5, 7 all are facing West. Ct. 2,4,6,8, 9, 10, 11, 12 all face East. Some further research indicates that the player benches cannot be moved and that the umpire chair has to be on the same side as the players. So now you have these key 4:00 matches with the sun directly facing the chair umpire. During the regular season all the chairs were facing East in the afternoon. No sun problems!!
The first thing he said was how good wake was and he congratulated Bresky and the team on their season. He was asked a question about the difference with Harris in this time and he answered the question in detail. What more would you like him to do?
How gracious a winner is John Roddick. In lieu of remarking how tough a team Wake is, he went into a diatribe about how they lost the first two matches to Wake because their top player was injured. He neglected to mention the situation was reversed today because Wake's #4 was essentially playing crippled. But in Roddick's world this is as gracious as it gets.
0-6 in the second set for OSU Torpegaard? <br />Seems unusual for him, <br />Any word re. Cramps again or just a strong performance by Goldhoff?