ZooTennis

Finally and Again: Virginia Men and Stanford Women Claim NCAA Division I Team Titles in 4-3 Thrillers

2013-05-21T23:50:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

For the Virginia men, it was a long delayed first title, for the Stanford women, it was title number 17, but both teams were deliriously happy to come out on the winning end of 4-3 decisions Tuesday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center at the University of Illinois.

No. 2 seed Virginia's win over top seed UCLA was possible only when Adrien Puget's winning backhand volley on match point was negated by his toe touching the net as he completed the follow through on his shot up 5-3, 40-30 in the third set against Mitchell Frank in the last match on court.

The chair umpire made the call and both the referee and assistant referee confirmed it, but that consensus didn't make it any easier for UCLA head coach Billy Martin.

"We had it," said Martin, who in his 20 years as UCLA head coach couldn't recall a similar incident. "I guess he touched the net. We'd started to celebrate ourselves. I'm sure they didn't make a wrong call, but wow, it's just hard to imagine we were that close and didn't get it. I've been in the other position, but it's a tough pill to swallow in this particular match, with its importance."

The match had come down to Puget and Frank on court 3 after three hours of play had provided few clues on which was the better team.

Virginia took the doubles point with Jarmere Jenkins and Mac Styslinger defeating Dennis Novikov and Marcos Giron 8-2 on court 1 and Justin Shane and Julien Uriguen earning a 8-5 win over Alex Brigham and Clay Thompson at court 3, with UCLA leading on court 2 when Shane and Uriguen secured the point for Virginia.

Shane, who had lost both his matches in Virginia's previous two NCAA finals, and was serving for the match against USC's Yannick Hanfmann last year, only to lose the clinching match in a third set tiebreaker, wiped away those bad memories with a quick 6-2, 6-2 win over Thompson on court 5.

UCLA had taken the first sets on three courts, with Giron leading Alex Domijan on 2, Dennis Mkrtchian getting up on Styslinger on 4 and Puget blowing past Frank on 3 in the first set 6-0.

Uriguen had given Virginia the first set at 6 against Karue Sell, and when Jenkins won a first set tiebreaker in an extremely well-played opening set with Novikov, the Cavaliers also had three first sets.

But under the pressure of a national championship, and with the quality of the players on the courts, easy two-set matches were unlikely. UCLA pulled even when Mkrtchian defeated Styslinger 6-4, 6-3, and Marcos Giron produced his second consecutive outstanding match in as many days, beating Alex Domijan 6-4, 6-4.

Frank had shaken off the nerves and taken a 4-2 lead in the second set over Puget, with the hundreds of Virginia fans who had made the trip to central Illinois starting a chant of "Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell, Mitchell," when he earned a break point for 5-2. He converted it, but couldn't serve out the second set there, although he did squeeze through a deuce game, saving two break points, to win the second set 6-4.

Meanwhile, Jenkins had taken command against Novikov, who began to miss some of the shots he had made throughout the first set. Serving at 3-5, Novikov got down 0-40, saved four match points, but double faulted on his fifth to give Jenkins the 7-6(3), 6-3 win and the Cavaliers a 3-2 lead.

Sell had earned a third set with Uriguen at 6, so UCLA was still very much in the match. Uriguen, unable to hold serve even once in the final set, trailed 4-0 and 5-1, and Sell finished the match off with yet another break for a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory and a 3-3 score.

Just as Sell collected his victory, Frank, serving down 3-4, was broken, looking nervous despite his reputation as unshakable competitor. He netted a forehand on break point to give Puget an opportunity to give UCLA their 17th title and their first since 2005, and the junior from France worked his way to that team match point before the ill-fated volley winner that wasn't.

Understandably shaken by the loss of that team match point, Puget made two errors and Frank was back on serve, sending the fans, now all crowded behind court 3, into a cheering frenzy. Frank was down 15-30 in the next game, but Puget missed a passing shot and hit two shots long, and it was 5-5.

The "UVA, UVA" chants began, and Puget, up 15-0 at 5-5, lost the next four points. After the changeover, Puget lost three more points, giving Frank three match points, but the drama was far from over.
On the first match point, Frank called a ball on the baseline long, but was overruled by the chair umpire. On the second match point, Frank's teammates on the sidelines, sure he had secured the win with a shot that Puget somehow got back, yelled out during the point, and Frank netted the next shot. He asked for a hindrance, but since it was his own teammates, the referee did not agree, and Frank was down to his last match point. He finally ended a half dozen years of frustration for Virginia, when Puget sent a forehand wide, setting off a wild celebration on the court and in the stands.

Puget went to the bench and collapsed into sobs, while Virginia head coach Brian Boland and assistant coach Andres Pedroso shared a long, quiet embrace.

"It's been a long journey," Boland said. "We've been here so many times, lost in close national championships the last two years. People kept telling me, colleagues and friends, that it's going to happen, it's going to happen, and all I've ever told the guys, is that we've got to give ourselves a chance. There's no guarantees. It's sports, and we gave ourselves a chance, and this time it worked out for us."

Despite the wrenching nature of the loss, Martin could still appreciate the joy Virginia was experiencing.

"I think I lost five or six finals before I got my one," said Martin, who was an assistant at UCLA before taking over the program in 1994, and was quick to empathize with the disappointment Virginia had experienced the past six years. "There's some consolation there. But does the joy of that overtake the pain of losing this? No."

Boland also made a point of recognizing the former players who didn't win a national title, but were instrumental in taking the program to prominence.

"Losses can be painful, and every player deals with it differently," Boland said. "This is a win for all those former players who didn't have this moment, but they got us here. Somdev Devvarman, who meant so much to our program, Sanam Singh, Michael Shabaz, so many others, who put in such a great effort and it just never turned their way. Today was our day. People were telling me over the years, your day will come. And it finally happened."

Senior Jarmere Jenkins, who was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, could sympathize with Puget's misfortune, while acknowledging his own emotions in ending his career with a national championship.

"They played their hearts out today and that match point that they had was unfortunate," Jenkins said. "But Mitchell's the hardest worker on the planet, and when you work hard, you can expect good things to happen."

"I had to let go a couple of tears earlier," Jenkins said. "This feels great. I can't put it in words. I remember making my decision to come to UVA, sitting in a room by myself, wondering if I made the right decision. As these four years have gone by, it's probably the best decision I've ever made in my life. Not only have I gotten a lot better as a tennis player, but I've grown as a person. Losing those matches the past few years, coming so close, we were hurt, but this is a special group of guys. We deserved more than anything to win it today."

No. 2 Virginia 4, No. 1 UCLA 3
1 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #3 Jarmere Jenkins (UVA) def. #27 Dennis Novikov (UCLA) 7-6(3), 6-3
2. #25 Marcos Giron (UCLA) def. #2 Alex Domijan (UVA) 6-4, 6-4
3. #39 Mitchell Frank (UVA) def. #22 Adrien Puget (UCLA) 0-6, 6-4, 7-5
4. #75 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) def. #28 Mac Styslinger (UVA) 6-4, 6-3
5. Justin Shane (UVA) def. #119 Clay Thompson (UCLA) 6-2, 6-2
6. Karue Sell (UCLA) def. Julen Uriguen (UVA) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2

Doubles
1. #4 Jenkins/Styslinger (UVA) def. #42 Giron/Novikov (UCLA) 8-2
2. #77 Puget/Sell (UCLA) vs. #21 Domijan/Frank (UVA) 7-4*
3. #89 Shane/Uriguen (UVA) def. Brigham/Thompson (UCLA) 8-5

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (5,2,4,1,6,3)
* = unfinished

All-Tournament Team
No. 1 Singles: Blaz Rola, Ohio State
No. 2 Singles: Marcos Giron, UCLA
No. 3 Singles: Mitchell Frank, Virginia
No. 4 Singles: Devin McCarthy, Ohio State
No. 5 Singles: Garrett Brasseaux, Georgia
No. 6 Singles: Karue Sell, UCLA

No. 1 Doubles: Jarmere Jenkins/Mac Styslinger, Virginia
No. 2 Doubles: Adrien Puget/Karue Sell, UCLA
No. 3 Doubles: Justin Shane/Julen Uriguen, Virginia

Most Outstanding Player
Jarmere Jenkins, Virginia

=============================================

Of all the adjectives used to describe the Stanford women's tennis program, underdog is not one of them. Their 4-3 win over Texas A&M Tuesday evening gave the Cardinal their 17th title, while Florida, their nearest rival, has six.

But entering the tournament as the No. 12 seed, Stanford defeated the No. 5, No. 4, No. 1 and No. 3 seeds, becoming the lowest seed to ever win an NCAA team title, and proving that reaching their peak at the right time and staying healthy could put them back in the winner's circle again.

"This has been a great team for a long time," said Stanford head coach Lele Forood. "A lot of them are juniors and seniors, who contributed heavily to this win, and for Kristie Ahn to clinch, it's just poetic justice. She's been the missing player for the last two years at the end of the season, and we weren't able to get it done without her, and when we got her back, we got it done."

Ahn, who suffered an ankle injury and couldn't compete in 2011 and barely played due to assorted injuries in the months prior to the 2012 NCAA tournament, trailed Cristina Stancu 2-0 in the final set of the last match on Tuesday night.

She roared back to win the final six games of the match, earning a 7-5, 4-6, 6-2 victory that gave Stanford a 4-3 decision over a Texas A&M team making its first appearance in a national final.

Stanford took the doubles point on court 3, with with Natalie Dillon and Krista Hardebeck defeating twins Paula and Ines Deheza 8-5, after Texas A&M had won on court 1, and Stanford on court 2.

As they had done against UCLA in the semifinals, Texas A&M came out strong in the singles, taking four first sets, while Stanford could manage only two.

The most surprising first set was at line 1, where 2012 NCAA champion Nicole Gibbs had lost 6-0 to Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar, and was down 2-0 in the second set.

Forood, who doesn't spend much time coaching on court, made a brief visit to the bench after the first set and listened more than she talked.

"She said, I have to win this match," Forood said. "I have to do some things differently, because I have to win this match. And so it was her urgency and I think she found a little more energy. I think she felt a little sluggish in her legs early in the match and her opponent was playing beautifully, extremely well. But she found some energy, was able to plug away, get the momentum in her favor and things got rolling for her after that."

Gibbs wanted to provide a lift to her teammates, and while she had confidence in them, she knew her point was crucial.

"I've had a leadership role on this team, and it's really hard to see your No. 1 player go down 6-0, 6-0," said Gibbs. "We saw that yesterday with Florida, when I was lucky enough to rattle a couple off of Embree. That's a tough blow to come back from, so I think just sitting there thinking about the impact I was having on my team from losing just made me dig a little bit deeper, get through being tired, being exhausted from all the energy we've been putting into this week as captains, and just push through. Evidently it worked. It was the weirdest match I've ever played in my life, but I'll take it today."

After losing the first eight games of the match, Gibbs won the next 12, and although the result, a 0-6, 6-2, 6-0 win for Gibbs, was an unusually abrupt shift in games won, the points remained well-played and entertaining, with errors rare and winner frequent.

Prior to Gibbs' comeback, Stacey Tan had posted Stanford's second point with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Ines Deheza, making it 3-0, but the Cardinal was down a set or in the third in the four other matches, with Stancu taking the second set from Ahn at line 2.

Anna Mamalat gave the Aggies their first point with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Ellen Tsay at 5, and Nazari Urbina came back from a break down in the second set to earn a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory and cut the deficit to 3-2. Meanwhile Stefania Hristov had built a 4-0 lead in the third set over Dillon court 6, and Ahn began to realize that it may come down to her.

"I was looking around and I thought we could get some third sets going on at 3 and 5, and Dilly was in the third set set," said Ahn. "So I was not complacent, but thinking we were in a good place, and all of a sudden it dawned on me that, oh, this could come down to me."

Ahn could sense that Stancu was nervous at that prospect.

"She started shanking balls, and pushing a little bit," Ahn said. "But I was like, this is it. Watching Krista last night was so inspiring, and I kind of drew from that. I can't tell you the amount of good energy I felt, how absurd that it was coming down to a 4-2, 4-3 match in the finals, it's crazy. And I started smiling uncontrollably. Life does not get more absurdly wonderful than this."

By the time Hristov completed her 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 victory over Dillon, Ahn was up 5-2 and serving for the match and the title. She saved two break points for deuce, when Dillon got a point penalty for throwing her racquet after her loss to Hristov. The penalty would be assessed to Ahn, but not until the next game, and as it turned out, there wouldn't be another one. Stancu hung tough, saving one match point when Ahn netted a forehand, and a second on some stellar defense, handling Ahn's massive forehand time after time and finally drilling one of her own at Ahn.

But on the next point, Stancu's slice drifted long, and for match point number three, Ahn produced an excellent first serve, which Stancu got a racquet on, but couldn't get into the court.

The celebration was exuberant and the satisfaction immense for both teams.

"There's no question the eight ladies on our team are awful good," said Howard Joffe, in his second season at Texas A&M. "In respect to today's match, I certainly don't feel we played our very best, and we still came within a couple points here and there of actually winning the title. We have a very good team."

For Gibbs, who returned to school this year with the goal of winning the team title, securing it was much more fulfilling that her individual titles in singles and doubles in 2012.

"It means so much more to me than any of the individual titles last year," Gibbs said. "Obviously it's awesome to have all three under my belt, but this was the one I wanted. I came back to school after having such a good year to chase after this title, and having it just means so, so much. It's everything I ever could have wanted. I'm so happy I got it."

===========================================
No. 12 Stanford 4, No. 3 Texas A&M 3
5 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #13 Nicole Gibbs (STAN) def. #4 Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) 0-6, 6-2, 6-0
2. #25 Kristie Ahn (STAN) def. #68 Cristina Stancu (TAMU) 7-5, 4-6, 6-2
3. #52 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. #14 Krista Hardebeck (STAN) 6-3, 7-6(3)
4. #103 Stacey Tan (STAN) def. Ines Deheza (TAMU) 7-5, 6-3
5. Anna Mamalat (TAMU) def. #92 Ellen Tsay (STAN) 6-1, 7-5
6. Stefania Hristov (TAMU) def. Natalie Dillon (STAN) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1

Doubles
1. #18 Stancu/Hristov (TAMU) def. #8 Ahn/Gibbs (STAN) 8-3
2. #28 Tan/Tsay (STAN) def. #49 Wen/Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) 8-4
3. Dillon/Hardebeck (STAN) def. Deheza/Deheza (TAMU) 8-5

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (4,1,5,3,6,2)

All-Tournament Team
No. 1 Singles: Nicole Gibbs, Stanford
No. 2 Singles: Kristie Ahn, Stanford
No. 3 Singles: Nazari Urbina, Texas A&M
No. 4 Singles: Stacey Tan, Stanford
No. 5 Singles: Olivia Janowicz, Florida
No. 6 Singles: Caroline Hitimana, Florida

No. 1 Doubles: Cristina Stancu/Stefania Hristov, Texas A&M
No. 2 Doubles: Stacey Tan/Ellen Tsay, Stanford
No. 3 Doubles: Krista Hardebeck/Natalie Dillon, Stanford

Most Outstanding Player
Nicole Gibbs, Stanford

ITA National Award Winners

2013-05-21T14:03:00.000-04:00

At today's luncheon at the University of Illinois Colonnades Club above the football stadium, the ITA announced its National Award winners. Players of the Year will be named later.

MEN:
ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship-Henrique Cunha, Duke
Farnsworth/ITA Senior Player of the Year-Jarmere Jenkins, Virginia
ITA Rookie Player of the Year-Romain Bogaerts, Mississippi State
ITA Player to Watch-Mikelis Libietis, Tennessee
ITA/Rafael Osuna Award-Sebastian Fanselow, Pepperdine
ITA Assistant Coach of the Year-Chris Woodruff, Tennessee
ITA Coach of the Year-Sam Winterbotham, Tennessee
NCAA Elite 89 Award-Victor Valente, Georgia State

WOMEN:
ITA/Arthur Ashe Award for Leadership & Sportsmanship-Hannah Duke, Air Force Academy
ITA Senior Player of the Year-Lauren Embree, Florida
ITA Rookie Player of the Year-Julia Elbaba, Virginia
ITA Player to Watch-Ema Burgic, Baylor
ITA/Cissie Leary Award for Sportsmanship-Mary Weatherholt, Nebraska
ITA Assistant Coach of the Year-Alex Santos, Miami
ITA Coach of the Year-Jenny Mainz, Alabama
NCAA Elite 89 Award-Emily Zabor, Alabama

Virginia and UCLA Meet for Men's Division I Title; Stanford and Texas A&M Will Determine Women's Champion Tuesday

2013-05-20T23:50:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana IL--

Accepting the pressure of being the last match on is never easy, but two freshmen and a sophomore came up with the biggest victories of their careers Monday in the men's and women's semifinals of the NCAA Division I team championships at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center at the University of Illinois.

The wind, which was over 20 mph when the men's semifinals began at 1 p.m., didn't make for pretty tennis, but UCLA sophomore Marcos Giron made the necessary adjustments, getting his only break of his match with Ohio State's big serving Peter Kobelt at 4-5 in the third set of the deciding match to put the Bruins in their first NCAA final since their 2005 championship.

"His serve wasn't really popping as big as it usually is due to the wind, but it was really tricky because there was so much action on the ball," said Giron, who posted a 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 victory. "But at the end of the second set you could see his shots were starting to have a little less pizazz, didn't have the same pop, and that's how I was able to take the second set tiebreaker."

Top seed UCLA had the cushion of the doubles point, with No. 5 Ohio State really struggling with the windy conditions, and losing at lines 1 and 2.

But the Buckeyes won three first sets in singles, and although UCLA took a 2-0 lead with Clay Thompson's 6-1, 6-1 win over Chris Diaz at No. 5, Ohio State got a boost from Devin McCarthy, who defeated Dennis Mkrtchian 6-1, 6-3 at line 4 to make it 2-1.

Ohio State's Blaz Rola got the second set that the Buckeyes needed against Dennis Novikov at No. 1, and almost simultaneously Ohio State's Connor Smith defeated Adrien Puget at line 3 6-2, 7-6(5), and UCLA's Karue Sell downed Constantin Christ 6-4, 7-6(5) at line 6 to give UCLA a 3-2 lead.

The match would be decided at courts 1 and 2, with Ohio State needing both points. Rola took a 4-2 lead in the third set against Novikov, and after a third overrule, Novikov was penalized a point, giving Rola a 5-2 lead. The UCLA sophomore smashed his racquet on his foot and was given a game penalty, quickly ending the match and turning all the attention to court 2, which may not have helped the Buckeyes.

"You hope that doesn't happen," said Ohio State coach Ty Tucker. "Because maybe Rola goes to serve it out, takes five more minutes, and Peter's not feeling the weight of the world on his shoulders, maybe he gets that hold for 5-all. But if ifs and buts were candy and nuts it'd be Christmas every day."

Despite not making a single first serve, Kobelt did have a 40-15 lead in the 4-5 game, but a forehand long by him and a forehand winner by Giron brought it back to deuce. Another stray forehand gave Giron a match point, and with the crowd gathered behind court two eerily quiet, the only sound was the clanking of cables as the wind rattled the NCAA flags against their poles.

Adding a bit of spice to the tense moment was the knowledge that Giron was playing with two overrules, and had been since 4-4 in the second set. Kobelt's first serve appeared a couple of inches long, and although he asked the umpire to confirm, there was no argument when he did. The second serve never made it over the net, as it didn't touch the strings, but went off the frame, high into the air, and while the UCLA players stormed Giron on the court, Kobelt, the hero in Ohio State's quarterfinal victory over USC on Saturday, crumpled to the ground, his 6-foot-7 frame shrinking into the court.

"In the third set, especially when it comes down to the last match, you don't know what's going to happen from a coaching standpoint," said UCLA coach Billy Martin. "You want some breaks, but you don't know nerve-wise what's going to happen. It seemed like [Kobelt] got a little tight, he didn't make one first serve out of eight that last game, and you hate to be in that position. But Marcos has been there for us, as I'm sure Peter has too, but Marcos held up under the pressure and thank goodness we're moving on."

Giron, who clinched the Bruins win over USC in a third-set tiebreaker, was elated he could help his team advance to the final.

"This is definitely not the first match I've clinched," said Giron. "So I've had experience in that situation, where everyone around you is cheering at you, and you learn to block it out. It's really a fantastic feeling coming through for yourself and your teammates."

UCLA's opponent in the final will be No. 2 seed Virginia, who reached the championship match for the third consecutive year with a hard-fought 4-1 win over No. 3 Georgia.

The Cavaliers took the doubles point, but Georgia came out with great resolve in the singles, getting early breaks on three courts, and taking the first sets at lines 1 and 2, where Virginia is considered strongest. Ben Wagland made it 1-1 with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Jarmere Jenkins at No. 1, but Mitchell Frank gave Virginia a 2-1 lead a few minutes later with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Austin Smith at line 3. Julien Uriguen made it 3-1 with his 6-3, 7-5 victory over Marcos Nunez at line 6, and at line 5, Mac Styslinger was primed to make it a relatively straightforward 4-1 win when he had two match points against Garrett Brasseaux who was serving down 4-6, 4-5 15-40. But Brasseaux saved not only those two, but two more serving at 5-6, to reach a tiebreaker, which he proceeded to win after saving another match point, his fifth.

Meanwhile Georgia's Hernus Pieters had broke Ryan Shane at line 4 to force a third set, and although Virginia's Alex Domijan had won his second set against Nathan Pasha at line 2 and was leading 4-2 in the third, Pasha got the break back to make it 4-4. But Pasha was unable to hold after that break, double faulting three times in the game, including on the last two points, and Domijan served out the match to take a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.

"It was really competitive," said Domijan. "It kind of looked like we were going to secure it pretty safely midway through the singles, but they fought back. They are helluva competitors, they played real well. They've been facing adversity and kind of banding together as a team. I was not expecting them to go away, I knew they were going to fight. I think we did a good job as a team of staying focused and finishing the job."

Domijan, a junior from Florida, has been to the finals now each of the three years he has been at Virginia, but hasn't yet held the winner's trophy.

"I'm looking forward to it," Domijan said. "UCLA is stacked, 1-6, we're stacked 1-6, so it's going to be a hell of a match. We didn't train as hard as we did to lose. Hopefully we just go out there and compete as hard as we can and get it done."

Virginia coach Brian Boland was impressed with the Georgia team, who lost their top player KU Singh when he abruptly left the team prior to the NCAA tournament.

"It was a great match," Boland said. "Credit to Georgia. They played a great match and fought incredibly hard. You get to this point and the matches are amazing. We'll be ready for tomorrow, we're excited to be in another national championship. Being here the last couple of years really will help us."

It was unlikely that the women's semifinals would match the tension the men produced, but they equaled and then exceeded it, with Stanford's Krista Hardebeck coming all the way back from a set and 5-1 down to deliver the No. 12 seeded Cardinal into the final with a 4-3 victory over arch rival and top seed Florida.

Hardebeck won five games in row against Florida junior Alex Cercone at line 3 to take a 6-5 lead in the second set, only to have Cercone finally hold, forcing a tiebreaker. Even with Stanford up 3-0 by virtue of the doubles point, a shockingly brief 6-0, 6-1 win by Nicole Gibbs over Lauren Embree at line 1, and Kristie Ahn's 6-1, 6-4 win over Sofie Oyen at line 2, a quick and easy victory was not anticipated by anyone. Florida's Brianna Morgan made it 3-1 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Stacey Tan at line 4 and Caroline Hitimana gave Florida point number 2 with a 1-6, 6-1, 6-0 win over Natalie Dillon at 6. It looked as if Cercone would put the match onto the shoulders of Florida's Olivia Janowicz and Stanford's Ellen Tsay when she ran out to a 7-6(5), 5-1 lead, but she was unable to stop her downward spiral.

The match had hit the four hour mark when Janowicz got a late break to defeat Tsay 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, and Hardebeck and Cercone were at 2-2 in the third set. Although Cercone had never lost a singles match in her previous two NCAA appearances and was the hero of Florida's 4-3 win over Duke in the semifinals last year, she was struggling with cramps against Hardebeck, receiving frequent medical attention on changeovers.

"When I saw her getting medicals, and grabbing her leg, I thought, I am more physically into this than she is," said Hardebeck, who also clinched the Cardinal's 4-1 win over No. 4 seed Georgia on Sunday.

With Cercone electing to keep Hardebeck off balance with more slice and no pace, Cercone needed to be able to defend well and hit a lot of balls, but that strategy was thwarted by her physical problems.

"That's always a difficult game style to play," said Hardebeck. "I definitely had to tell myself--I like to hit winners--so I said to myself, calm down, you just need to work out the points and really focus."

"She's the kind of player always going for her shots, no matter where it is in the match, and that's sort of who we are as a team," said Stanford head coach Lele Forood. "The last two days she's gotten way down in matches and then been very clutch. I'm hoping tomorrow she doesn't get way down. But she's just been beautifully composed and put herself back in the matches."

The two played evenly until 3-3, when Hardebeck got the break, held at love, then broke Cercone for the victory to send Stanford into the finals in search of their 17th National Team championship.

Their opponents couldn't be more of a contrast, with No. 3 seed Texas A&M reaching the final for the first time in school history. In fact, every victory after the round of 16 was a first for the Aggies, who took down No. 7 seed and 2012 finalist UCLA 4-3, with first semester freshman Ines Deheza defeating Chanelle Van Nguyen 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4 in the deciding match.

Like Hardebeck, Deheza had been on the verge of defeat, trailing 4-2 40-0 in the third set against Van Nguyen. But unlike Hardebeck, Deheza had also been on the verge of victory much earlier, holding a match point in the second set tiebreaker only to see Van Nguyen save it with a deft backhand volley.

UCLA took the doubles point, but Texas A&M dominated in early singles play taking five first sets. Cristina Sanchez-Quintantar put the Aggies on the board with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Robin Anderson at No. 1, with UCLA's Catherine Harrison answering back wit a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Anna Mamalat at No. 5 to making it 2-1. In the meantime, Kyle McPhillips had earned a third set with Cristina Stancu at 2, and she made it 3-1 UCLA with her 2-6, 6-1, 6-0 win.

Although A&M faced a 3-1 deficit, they had taken the first set in the three remaining matches, and Stefanie Hristov and Nazari Urbina kept those leads, with Hristov beating Courtney Dolehide at line 6 and Urbina defeating Pam Montez 6-4, 6-2 at line 3.

The final set between Deheza and Van Nguyen began with Deheza taking a 2-0 lead, but Van Nguyen stormed back to take the next four games and serving at 4-2, 40-0 was a point away from dominating a confused Deheza, who was having difficulty finding the court in those games. But she abandoned her defensive counterpunching at just the right moment, sensing that Van Nguyen was struggling physical. At 4-4, Van Nguyen was in great pain, and the cramping caused her to receive a point penalty that resulted in the break of serve. Deheza, serving for the match, took a 40-0 lead, but the combination of Van Nguyen's condition and her own nerves resulted in two errors on the first two match points.

"When she got cramps and I was 40-0 up and lost two match points, I was like, oh, god," said the 19-year-old from Bolivia. "She's hurt and it's difficult to keep playing because you know she's not going to run. I was trying to play safe and that was why I lost those two points. I looked at my coach and he told me, you've got to be aggressive here or you're going to lose. So that's what I tried to do and it really worked out."

A former ITF Top 10 junior, Deheza, who hit her share of moonballs in the match, went for a huge deep forehand close to the sideline, and Van Nguyen was unable to do any more than get a racquet on it.

"At 4-2 40-0 Chanelle was looking good," said UCLA head coach Stella Sampras Webster. "But I have to say Ines played really well, played a really good game to get it back to deuce there and win it. That really turned things around and it got tough for Chanelle. Ines took it. She played well, she stepped up."

"Ines is an awful good player," said Texas A&M head coach Howard Joffe, in just his second year leading the A&M program. "But you saw her go through a whole myriad of emotions. If I were Sigmund Freud I could guess what brought her back in the match, but she's truly a really strong kid and I have utmost respect for her."

As Sampras Webster had admitted on Sunday night, Forood said she knew little about the Texas A&M team.

"We know their top girl, because she's been around and had great results, but I don't think we know a lot of their team," Forood said. "So, we'll see. We'll figure it out."

The finals are scheduled for 1 p.m. for the men and 5 p.m. for the women, but rain is expected Tuesday.
===========================================
No. 1 UCLA 4, No. 5 Ohio State 3
1 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #12 Blaz Rola (OSU) def. #27 Dennis Novikov (UCLA) 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
2. #25 Marcos Giron (UCLA) def. #8 Peter Kobelt (OSU) 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4
3. #71 Connor Smith (OSU) def. #22 Adrien Puget (UCLA) 6-2, 7-6(5)
4. #73 Devin McCarthy (OSU) def. #75 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) 6-1, 6-3
5. #119 Clay Thompson (UCLA) def. #104 Chris Diaz (OSU) 6-1, 6-1
6. Karue Sell (UCLA) def. Constantin Christ (OSU) 6-4, 7-6(5)

Doubles
1. #42 Giron/Novikov (UCLA) def. #12 Kobelt/Smith (OSU) 8-4
2. #77 Puget/Sell (UCLA) def. #90 McCarthy/Van Engelen (OSU) 8-3
3. Brigham/Thompson (UCLA) vs. Rola/Callahan (OSU) 7-7*

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (5,4,6,3,1,2)
* = unfinished

=========================================
No. 2 Virginia 4, No. 3 Georgia 1
1 p.m. CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #33 Ben Wagland (UGA) def. #3 Jarmere Jenkins (UVA) 7-5, 6-3
2. #2 Alex Domijan (UVA) def. #47 Nathan Pasha (UGA) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
3. #39 Mitchell Frank (UVA) def. Austin Smith (UGA) 6-3, 6-3
4. #115 Hernus Pieters (UGA) vs. #69 Ryan Shane (UVA) 4-6, 7-5, 4-2*
5. Garrett Brasseaux (UGA) vs. #28 Mac Styslinger (UVA) 4-6, 7-6(7), 1-0*
6. Julen Uriguen (UVA) def. Marco Nunez (UGA) 6-3, 7-5

Doubles
1. #5 Pieters/Wagland (UGA) vs. #4 Jenkins/Styslinger (UVA) 4-3*
2. #21 Domijan/Frank (UVA) def. #15 Pasha/Brasseaux (UGA) 8-3
3. #89 Shane/Uriguen (UVA) def. Nunez/Diaz (UGA) 8-4

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (1,3,6,2)
* = unfinished

===========================================
No. 3 Texas A&M 4, No. 7 UCLA 3
5 p.m. CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #4 Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) def. #3 Robin Anderson (UCLA) 6-1, 6-3
2. #20 Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) def. #68 Cristina Stancu (TAMU) 2-6, 6-0, 6-1
3. #52 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Pamela Montez (UCLA) 6-4, 6-2
4. Ines Deheza (TAMU) def. Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA) 6-3, 6-7(9), 6-4
5. #93 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) def. Anna Mamalat (TAMU) 6-4, 6-2
6. Stefania Hristov (TAMU) def. Courtney Dolehide (UCLA) 7-6(5), 6-1

Doubles
1. #25 Anderson/Morton (UCLA) def. #18 Stancu/Hristov (TAMU) 8-5
2. #38 Dolehide/Montez (UCLA) vs. #49 Wen/Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) 7-4*
3. Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) def. Deheza/Deheza (TAMU) 9-7

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (1,5,2,6,3,4)
* = unfinished
===========================================
No. 12 Stanford 4, No. 1 Florida 3
5 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #13 Nicole Gibbs (STAN) def. #1 Lauren Embree (FLA) 6-0, 6-1
2. #25 Kristie Ahn (STAN) def. #17 Sofie Oyen (FLA) 6-1, 6-4
3. #14 Krista Hardebeck (STAN) def. #51 Alexandra Cercone (FLA) 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-3
4. #89 Brianna Morgan (FLA) def. #103 Stacey Tan (STAN) 6-1, 6-3
5. #123 Olivia Janowicz (FLA) def. #92 Ellen Tsay (STAN) 6-2, 3-6, 6-4
6. #116 Caroline Hitimana (FLA) def. Natalie Dillon (STAN) 1-6, 6-1, 6-0

Doubles
1. #8 Ahn/Gibbs (STAN) def. #11 Embree/Oyen (FLA) 8-3
2. #28 Tan/Tsay (STAN) def. Cercone/Hitmana (FLA) 8-3
3. Collins/Morgan (FLA) vs. Dillon/Hardebeck (STAN) 6-3*

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (1,2,4,6,5,3)
* = unfinished

Black, Paul Win Again, This Time at ITF Grade 4 in Delray Beach; Division III Championships Underway Today in Kalamazoo; Grade A Italian Open Begins in Milan

2013-05-20T13:21:00.001-04:00

Before the start of today's Division I semifinals, I wanted to post on a few other items of interest.

First of all, if you are interested in more on the tournament, the local newspaper, The News-Gazette, is providing excellent coverage every day. Today's feature gives some background on the often overlooked job of umpire, and they've had an extensive notebook section every day too.

The Division III men's and women's championships begin today in Kalamazoo, with the women's quarterfinals first, followed by the men's.
See the Kalamazoo College tournament page for live scoring. For more background on the men's field, see this preview at the Tennis Recruiting Network, and follow the blog division3tennis.com.

At the ITF Grade 4 in Delray Beach, Tornado Alicia Black and Tommy Paul, both of whom won the week before in Plantation, kept their streaks going. Black, the No. 2 seed, collected her second career ITF singles title when unseeded Emma Higuchi was unable to compete due to illnes. Paul, also the No. 2 seed, defeated unseeded Baker Newman
7-5, 7-5, and has moved his ITF junior ranking up to 152 with this run, while Black is up to a career high of 78.

Top seeds Black and Dasha Ivanova won the doubles title with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 3 seeds Katerina Stewart and Nicole Frenkel. Eduardo Nava and Nathan Ponwith, seeded eighth, took the boys doubles championship with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 5 seeds Basil Khuma of India and Anudeep Kodali.

The Grade A Italian Open is underway, with Nikola Milojevic of Serbia and Antonia Lottner of Germany the top seeds. There are five US boys in the main draw: qualifier Dennis Uspensky, Martin Redlicki, Luca Corinteli, Noah Rubin(13) and Stefan Kozlov(9). Two US girls are competing in Milan: Christina Makarova(5) and Katrine Steffensen.

Austin Krajicek and Alisa Kleybanova won the $10,000 Pro Circuit events last week, Krajicek defeated Christian Harrison in a walkover in Tampa, and former WTA Top 20 player Kleybanova defeated former Tennessee star Natalie Pluskota in the Landisville, Pa final.

Stanford Meets Florida, UCLA Faces Texas A&M in Women's Semifinals Monday Evening

2013-05-19T23:30:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

Stanford, Florida and UCLA, three gold standards in women's college tennis, will be joined by upstart Texas A&M in Monday evening's semifinals after all four teams collected victories Sunday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center at the University of Illinois.

Temperatures reaching the lower 90s, a hot south breeze blowing, and the heat rule in effect didn't keep two Pac-12 teams from advancing, although the third, Cal, fell to top seed and two-time defending champion Florida 4-2.

Florida won a close doubles point, decided on court 1, after the eight-seeded Bears had taken line 2, and the Gators line 3, all by 8-4 scores.

Cal got on the board quickly, with Zsofi Susanyi dealing Florida junior Alex Cercone her first singles loss in NCAA competition by a 6-1, 6-1 score. The teams had split first sets, so Cal needed to turn one of the matches around to put pressure on the two-time defending champions, but it wouldn't be on court 1, where Lauren Embree, the nation's top-ranked player, ground down USTA/ITA Indoor finalist Anett Schutting 6-2, 6-0 to make it 2-1.

Olivia Janowicz made it 3-1 Florida with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Tayler Davis at line 5, and Florida head coach Roland Thornqvist didn't want to let Janowicz's contribution go unnoticed.

"She's really hitting on all cylinders now," Thornqvist said of the junior from Florida. "The last month, she's been automatic in her play and she manages herself really well. She doesn't get enough credit, some of the players on the top courts here get the credit, but the way she's playing and the way she's staying focused in her play is very helpful for the Gators."

Cal got the split they need on court 4, with Lynn Chi coming back from losing a 6-0 first set to take the second 6-1 over fellow freshman Brianna Morgan. Klara Fabikova of Cal made it 3-2, beating Sofie Oyen 7-5, 6-4 at line 2, but Caroline Hitimana of Florida had worked her way into position to close out her match with Annie Goransson at line 6 and the senior from Belgium put an end to the three-and-a-half-hour match with a 6-3, 6-2 win.

Fifteen minutes earlier, Stanford, seeded No. 12, had completed their 4-1 win over No. 4 seed Georgia, setting up a rare semifinal meeting between the two most decorated programs in women's college tennis.

It didn't look great for the Cardinal in the match's first hour, with Georgia totally dominating the doubles point, but once the singles began, Stanford took control, led by junior Kristie Ahn, who blew past Georgia's Maho Kowase 6-0, 6-1.

"I knew she was due for a win," said Stanford head coach Lele Forood. "She played really well Friday (in a loss to USC's Danielle Lao) and I think we all felt that she was going to assert herself."

With Stanford up a set in three other matches, Georgia needed to post a singles point to change the momentum, but Mia King was unable to close at Natalie Dillon at No. 6, despite a 6-1, 5-1 lead, and in the meantime, Stanford earned its second point, with Ellen Tsay defeating Ayaka Okuno 6-1, 6-2. Krista Hardebeck had earned a split with Georgia's Silvia Garcia at line 3, so Georgia was desperate for a boost, and they had hope when Lauren Herring took the second set of her match with Nicole Gibbs at 1, and Kate Fuller broke Stacey Tan serving for the match at 6-4, 5-4 at line 4.

Fuller was broken in the next game however, and Tan took her second chance to finish the match giving Stanford a 3-1 lead with her 6-4, 7-5 win. Hardebeck completed her comeback with 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Garcia, putting the Cardinal in the semifinals for the 28th time in 32 years.

Freshman Hardebeck is eager to play Florida for the second time in her brief college career.

"For as long as I can think back from watching Stanford tennis, it's always been Stanford and Florida," Hardebeck said. "So it's great to be here at NCAAs, with a five o'clock start time, kind of a night match, so it's going to be great."

Hardebeck's first exposure to what she calls the "fierce" rivalry was back in February when Stanford dropped a 4-2 decision to the Gators in a dual match that finished indoors due to rain in Gainesville. Embree, on the other hand, has seen the Cardinal at some of the biggest moments in her illustrious college career, including clinching the 2011 national title against Mallory Burdette in a third set tiebreaker after trailing 4-0 in the final set of the last match on.

"They're a great team always," said Embree, a senior from Florida. "We always have great matches and we're looking forward to another tough, long match."

"I had a feeling they were going to go deep in this tournament," Thornqvist said. "When we played them in February at home that team, I thought at that point, was wicked good. We played really well to get out of that jam."

In the 4 p.m. matches, No. 3 seed Texas A&M is making school history with every victory, and their 4-0 win over No. 6 Miami was an impressive display for a team new to the NCAA stage.

The Aggies, who own a win over top seed Florida during the SEC regular season, dominated the doubles point and took five first sets in the singles. Cristina Stancu made it 2-0 with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Kelsey Laurente at line 2 and looked to be cruising with leads on four on the remaining courts. The Hurricanes desperately needed a set to change the momentum, but A&M's Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar denied Stephanie Wagner at No. 1, getting a late break for a 7-5, 6-4 victory and a 3-0 lead. Miami had a glimmer of hope with a tiebreaker on court 5 and a lead late in the second at 6, but senior Nazari Urbina put an end to the Hurricanes with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Line Lilekite at No. 3.

"They're an awful tough team to beat," said Texas A&M's second-year coach Howard Joffe. "We absolutely took a commanding lead in everything, but true to form, Miami fought and clawed their way back and the match became awful interesting."

Asked if he was surprised by his team's success this season and their sudden rise to the top of the women's game Joffe was ambivalent.

"Looking at what Texas A&M was ranked two years when I got the job, they were in the 30s, so it's absolutely not plausible," Joffe admitted. "But with respect to the players that are on the team, it's not shocking to me that we've come this far. We've got eight very, very good players, so in that respect, it's not so surprising, and yet in the context of a program being somewhere and then ending up in the final four a year and a half later, it is sort of hard to believe."

Urbina, a senior from Mexico who recorded her 100th singles win as an Aggie today, can also appreciate the distance the team has traveled in just two years.

"One of my goals when I came to A&M was to get them a conference championship and become one of the top 10, top 5 in the nation," said Urbina. "It's a dream come true. It's special for me and for all the girls because we're making history at the university and I'm really happy for my teammates and the university because they deserve that and even more."

The Aggies' semifinal opponent is 2012 finalist UCLA, who avenged their loss to North Carolina in this year's Team Indoor final by a 4-1 score, as dusk descended on the South Courts.

The seventh-seeded Bruins had taken the doubles point in that February match in Charlottesville, Virginia, but Sunday evening the No. 2 Tar Heels started singles play with a 1-0 lead.

At one stage in singles play all six courts had score of 5-4, but it was the Bruins who took five first sets. With the UCLA men's team cheering her on, Pac-12 champion Kyle McPhillips pulled the Bruins even with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Zoe De Bruycker.

Robin Anderson delivered the Bruins' second point, defeating Gina Suarez-Malaguti 7-5, 6-1 at line 1, reversing the outcome of that matchup at the Indoor, which Suarez-Malaguti had won 6-3, 6-4. Pam Montez, who had lost a third-set tiebreak to North Carolina's Whitney Kay in the deciding match, earned a 6-4, 6-4 win over Kay to make it 3-1, but Montez said it wasn't revenge that drove her.

"It wasn't really a payback type of thing," said Montez, a senior from Mexico. "Coming into the match I wasn't thinking, oh, they took it from us. The goal was always NCAAs. The goal is to win, and if we lose tomorrow, it will definitely be disappointing."

Once Montez made it 3-1, it looked as if Chanelle Van Nguyen would end the match sooner rather than later when she broke UNC's Caroline Price to serve for the match at 7-5, 5-4 at line 4. But Price buckled down, broke, held and broke, sending that match into a third set, where the other two matches already were. North Carolina's Tessa Lyons had forced a third set against Courtney Dolehide at line 6, and UCLA's Catherine Harrison had won the second set over Lauren McHale at line 5.

UCLA took leads in all three matches, but it was Harrison who finished the job, defeating McHale 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 to end the nearly four-hour match.

"They came out with tremendous fight early on, with a lot of revenge on their mind, I guess," said North Carolina head coach Brian Kalbas. "They won a lot of close first sets and we got a little discouraged. We were looking around, we weren't as focused, but I give them credit. They played really well, and I think they handled the wind a lot better than we did. We just didn't take some of the early opportunities we had."

UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster was concerned after dropping the doubles point Sunday.

"We won the doubles at the Indoor and had that momentum, and this time we didn't," said Sampras Webster. "Robin and Pam knew they had to step up and both of them are playing much better than they did in January and it's great to see them win those matches that they had lost earlier in the year. I think it's going to help them for tomorrow, with their confidence."

Unlike their current rivalry with North Carolina, UCLA has little history with Texas A&M.

"We've never played them," said Sampras Webster. "I know they're very good, they've beaten Florida, beaten a lot of great teams. We're going to have to find some notes from someone, but I know they're going to be tough. I know our team is really excited. We're very talented, and we just need to be sure we get them ready for tomorrow physically, because I know mentally, they'll be up for it."

The men's semifinals, with No. 2 Virginia facing No. 3 Georgia and No. 1 UCLA facing No. 5 Ohio State, will begin at 1 p.m. CDT, with the women's semifinals to follow at 5 p.m. For live streaming and stats, see the tournament central page.

===========================================

No. 1 Florida 4, No. 8 California 2

Noon CT – South Courts

Singles

1. #1 Lauren Embree (FLA) def. #8 Anett Schutting (CAL) 6-2, 6-0

2. #43 Klara Fabikova (CAL) def. #17 Sofie Oyen (FLA) 7-5, 6-4

3. #5 Zsofi Susanyi (CAL) def. #51 Alexandra Cercone (FLA) 6-1, 6-1

4. #70 Lynn Chi (CAL) vs. #89 Brianna Morgan (FLA) 0-6, 6-1, 4-1*

5. #123 Olivia Janowicz (FLA) def. Tayler Davis (CAL) 6-1, 6-1

6. #116 Caroline Hitimana (FLA) def. Annie Goransson (CAL) 6-3, 6-2

Doubles

1. #11 Embree/Oyen (FLA) def. #33 Shutting/Chi (CAL) 8-4

2. Fabikova/Goransson (CAL) def. Cercone/Hitmana (FLA) 8-4

3. Collins/Morgan (FLA) def. Davis/Chui (CAL) 8-4

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (3,1,5,2,6)

* = unfinished

===========================================

No. 12 Stanford 4, No. 4 Georgia 1

Noon CT – North Courts

Singles

1. #13 Nicole Gibbs (STAN) vs. #6 Lauren Herring (UGA) 6-1, 3-6, 3-0*

2. #25 Kristie Ahn (STAN) def. #19 Maho Kowase (UGA) 6-0, 6-1

3. #14 Krista Hardebeck (STAN) def. #104 Silvia Garcia (UGA) 2-6, 6-1, 6-1

4. #103 Stacey Tan (STAN) def. Kate Fuller (UGA) 6-4, 7-5

5. #92 Ellen Tsay (STAN) def. Ayaka Okuno (UGA) 6-1, 6-2

6. Mia King (UGA) vs. Natalie Dillon (STAN) 6-1, 6-5*

Doubles

1. #1 Fuller/Garcia (UGA) def. #8 Ahn/Gibbs (STAN) 8-5

2. #52 Herring/Kowase (UGA) vs. #28 Tan/Tsay (STAN) 6-4*

3. Kimbell/King (UGA) def. Dillon/Hardebeck (STAN) 8-3

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (2,5,4,3)

* = unfinished

===========================================

No. 3 Texas A&M 4, No. 6 Miami 0

4 p.m. CT – North Courts

Singles

1. #4 Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) def. #60 Stephanie Wagner (MIA) 7-5, 6-4

2. #68 Cristina Stancu (TAMU) def. #81 Kelsey Laurente (MIA) 6-1, 6-4

3. #52 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. #105 Lina Lilekite (MIA) 6-1, 6-4

4. #102 Clementina Riobueno (MIA) vs. Ines Deheza (TAMU) 7-5, 4-2*

5. Anna Mamalat (TAMU) vs. Monique Albuquerque (MIA) 6-4, 6-6*

6. Stefania Hristov (TAMU) vs. Melissa Bolivar (MIA) 7-5, 5-6*

Doubles

1. #18 Stancu/Hristov (TAMU) def. Albuquerque/Riobueno (MIA) 8-2

2. #49 Wen/Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) vs. Bolivar/Laurente (MIA) 5-4*

3. Deheza/Deheza (TAMU) def. Wagner/Dubins (MIA) 8-2

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (2,1,3)

* = unfinished

===========================================

No. 7 UCLA 4, No. 2 North Carolina 1

4 p.m. CT – South Courts

Singles

1. #3 Robin Anderson (UCLA) def. #7 Gina Suarez-Malaguti (UNC) 7-5, 6-1

2. #20 Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) def. #49 Zoe De Bruycker (UNC) 6-4, 6-1

3. Pamela Montez (UCLA) def. #39 Whitney Kay (UNC) 6-4, 6-4

4. Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA) vs. #46 Caroline Price (UNC) 7-5, 5-7, 3-2*

5. #93 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) def. Lauren McHale (UNC) 5-7, 7-5, 6-3

6. Courtney Dolehide (UCLA) vs. Tessa Lyons (UNC) 6-4, 4-6, 3-2*

Doubles

1. #58 Price/Kay (UNC) def. #25 Anderson/Morton (UCLA) 8-4

2. McHale/Dai (UNC) vs. #38 Dolehide/Montez (UCLA) 5-4*

3. Suarez-Malaguti/Lyons (UNC) def. Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) 8-2

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (2,1,3,5)

* = unfinished

Ohio State Ends Southern Cal's Four Year Reign; Buckeyes Joined in Men's Final Four by Georgia, UCLA and Virginia

2013-05-18T23:30:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

University of Southern California head coach Peter Smith has had sleepless nights at the NCAA Team Tournament, but the past four years those nights have been spent in celebrating an NCAA championship. This year, he'll lie awake thinking about what might have been, after his team, seeded fourth, lost to fifth seed Ohio State 4-3 in Saturday evening's semifinal at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center at the University of Illinois.

Smith may reflect on the match point that Emilio Gomez and Roberto Quiroz had in the tiebreaker that decided the doubles point at No. 2 doubles.

Ohio State easily took the No. 1 doubles match, with Peter Kobelt and Connor Smith defeating Yannick Hanfmann and Raymond Sarmiento 8-3, but the other two matches were as tight as possible. At one stage, both matches were 7-7 deuce, and both eventually went to tiebreakers, with USC needing to win at lines 2 and 3 to earn the point.

USC's Max De Vroome and Eric Johnson put all the focus on court 2 when they beat Blaz Rola and Hunter Callahan 9-8(3) at 3, with the loud and numerous Ohio State fans turning their full attention to supporting Devin McCarthy and Ille Van Engelen at 2.

USC's Gomez and Quiroz, who played Davis Cup for Ecuador this spring in that country's 3-2 upset of Chile, had a match point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker, with Quiroz serving. The service return was on its way long but Gomez had left a little early and it touched his racquet, giving Ohio State the point. Gomez and Quiroz saved one match point, but not the second, with Van Engelen converting with a forehand volley winner.

"We jump a little early at that doubles, and that's the difference," said Smith. "When you play a great team like this, the difference is centimeters and that's what it was today."

In the singles, USC took control at lines 5 and 6, but all the other matches were extremely close. Johnson tied the score with his 6-3, 6-3 win over Chris Diaz at 5, but Ohio State regained the lead with a virtuoso performance by Rola at No. 1. Rola defeated Gomez 6-1, 6-0, but USC answered right back, with De Vroome defeating Constantin Christ 6-3, 6-1 at line 6 to make it 2-2.

USC looked certain to win at 3, with Hanfmann leading Smith 7-5, 4-1, up two breaks in the second set, while the Buckeyes had taken the first sets at lines 2 and 4 in tiebreakers and were early in their second sets.

McCarthy got on a roll in the second set, taking a 5-0 lead over Quiroz and posting the Buckeyes' third point with a 7-6(1), 6-1 win.

By then Smith had gotten both of the breaks back at 3, winning four straight games to take a 5-4 lead, while Kobelt and Sarmiento at 2 were on serve at 5-5 in the second set. Smith and Hanfmann went to a tiebreaker, as their teammates stood on the sidelines pivoting between the two courts, shouting encouragement after every point.

The 6-foot-7 Kobelt was having no difficulty holding serve, and Sarmiento was holding his with only slightly more effort. Serving at 4-5 in the second, Sarmiento was down 15-30, two points from defeat, but he came up with a big serve himself and some impressive forehands to hold.

By the time the tiebreaker on 2 began, which Sarmiento had to win to extend the match, Hanfmann had pulled USC even with a 7-5, 7-6(4) win over Smith.

For all that was on the line in the tiebreaker, both players stayed focused and executed their shots, with nerves not evidenced in their strokes or their second serves. Kobelt played flawlessly, getting a minibreak at 3-2 when Sarmiento's backhand went long. It was all the junior from Ohio needed, with a confident forehand putaway making it 5-3. After a long rally on the next point, it was Sarmiento who finally missed, netting a forehand, and Kobelt had three match points.

Kobelt thought he had hit an ace on his first match point, but the chair confirmed Sarmiento's out call. The crowd agreed with Kobelt, but he showed no signs of dismay or irritation, and immediately hit an excellent second serve. He attacked Sarmiento's return and Sarmiento rushed his next shot, hitting a forehand wide to set off a wild celebration by Ohio State.

"Even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while," said Ohio State head coach Ty Tucker. "Ohio State tennis beats USC tennis every once in a while. Hats off to what Peter Smith's done--four national championships in a row. We started this streak with them in 2009 and he continued it for four years. This is a little bit of consolation, that's for sure, but I'd rather have the big trophy from 2009 sitting at our place."

As for the performance of Kobelt in ending the Trojans' run of four straight titles, the voluble Tucker was, almost, at a loss for words.

"Peter Kobelt, what can you say?," said Tucker. "The guy's got a 135 mile an hour hammer. He's not facing any adversity at all in his service games. Peter Kobelt's made a jump, he's definitely for real."

Kobelt was determined to use what he had learned in his disappointing loss to Virginia's Alex Domijan in the deciding match of the Team Indoor semifinals.

"I don't think I could have handled it as well as I did today if I hadn't been in positions like that in the past," said Kobelt, a junior from Ohio. "I was in a similar position against Alex Domijan at National Indoors and it didn't work out. I really made an effort after that, in practice matches and actual matches, to really focus on closing out matches and if I was ever back in that situation, I would capitalize. And I ended up helping my team advance today."

Peter Smith admitted that despite his belief Ohio State "was well-deserving, they played to win and they won," he was disappointed.

"I won't sleep tonight," Smith said. "I'll have my moments. But that's competition, and you can't always expect to win every one...We put ourselves in a position to win another national championship, and they were just a little too good for us today."
===========================================

No. 5 Ohio State 4, No. 4 USC 3

4 p.m. CT – North Courts

Singles

1. #12 Blaz Rola (OSU) def. #7 Emilio Gomez (USC) 6-1, 6-0

2. #8 Peter Kobelt (OSU) def. #16 Ray Sarmiento (USC) 7-6(3), 7-6(3)

3. #45 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) def. #71 Connor Smith (OSU) 7-5, 7-6(4)

4. #73 Devin McCarthy (OSU) def. #36 Roberto Quiroz (USC) 7-6(1), 6-1

5. #90 Eric Johnson (USC) def. #104 Chris Diaz (OSU) 6-3, 6-3

6. Max de Vroome (USC) def. Constantin Christ (OSU) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles

1. #12 Kobelt/Smith (OSU) def. #37 Hanfmann/Sarmiento (USC) 8-3

2. #90 McCarthy/Van Engelen (OSU) def. #47 Gomez/Quiroz (USC) 9-8(7)

3. de Vroome/Johnson (USC) def. Rola/Callahan (OSU) 9-8(3)

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3,2); Singles (5,1,6,4,3,2)

===========================================

The last team to win a national championship before USC's four-year run was the University of Georgia, and the surprising Bulldogs are still in the running to claim the 2013 title after a tense 4-2 victory over No. 11 seed Pepperdine. Although Georgia is the No. 3 seed, and would have been expected to be in the semifinals, the Bulldogs lost their No. 1 player, KU Singh, who quit the team unexpectedly prior to the NCAA tournament.

Georgia head coach Manny Diaz is getting a little bit tired of all the attention Singh's departure has garnered.

"This is very satisfying, only because I'm tired of answering the question about having such a rough two weeks," Diaz said. "I've been trying not to say anything. But I knew we had a great group that was going to be tough to beat. And that's all you want. Everybody on the same page, everybody fighting hard, everybody united. So we're moving forward, doing the best that we can."

After losing the doubles point to Pepperdine, a team with an indifferent record in doubles this year, Georgia faced a big challenge, but they got a huge boost with freshman Austin Smith's impressive 6-2, 6-0 domination of Finn Tearney at line 3. Smith had lost badly in Georgia's round of 16 match with Oklahoma on Thursday, and he was determined to improve on that performance.

"I definitely picked up my game today," said Smith, who is from Georgia. "When you get crushed like that, you feel like you need to prove yourself again, redeem myself a little, so I was really excited for this match. I was there last year( in Athens, when Pepperdine defeated Georgia 4-3 in the quarterfinals), I wasn't on the team, but I was watching, and that was a painful, painful loss for us last year, so I was really amped.

Diaz acknowledged how important Smith's quick point was to Georgia.

"That was huge, because I thought that was one of the toughest matchups we had," said Diaz. "He's really growing. He's still somewhat inconsistent at times, like any freshman, but the bigger the match, the bigger he plays. I was very inspired by watching him play the way he did."

Three hours into the match the score was still 1-1, but Georgia took the lead when Nathan Pasha completed his 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 comeback against Alex Sarkissian at line 2. Pasha was down three break points at 5-5 in the second set, but he fought those off and took the momentum from there.

"After I got that back, it may have broken his spirit a little bit," said Pasha, a sophomore from Georgia. "To be honest, after I got the break I just rolled with it the next set. He looked to be a bit tired and I tried to run him side to side every chance I got."

Georgia picked up their third point with Nunez taking a third set tiebreaker at line 6 over David Sofaer. Nunez was aided in that effort by the large number of noisy Georgia fans, including the Georgia women's team, who packed the stands behind court 6 for that key point. Pepperdine got its first singles point when Francis Alcantara came from a set and a break down to defeat Hernus Pieters 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 at line 4, making it 3-2, but Georgia's Garrett Brasseaux had broken serve at 4-4 in the third set of his match at line 5 against Mousheg Hovhannisyan. Brasseaux, who clinched the Bulldogs' win over Oklahoma Thursday, came through again, taking a 40-30 lead with a good first serve and on his first match point, forcing an error with a well-struck forehand.

"Pepperdine is a such a tough, deep team," said Diaz. "It's very hard to take four points from them in singles, and we knew we had our work cut out. But we thought we had the right guys to do it."

No. 3 Georgia 4, No. 11 Pepperdine 2

Noon CT – North Courts

Singles

1. #11 Sebastian Fanselow (PEPP) vs. #33 Ben Wagland (UGA) 7-5, 6-7(0), 4-3*

2. #47 Nathan Pasha (UGA) def. #62 Alex Sarkissian (PEPP) 2-6, 7-5, 6-2

3. Austin Smith (UGA) def. #107 Finn Tearney (PEPP) 6-2, 6-0

4. #102 Francis Alcantara (PEPP) def. #115 Hernus Pieters (UGA) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3

5. Garrett Brasseaux (UGA) def. Mousheg Hovhannisyan (PEPP) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4

6. Marco Nunez (UGA) def. Davis Sofaer (PEPP) 1-6, 6-3, 7-6(4)

Doubles

1. Fanselow/Alcantara (PEPP) vs. #5 Pieters/Wagland (UGA) 5-4*

2. Sarkissian/Tearney (PEPP) def. #15 Pasha/Brasseaux (UGA) 8-3

3. Hovhannisyan/Sofaer (PEPP) def. Nunez/Diaz (UGA) 8-4

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (3,2,6,4,5)

*= unfinished

===========================================

Georgia's opponent in the Monday's semifinal will be No. 2 seed Virginia, who beat No. 7 seed Tennessee 4-0 in the day's most unfortunate ending.

Tennessee's Mikelis Libietis, the No. 1 ranked player in the country, rolled his left ankle on set point in the second set against Virginia's Jarmere Jenkins, with Virginia already leading 2-0. Libietis had the ankle taped, but his mobility was severely hampered and although he continued, he also showed signs of pain in his knee, and retired down 3-0 in the third.

Virginia had taken the doubles point and the match at line 2, with Alex Domijan beating Hunter Reese 6-2, 6-3. With Libietis' retirement, it was 3-0, and both Mitchell Frank at lind 3 and Mac Styslinger at line 5 were serving for their matches and the fourth point. Both were broken, but Styslinger had the luxury of two breaks and he delivered the second time, beating John Collins 6-4, 6-4.

Tennessee head coach Sam Winterbotham described Libietis' injury.

"[It was] set point and he had to slide into a shot to take it down the line, and you just saw his knee and ankle stick. He played on, but he wasn't able to play. He didn't want to stop. It was basically him trying to see if he could feel better but it wasn't just his ankle. When his ankle turned over, it jarred his knee."

Later in the day, it was determined that Libietis didn't have any structural damage, so he is still in the individual tournament in both singles and doubles as of now.

Virginia head coach Brian Boland was pleased his team has reached the semifinals for the fourth straight year, but acknowledged that Libietis' injury made for conflicting emotions.

"I feel bad for the Tennessee player, he's an outstanding player at No. 1, Mikey, and hopefully he's okay," Boland said. "The guy's just a tremendous player and it's sad to see something like that happen. It's had to continue focusing when you see something like that happen, but our guys and I think Tennesee did a good job with that. It's wasn't easy, and that's sad to see, but hopefully he's okay."

Jenkins said he was able to recapture his focus after the injury.

"It can be hard if you let it," Jenkins said, who ended up winning the match 4-6, 6-4, 3-0, ret. "I was just trying to play the match as if he were 100 percent healthy. I just tried to stay pumped up, and stay focused on my court, and it worked well. Credit to him, he was on today, having a lot of confidence in his forehand, slapping it all over the court. He played well."

===========================================

No. 2 Virginia 4, No. 7 Tennessee 0

Noon CT – South Courts

Singles

1. #3 Jarmere Jenkins (UVA) def. #1 Mikelis Libietis (TENN) 4-6, 6-4, 3-0, ret.

2. #2 Alex Domijan (UVA) def. #34 Hunter Reese (TENN) 6-2, 6-3

3. #39 Mitchell Frank (UVA) vs. Brandon Fickey (TENN) 6-3, 5-5*
4. Jarryd Chaplin (TENN) vs. #69 Ryan Shane (UVA) 6-4, 3-6, 4-2*
5. #28 Mac Styslinger (UVA) def. John Collins (TENN) 6-4, 6-4

6. Julen Uriguen (UVA) vs. Edward Jones (TENN) 7-5, 5-5*

Doubles

1. #4 Jenkins/Styslinger (UVA) def. #1 Libietis/Reese (TENN) 9-7

2. #21 Domijan/Frank (UVA) vs. Fickey/Chaplin (TENN) 6-6*

3. #89 Shane/Uriguen (UVA) def. #34 Jones/Collins (TENN) 8-4

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (2,1,5)

* = unfinished

===========================================

Ohio State's opponent in Monday's semifinal will be top seed UCLA, who beat No. 9 Duke 4-0.

The Bruins took a closely contested doubles point, but Duke came back to post four first sets in singles, making UCLA earn their victory.

Karue Sell collected UCLA's second point with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Jason Tahir at line 6, and Dennis Novikov earned a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Henrique Cunha at line 1 to make it 3-0. UCLA trailed in three other matches, but at line 3, Adrien Puget had earned a split with Michael Redlicki, and with his 1-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory, he spared his teammates at least another hour on the court.

UCLA coach Billy Martin thought Novikov played one of his best matches of the year against Cunha.

"That match at No. 1 was huge for us," said Martin. "That's probably for sure Novikov's best win. We know he's dangerous, but [Cunha] is so solid. He just happened to have one of his best matches of the year, and we needed it today. To beat Cunha in both singles and doubles in the same day is a great accomplishment."

Novikov didn't disagree with his coach's assessment.

"It was definitely one of the better matches I've played," said the sophomore from California. "Every match throughout the season I keep improving, trying to peak around this time. I thought I played pretty well. I served overall really well. It wasn't anything special, but it was a solid match overall."

===========================================

No. 1 UCLA 4 – No. 9 Duke 0

4 p.m. CT – South Courts

Singles

1. #27 Dennis Novikov (UCLA) def. #9 Henrique Cunha (DUKE) 6-4, 6-4

2. #43 Fred Saba (DUKE) vs. #25 Marcos Giron (UCLA) 6-3, 5-5*

3. #22 Adrien Puget (UCLA) def. #46 Michael Redlicki (DUKE) 1-6, 6-2, 6-1

4. #121 Chris Mengel (DUKE) vs. #75 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) 7-6(7), 2-1*

5. #74 Raphael Hemmeler (DUKE) vs. #119 Clay Thompson (UCLA) 7-6(3), 4-3*

6. Karue Sell (UCLA) def. Jason Tahir (DUKE) 6-0, 6-2

Doubles

1. #42 Giron/Novikov (UCLA) def. #2 Cunha/Hemmeler (DUKE) 8-6

2. #77 Puget/Sell (UCLA) def. #19 Tahir/Redlicki (DUKE) 9-8(5)

3. Brigham/Thompson (UCLA) vs. Saba/Semenzato (DUKE) 6-6*

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,1,3)

*= unfinished

North Carolina and UCLA Down Big Ten Foes to Set Up Rematch of Team Indoor Final

2013-05-17T23:55:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

No. 2 seed North Carolina went to bed without knowing who they would be playing in Sunday's quarterfinal, but when the Tar Heels wake up Saturday morning, they will see they've got a rematch of the thrilling Team Indoor final with the No. 7 UCLA Bruins.

North Carolina earned their way into the quarterfinals three hours before UCLA did, with the Tar Heels defeating No. 15 seed Nebraska 4-1 on the Khan Outdoor Center's south courts.

After taking the doubles point, the Tar Heels took four first sets in singles from the Cornhuskers, who were making their first Sweet 16 appearance in program history. But Nebraska pulled even with a 6-4, 6-1 win by Stefanie Weinstein at line 3, and got a boost when Mary Weatherholt took the second set from Gina Suarez-Malaguti at line 1.

But once Lauren McHale took a tough second set at No. 5, the Tar Heels found additional energy, and victories by Caroline Price at 4 and Kate Vialle at 6 came quickly on the heels of McHale's win.

"When Lauren won her second set tiebreaker, it kind of got us over the hump a little bit," said North Carolina head coach Brian Kalbas. "Then Caroline did a very good job of closing her second set out, and then Kate, it was tight, three all in the second, and she won the last three games. So I thought once Lauren won that close second set, we got a little more momentum and closed the matches out."

Kalbas admitted he would not be staying to see who his team would play on Sunday, with the UCLA and Michigan match not even begun on the North courts, when his team had claimed their victory.

"We've played both those teams and we know them pretty well, so I think I need some rest," said Kalbas, who went on to praise the effort of the Cornhuskers. "I give them a lot of credit. They're very well coached, they're a high class operation and I respect what Scott (Jacobson) and Hayden (Perez) have done with that program. They've gotten better, and made the Team Indoor and the round of 16. They competed very well and gave us a huge battle."
==========================================
No. 2 North Carolina 4, No. 15 Nebraska 1
7 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #11 Mary Weatherholt (NEB) vs. #7 Gina Suarez-Malaguti (UNC) 3-6, 6-1, 3-2*
2. #49 Zoe De Bruycker (UNC) vs. Patricia Veresova (NEB) 1-6, 6-1, 1-1*
3. Stefanie Weinstein (NEB) def. #39 Whitney Kay (UNC) 6-4, 6-1
4. #46 Caroline Price (UNC) def. Janine Weinreich (NEB) 7-6(2), 6-2
5. Lauren McHale (UNC) def. Maggy Lehmicke (NEB) 6-0, 7-6(0)
6. Kate Vialle (UNC) def. Izabella Zgierska (NEB) 6-1, 6-3

Doubles
1. #58 Price/Kay (UNC) vs. #3 Weatherholt/Veresova (NEB) 7-6*
2. McHale/Dai (UNC) def. Weinstein/Weinreich (NEB) 8-2
3. Suarez-Malaguti/Lyons (UNC) def. Lehmicke/Zgierska (NEB) 8-3

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (3,5,4,6)
* = unfinished
==========================================

Once the UCLA Bruins finally took the court Friday evening, at 11:30 p.m., they were able to do what the other three winners on the North Courts could not: post a victory in less than three hours. After a long and seesaw doubles point went to the Bruins, they took control in singles, posting a 4-0 victory over Michigan in a match that ended just prior to 2 a.m.

Courtney Dolehide gave UCLA its second point with a quick 6-1, 6-0 win over Kristen Dodge at line 6, and with four of the five first sets that were decided, the Bruins were in good shape.

Robin Anderson at line 1 and Kyle McPhillips at line 2 did the honors, with McPhillips giving UCLA point number three with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Ronit Yurovsky, and just moments later, Anderson broke Emina Bektas to earn the fourth point by a 6-3, 6-4 score.

Head coach Stella Sampras Webster acknowledged the difficulty both teams had in waiting over four hours past their original start time to take the courts.

"It was tough," said Sampras Webster. "It was tough on both teams to wait and play this late, not knowing when to eat, to stretch, how to get ready. I think our team did a good job, but they didn't come out as strong as I would have liked in doubles, but getting that doubles point kind of relieved some of the stress, the pressure. We played really well, and when you're in this, you don't really know what time it is--you're playing, you're competing and it's intense. I just look at the clock, and I'm like wow, it's 12:30. They did a great job of keeping their energy up and come out and compete hard."

Sampras Webster said her team is looking forward to that rematch with North Carolina.

"We're excited. They're a great team and I know we're looking forward to playing them," Sampras Webster said. "We're definitely where we want to be. The team did a great job of staying focused and doing what they needed to do. They really want this, they really want to do well here, and they did what we needed them to do."
==========================================
No. 7 UCLA 4, No. 10 Michigan 0
7 p.m. CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #3 Robin Anderson (UCLA) def. #30 Emina Bektas (MICH) 6-3, 6-4
2. #20 Kyle McPhillips (UCLA) def. #58 Ronit Yurovsky (MICH) 6-1, 6-2
3. Pamela Montez (UCLA) vs. Brooke Bolender (MICH) 7-6(3)*
4. #99 Sarah Lee (MICH) vs. Chanelle Van Nguyen (UCLA) 6-3, 3-2*
5. #93 Catherine Harrison (UCLA) vs. Amy Zhu (MICH) 7-6(3), 2-1*
6. Courtney Dolehide (UCLA) def. Kristen Dodge (MICH) 6-1, 6-0

Doubles
1. #6 Bektas/Bolender (MICH) def. #25 Anderson/Morton (UCLA) 8-6
2. #38 Dolehide/Montez (UCLA) def. #90 Lee/Nguyen (MICH) 9-7
3. Harrison/McPhillips (UCLA) def. Yurovsky/Dodge (MICH) 8-2

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6,2,1)
* = unfinished

NOTE: Match was completed on Saturday, but is being backdated to keep all the women's matches on the same day.

Miami Women Take 4-3 Decision From Northwestern to Set Up Quarterfinal with Texas A&M

2013-05-17T23:30:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

The North courts at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center were the scene of one marathon after another in the women's round of 16 Friday. After Cal needed four hours to subdue Alabama, and Stanford battled past Southern California in five hours, No. 6 seed Miami and No. 11 Northwestern took the courts for their 4 p.m. match at 7 p.m. Keeping the theme going, it was 11 p.m. before the Hurricanes earned a 4-3 victory to advance to the quarterfinals against No. 3 seed Texas A&M.

Miami started off comfortably, taking the doubles point in dominating fashion and getting a quick 6-1, 6-2 victory from Stephanie Wagner at No. 1.

But that was all that came easy for Miami. Kelsey Laurente of Miami and Linda Mushrefova of Northwestern, playing side by side on courts 2 and 4, won their matches simultaneously, giving Miami a 3-1 lead.

Northwestern made it 3-2 with Alicia Barnett's three-set win over Monique Albuquerque at line 5, just as splits came on courts 3 and 6. Nida Hamilton of Northwestern forced a third at line 6, as did Lina Lilekite of Miami at line 3.

Lilekite took a 3-0 lead in the third set, but Niu won the next four games to go up a break. She gave it back for 4-4 and Lilekite held in the next game, which featured five deuces. Serving at 4-5, Niu faced a match point at 30-40, but she hit a confident overhead to save it, then another to get a game point, which she converted for 5-5. Niu broke and then served out the match, making it 3-3.

On court 6, Melissa Bolivar of Miami had squandered a 3-1 lead in the third set, but she broke Hamilton at 4-4 to give herself a chance to serve for the match. As all the coaches and teammates moved to the sidelines of the far court, Bolivar took a 40-0 lead. On the first match point, Bolivar double faulted, and on the second she netted a backhand early in the rally. On the third match point, the ball crossed over the net several dozen times, the tension building with each stroke, when Hamilton finally found a ball she liked and hit a forehand to the far sideline. Bolivar called it out, and the Northwestern fans and a few UCLA supporters sitting behind the fence on the line immediately rose as one to protest. Hamilton appealed to the chair umpire, who confirmed Bolivar's call, and the match was over.

"Northwestern's a great team," said head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. "They always give us trouble. They seem to pick on our weaknesses and play them well. We responded well today in some positions and we didn't respond so well in other positions, but it was a great college tennis match."

Yaroshuk-Tews didn't feel either team played their best tennis, possibly due to the three-hour delay in getting on the courts for their match.

"Getting off the court at 11:15 at night after hitting four times, you're at times just hoping a kid doesn't get hurt. It's just a little crazy to me. Last year we were playing until 2 a.m., this year (Michigan and UCLA) are going to be playing to 3 a.m. I don't think you're seeing the best tennis you would see from Northwestern or Miami in these conditions, and it's unfortunate it's happening at the NCAA tournament, but it is what it is."

Asked what she thought of the match's controversial finish, Yaroshuk-Tews supported her player.

"Obviously, if there's a close call made on the far sideline and there's 30 opposing fans on top of the line, obviously they're going to make it out like you stole the match from us," said Yaroshuk-Tews. "That's not how we play, that's not how my player plays. The umpire supported my player and I support my player's call. I was clear on the other side of the court. I think it was a very fair match from both teams from beginning to end. It's unfortunate some fans would make a kid that's been out there for that long fighting for a match think like that on the way out. That's a little disappointing to me, but I back my kid's call all the way."

No. 6 Miami 4, No. 11 Northwestern 3

4 p.m. CT – North Courts

Singles

1. #60 Stephanie Wagner (MIA) def. Veronica Corning (NU) 6-1, 6-2

2. #81 Kelsey Laurente (MIA) def. #57 Kate Turvy (NU) 6-1, 6-3

3. Belinda Niu (NU) def. #105 Lina Lilekite (MIA) 6-3, 4-6, 7-5

4. Linda Abu Mushrefova (NU) def. #102 Clementina Riobueno (MIA) 6-0, 6-4

5. Alicia Barnett (NU) def. Monique Albuquerque (MIA) 6-3, 1-6, 6-1

6. Melissa Bolivar (MIA) def. Nida Hamilton (NU) 7-6(6), 1-6, 6-4

Doubles

1. Albuquerque/Riobueno (MIA) def. #14 Mushrefova/Hamilton (NU) 8-1

2. Bolivar/Laurente (MIA) vs. Corning/Barnett (NU) 6-3*

3. Wagner/Dubins (MIA) def. Turvy/Niu (NU) 8-1

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (1,2,4,5,3,6)

* = unfinished

===========================================

There was much less drama in No. 3 Texas A&M's 5-0 win over No. 14 Virginia.

The Aggies reached their first NCAA quarterfinal by taking the doubles point, and getting wins from Ines Deheza at line 4 and Nazari Urbina at line 3 to make it 3-0.

Texas A&M had some difficulty closing it out, with Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar at No. 1 losing two straight games to Julia Elbaba at 7-5, 5-0. Cristina Stancu got a 5-2 lead over Stephanie Nauta at line 2 however, and both were in and won their match points to make the final score 5-0.

Head coach Howard Joffe knew that even after winning five of six first sets, that Virginia would bounce back.

"No one's ever really beaten, because they've done so much competing," Joffe said. "While we did race into some leads, it's kind of like an NBA playoff game, where you get up by 15 and don't go get the popcorn because it's going to be tied. I did like that when Virginia did start to rally, there was minimal whining and complaining. We stuck to the task and we're definitely playing quite well."

Joffe and his team are in the unusual position of being highly ranked, but without extensive NCAA Sweet 16 experience.

At the most basic level, I understand we have eight very, very fine players and there's no team that we can't beat," Joffe said. "And I think our record would indicate that. On the other hand, we've got a coach who's never made as a head coach the last 16 and a bunch of young ladies who haven't played at the finals site. So I guess it is a little scary, but we do have three seniors and a junior and our freshmen are very mature. We've handled all the trials and tribulations well, so it's not that much of a concern."

No. 3 Texas A&M 5, No. 14 Virginia 0

4 p.m. CT – South Courts

Singles

1. #4 Cristina Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) def. #12 Julia Elbaba (UVA) 7-5, 6-2

2. #68 Cristina Stancu (TAMU) def. #78 Stephanie Nauta (UVA) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2

3. #52 Nazari Urbina (TAMU) def. Hana Tomljanovic (UVA) 6-3, 6-4

4. Ines Deheza (TAMU) def. Li Xi (UVA) 6-2, 6-1

5. Anna Mamalat (TAMU) vs. Erin Vierra (UVA) 2-6, 6-2, 4-1*

6. Stefania Hristov (TAMU) vs. Caryssa Peretz (UVA) 6-1, 3-6, 5-2*

Doubles

1. #18 Stancu/Hristov (TAMU) def. Nauta/Vierra (UVA) 9-7

2. #49 Wen/Sanchez-Quintanar (TAMU) def. Elbaba/Tomljanovic (UVA) 7-4*

3. Deheza/Deheza (TAMU) def. Fuccillo/Xi (UVA) 8-3

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (4,3,2,1)

* = unfinished

Stanford Wins Five-Hour Thriller Over Southern Cal, Will Meet Georgia in Quarterfinals

2013-05-17T22:06:00.002-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

No. 12 seed Stanford came into their round of 16 meeting Friday with Pac-12 rival and No. 5 seed Southern Cal with revenge on their minds. The Cardinal had lost 6-1 to USC just weeks ago, and last year the Women of Troy eliminated Stanford in a tense 4-2 quarterfinal in Athens.

It took nearly five hours, but Stanford accomplished their mission, defeating Southern Cal 4-3, with sophomore Ellen Tsay clinching the victory at No. 5 singles.

"It's really sweet," said Stanford head coach Lele Forood. "We've had some real battles with USC. They eliminated us from the tournament last year, and they killed us at their place a little over a month ago. We were looking for payback, it was a really close match; it could have gone either way, quite frankly."

The doubles point, which lasted ninety minutes, saw Nicole Gibbs and Kristie Ahn deal USC's Sabrina Santamaria and Kaitlyn Christian their first loss of the season in a tiebreaker. Gibbs and Ahn served for the match twice, at 7-4 and 7-6, but overcame those lapses, dominated the tiebreaker, winning it 9-8(2) to give the Cardinal a precious first point.

In singles, USC took four first sets, but Stanford struck first, with Stacey Tan making it 2-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Giuliana Olmos at line 4. Kaitlyn Christian gave USC its first point with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Natalie Dillon at line 6, but Stanford answered back when Nicole Gibbs took down Sabrina Santamaria 7-6(3), 6-2, after trailing 5-1 in the first set.

With Stanford leading 3-1, USC had leads on the other three courts, but only Zoe Scandalis could close it out in two sets. When she defeated Krista Hardebeck 6-3, 7-6(5) at No. 3, it was 3-2, with Kristie Ahn of Stanford and Tsay both forcing third sets with Danielle Lao and Gabriella DeSimone.

Tsay had trailed 7-5, 3-0, so that was an opportunity lost for USC, but Forood knew that Tsay would be dangerous if she extended DeSimone into a third set.

"Gabby's had some physical problems," said Forood. "We know each other so well, and she had to struggle at Ojai and was on crutches when we left the Pac-12s, so she was doing a great job with what she's been through over the last month. But that's the thing, when you play a team you're really familiar with, you know an awful lot of what's going on. So Ellen just hung in there and did a really good job."

Lao was unable to close out Ahn on her first attempt, serving at 5-4 in the third, but she succeeded the second time tying the match with her 6-4, 2-6, 7-5 victory and sending all attention to court 5, the last court in the bank of six.

Less than a minute after Lao made it 3-3, Tsay got a break with DeSimone serving at 3-4. Stepping to the line, Tsay showed no sign of nerves, serving well to get two shanked returns from DeSimone, staying in the two rallies after that and crafting a 40-15 lead. On the first match point, she missed her first serve, but her second was outstanding, and when DeSimone's forehand found the net, the celebration began for the Cardinal.

"I thought my second serve was really solid today," said Tsay, a sophomore from California. "I had maybe only one double fault. And that gave me a lot of confidence. Even when my first serve wasn't cutting it, I didn't get nervous or anything."

Tsay had clinched plenty of matches for the Cardinal this year, but she knew this one was different.

"This is actually the first one where I felt like I clinched," said Tsay. "The other ones, I feel the other people on my team were up and even if I hadn't won my match, we probably would have won. But this is like the biggest moment for me so far in my two years, so if felt pretty good."

Gibbs said Tsay's concentration was impressive throughout the three hours and fifteen minutes she was on court.

"We we sitting in the (post-match) team meeting just now and Lele was talking about how I won my match, and Ellen said to me, 'oh, you won?' She had no idea," said Gibbs. "And I think that's so valuable, and a lot of the reason that she probably pulled it out today, just focusing in on the things she needed to focus on, and being such a champion out there."
==========================================
No. 12 Stanford 4, No. 5 USC 3
Noon CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #13 Nicole Gibbs (STAN) def. #2 Sabrina Santamaria (USC) 7-6(3), 6-2
2. #9 Danielle Lao (USC) def. #25 Kristie Ahn (STAN) 6-4, 2-6, 7-5
3. #27 Zoe Scandalis (USC) def. #14 Krista Hardebeck (STAN) 6-3, 7-6(5)
4. #103 Stacey Tan (STAN) def. #79 Giuliana Olmos (USC) 6-2, 6-2
5. #92 Ellen Tsay (STAN) def. Gabriella DeSimone (USC) 5-7, 7-5, 6-3
6. Kaitlyn Christian (USC) def. Natalie Dillon (STAN) 6-3, 6-1

Doubles
1. #8 Ahn/Gibbs (STAN) def. #2 Christian/Santamaria (USC) 9-8(2)
2. Olmos/Scandalis (USC) def. #28 Tan/Tsay (STAN) 8-6
3. Dillon/Hardebeck (STAN) def. DeSimone/Lao (USC) 8-1

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (4,6,1,3,2,5)
=========================================

Although they finished more than two hours before Stanford did, No. 4 seed Georgia wouldn't claim their 4-2 win over No. 13 Clemson was an easy one. Georgia lost the doubles point, with the Tigers' Yana Koroleva and Beatrice Gumulya taking down the nation's top-ranked team of Kate Fuller and Silvia Garcia 8-3 in the process.

In the singles, the Bulldogs took four first sets, yet the outcome was very much in doubt until deep in the second set of the match between Maho Kowase and Liz Jeukeng at line 2.

Clemson took a 2-0 lead with Koroleva's 6-2, 6-0 win over Lauren Herring at No. 1, but Kate Fuller quickly followed with a win for Georgia at No. 4. Garcia tied it at 2, with a win at line 3, and Mia King gave the Bulldogs their first lead with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 win over Tristen Dewar at line 6.

Jeukeng needed to take the second set from Kowase, and she served for it at 6-5, but the freshman was broken at love, and Kowase was the more solid performer in the tiebreaker, earning a 7-6(4), 7-6(2) win to put Georgia in the quarterfinals for the third year in a row.

"Maho's just done a great job against Clemson," said Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace, recalling her clinching match in Georgia's 4-3 victory over Clemson in last year's round of 32. "She's done a great job against so many schools, but it just seems like every time with Clemson it comes down to her court. She's so tenacious, puts so many balls in play and is so hard to play against, because you're really going to have to come up with some special stuff to beat her. Not many people are able to do that."

"I thought Liz played well and it was a really tough match," Wallace continued. "You get two tiebreakers and things can go either way, but I was really proud of Maho, getting it done again for us."

No. 4 Georgia 4, No. 13 Clemson 2
Noon CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #16 Yana Koroleva (CLEM) def. #6 Lauren Herring (UGA) 6-2, 6-0
2. #19 Maho Kowase (UGA) def. Liz Jeukeng (CLEM) 7-6(4), 7-6(2)
3. #104 Silvia Garcia (UGA) def. #40 Beatrice Gumulya (CLEM) 6-4, 6-3
4. Kate Fuller (UGA) def. Romy Koelzer (CLEM) 6-4, 6-1
5. Ayaka Okuno (UGA) vs. Ani Miao (CLEM) 5-7, 6-3, 3-0*
6. Mia King (UGA) def. Tristen Dewar (CLEM) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2

Doubles
1. Koroleva/Gumulya (CLEM) def. #1 Fuller/Garcia (UGA) 8-3
2. Herring/Kowase (UGA) vs. Koelzer/Dewar (CLEM) 8-3
3. Jeukeng/Miao (CLEM) def. Kimbell/King (UGA) 8-1

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,4,3,6,2)
* = unfinished

Defending Champion Florida Women Roll into Quarterfinals to Face Battle-tested Cal Bears

2013-05-17T15:34:00.001-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

The two-time defending champion Gators were sympathetic to the plight faced by Duke, their Round of 16 opponent Friday morning at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center at the University of Illinois, but that didn't stop the No. 1 seeds from claiming a 4-0 win over the short-handed Blue Devils.

"If anyone can appreciate what Duke did this year, getting here with four players, it's Dave ( Balogh, associate head coach) and I," said Florida head coach Roland Thornqvist, who had faced a similar situation a few years back. "It's a remarkable feat on their part to get to the round of 16. They gave us everything we could handle on the courts where they could be competitive, and they were very, very competitive so we can appreciate what they did."

Playing with four scholarship players and a walk-on due to season-ending injuries to three starters, as well as the dismissal from school of last year's No. 1 Beatrice Capra, Duke had to forfeit No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles. Florida took the doubles point, and Olivia Janowicz soon made it 3-0 with her 6-1, 6-2 victory over soccer player Nicole Lipp, the mid-season addition to the team.

From there Florida needed just one more point, and although they had won first sets on three of the four matches remaining, Duke didn't make it easy for the Gators. Hanna Mar earned a split with top-ranked Lauren Embree at 1 and Sofie Oyen couldn't close out her 5-1 lead over Mary Clayton so it was up to Florida freshman Brianna Morgan at line 4. Morgan did what the two veterans couldn't, finishing off Marianne Jodoin 6-3, 6-0.

Although the match took less than three hours to complete, Duke head coach Jamie Ashworth knew that was irrelevant given the adversity his team had experienced throughout the spring.

"I think our girls learned a lot the last couple weeks about themselves," said Ashworth. "We struggled at the end of the season with some things, but we had two weeks of really good practice. We just had to compete and fight our butts off. I told them outside our locker room no one believed we could win last weekend against Mississippi and no one believed we could beat Texas Tech. But I told them that some of the best things in sport come when no one believes you can win and you go out and do it."

As for what lessons from this Duke will take into next year, Ashworth said, "Hopefully we get some people back and we get some people healthy, and I think they've learned that they don't just have to rely on talent, that they can win with heart and win with passion and pride, and that can carry you a long way. It's definitely a great learning experience, for myself too. I've never gone through anything like this, and you kind of take things for granted. Our girls are used to playing at home for regionals, they're used to playing here, but as soon as you look ahead....in January we thought we had a chance to win the thing, but you can't look ahead."

==========================================
No. 1 Florida 4, Duke 0
9 a.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #1 Lauren Embree (FLA) vs. #29 Hanna Mar (DUKE) 6-1, 3-5*
2. #17 Sofie Oyen (FLA) vs. #106 Mary Clayton (DUKE) 6-1, 5-4*
3. Annie Mulholland (DUKE) vs. #51 Alexandra Cercone (FLA) 6-3, 2-3*
4. #89 Brianna Morgan (FLA) vs. Marianne Jodoin (DUKE) 6-3, 6-0
5. #123 Olivia Janowicz (FLA) vs. Nicole Lipp (DUKE) 6-1, 6-2
6. #116 Caroline Hitimana (FLA) def. – (DUKE) Forfeit

Doubles
1. #11 Embree/Oyen (FLA) def. Clayton/Mar (DUKE) 8-1
2. Cercone/Hitmana (FLA) vs. Jodoin/Mulholland (DUKE) 4-4*
3. Collins/Morgan (FLA) def. – (DUKE) Forfeit

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (6,5,4)
* = unfinished
==========================================

Long after Florida had advanced, their quarterfinal opponent Sunday was still in doubt, with No. 8 seed California and No. 9 seed Alabama needing over four hours to decide their match, which went to the Bears 4-1.

Alabama took the doubles point, but the Bears came back in singles, taking five of the six first sets.

In quick succession, the Bears got wins from Klara Fabikova at line 2, Lynn Chi at line 4 and Anett Schutting at line 1 to take a 3-1 lead, but that fourth point remained elusive.

Annie Goransson of Cal served for that clinching point, breaking Emily Zabor at line 6 to take a 6-2, 6-5 lead, but she never got to match point, and Zabor completely outplayed her in the tiebreaker to earn a third set.

For a 10-minute period, it looked as if the match might come down to that match, with Alabama up a break in the third at both line 3 and line 5. Natalie Maynetto of Alabama held on to hers at 5, but Maya Jansen couldn't hold off Zsofi Susanyi at 3, who won the final five games of the match for the 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory that put the Bears in the quarterfinals.

Susanyi, who missed a big portion of the spring season due to a hip flexor problem and was sick this week to boot, was a semifinalist in the NCAAs last year, so head coach Amanda Augustus of Cal had confidence in her, even down 3-1.

"Zsofi hasn't played as many matches as she would like this year," said Augustus. "She's been working really, really hard to get it healthy and play as much as she can. She wants to be here and she wants to play these matches for the team, so I know when she's out there and she's down a break, she can turn it around. The girl changed her game game quite a few times against Zsofi--she'd hit the ball and then stay back and roll the ball, so I think Zsofi was trying to figure out what to do. Zsofi's great to coach because she is open to making adjustments within a match, so yeah, I felt pretty confident she could close that one out."

Augustus couldn't remember the last time Cal had played Florida, and she is eager for Sunday's meeting.

"Obviously, they're two-time defending champions, they're well coached, they're a great team," said Augustus. "I had Lauren Embree on the Master U team in France, so I know what a competitor she is. We're looking forward to it, it's great, it'll be great tennis. We have a lot of respect for their program and we've been working hard all year too, so we want to battle them and see who plays better on that day."

No. 8 California 4, No. 9 Alabama 1
9 a.m. CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #8 Anett Schutting (CAL) def. #34 Mary Anne Macfarlane (ALA) 6-3, 7-6(1)
2. #43 Klara Fabikova (CAL) def. #36 Alexa Guarachi (ALA) 6-2, 0-6, 6-3
3. #5 Zsofi Susanyi (CAL) def. #118 Maya Jansen (ALA) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
4. #70 Lynn Chi (CAL) def. Antonia Foehse (ALA) 7-6(1), 6-0
5. Natalia Maynetto (ALA) vs. Tayler Davis (CAL) 6-4, 3-6, 5-1*
6. Annie Goransson (CAL) vs. Emily Zabor (ALA) 6-2, 6-7(1), 3-0*

Doubles
1. Guarachi/Macfarlane (ALA) def. #33 Shutting/Chi (CAL) 8-5
2. Fabikova/Goransson (CAL) vs. Foehse/Jansen (ALA) 7-5*
3. Maynetto/Zabor (ALA) def. Davis/Chui (CAL) 8-5

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (2,4,1,3)
* = unfinished

Early Delivery Keeps Coach at Home, but Duke Advances to Quarterfinals with Wee Hours Victory Over Kentucky

2013-05-16T23:59:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

Duke head coach Ramsey Smith was not with his team for their quarterfinal match with Kentucky because his wife Kathy went into labor seven weeks early. Kathy Sell Smith, the former head coach of the Princeton women's team, delivered a baby girl Sophie, and his team delivered a 4-2 quarterfinal victory over the eighth-seeded Wildcats in a match that ended at 12:24 a.m. on Friday morning.

Assistant coach Jonathan Stokke took over for Smith, and the No. 9 Blue Devils had time to get used to the idea that Smith would not be traveling with them to the Sweet 16.

"As the week went on, it became pretty obvious that he wasn't going to be here for this match," said Stokke. "So we knew it, and we've been in contact with him, but I don't think he appreciated that he'd been dealing with his wife's labor for four days and then we give him this match going to 1 a.m. his time. It's kind of crazy and out of left field, and something I'm not prepared to deal with, or the guys, but everyone did a good job."

"As important as Ramsey and I like to think we are, they hit every ball," Stokke continued. "So if someone's going to be out, I'd rather it be one of us than one of them. We said if everyone takes care of what they need to do, execute their game plan the best they can, we'll have a chance."

The doubles point set the tone for the entire match, with Kentucky finally taking in after an hour and 23 minutes with a 9-7 win at No. 3.

But despite losing that point, Stokke said the team remained positive about their chances in the singles.

"We put through an awesome doubles point and they beat us," Stokke said. "We got the huddle and said, no regrets, we played an awesome point and we've six points left."

Duke won five of the six first sets in singles, and Jason Tahir brought them even quickly with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Beck Pennington at line 6. Tom Jomby put Kentucky back in the lead with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Fred Saba at No. 2, then Chris Mengel tied it again with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Kevin Lai at line 4.

Henrique Cunha and Anthony Rossi were locked in a tight battle at No. 1, with the level as high as you'd expect from two players ranked in the Top 10. Cunha broke for 5-3 in the second set, but dropped his serve, giving Rossi a chance to pull even. Rossi saved one match point with an amazing running backhand crosscourt pass, but Cunha got another, and this time Rossi could not pull off another difficult shot, and the usually calm Cunha celebrated giving Duke a 3-2 lead by falling to his knees.

"It's a little bizarre situation with Ramsey, but our team had worked so hard the past couple of weeks and we were ready for this tournament," said the senior from Brazil. "It's my senior year, my last chance to play here and I told the guys I'm going to leave it all on the court. I played well--he's a really good player, and it was a really tough match. The last couple of matches, I'm always thinking it could be my last match, so that gets me a little emotional. And I told everyone, let's win for him, so he can get back and see us play."

Stokke, who had some unofficial coaching assistance from Ramsey's father Stan Smith, who was in attendance, had not heard for certain whether Smith would join the team for Saturday's match with UCLA.

"I think there's a good chance he'll get here tomorrow night," said Stokke. "I haven't checked my phone yet, but we're hoping he'll be here."

With the 3-2 lead, Duke needed just one of the two matches still on court, and it was Raphael Hemmeler who delivered at No. 5, winning the final four games in his 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Grant Roberts.

"It could have gone either way," said Stokke. "Rafa's in a tight third, Red (Michael Redlicki) is in a tight third, Rossi's saving match points and we could have easily lost that match. But all we wanted was a chance, and we won the pressure points, which was great."

NOTE: This post was actually put up at 2 a.m Friday, but for the sake of keeping all the men's matches on the same day, it has been backdated.

No. 9 Duke 4, No. 8 Kentucky 2

7 p.m. CT – North Courts

Singles

1. #9 Henrique Cunha (DUKE) def. #5 Anthony Rossi (KY) 7-5, 6-4

2. #23 Tom Jomby (KY) def. #43 Fred Saba (DUKE) 6-4, 6-2

3. Charles Minc (KY) vs. #46 Michael Redlicki (DUKE) 3-6, 6-3, 4-2*

4. #121 Chris Mengel (DUKE) def. Kevin Lai (KY) 6-2, 7-5

5. #74 Raphael Hemmeler (DUKE) def. Grant Roberts (KY) 6-3, 5-7, 6-2

6. Jason Tahir (DUKE) def. Beck Pennington (KY) 6-3, 6-2

Doubles

1. #2 Cunha/Hemmeler (DUKE) def. #9 Jomby/Lai (KY) 8-4

2. Hirooka/Pennington (KY) def. #19 Tahir/Redlicki (DUKE) 8-0

3. Rossi/Murra (KY) def. Saba/Semenzato (DUKE) 9-7

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,2,4,1,5)

* = unfinished

Top Seed UCLA Begins Quest for NCAA Title with 4-0 Win Over Vanderbilt

2013-05-16T23:57:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

With their clinical 4-0 victory over No. 16 seed Vanderbilt Thursday night, top seed UCLA looked every bit the part of tournament favorite. And although he was pleased with the play of his team, head coach Billy Martin sees Virginia as the rightful owner of that designation.

"Quite honestly I think they deserved to be seeded No. 1," said Martin. "They're undefeated, they won the National Indoors, which is the only tournament we've all been to. So I wouldn't necessarily have argued for us to be the No. 1 seed. The powers that be did it, but in my opinion, they're the team to beat."

Taking the court around sunset, the Bruins were facing a Vanderbilt team which much less experience at the collegiate majors. UCLA won the doubles point and took all six first sets in singles, so any drama faded with the last of the daylight.

Clay Thompson earned the second Bruins point with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Marc van der Merwe at line 5, and Adrien Puget made it 3-0 UCLA with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jeff Offerdahl at line 3. UCLA's Karue Sell was up 6-4, 5-1 against Rhys Johnson at line 6, but he was broken and Johnson held to give the Commodores top two players a chance to make an impression in their matches. Ryan Lipman won the second set from Dennis Novikov at No. 1, and AJ Austin was toe-to-toe with Marcos Giron at No. 2 as Johnson fought off four match points before finally succumbing 6-4, 6-3.

"I'm always worried, because the first one at the final site, everyone's always nervous," said Martin. "That's the good thing about having some guys who have been through this before. Everybody but Karue has been through this before and that always helps. We got off to a good start in doubles, with 3 leading us there, and then at 1, so it wasn't so intense right from the start. And then we got off to a good start also in singles, so all in all I'm really happy to get through this first one."

With their quarterfinal opponent, the winner of the Kentucky - Duke match, barely starting their singles when UCLA finished, Martin could only be pleased with that scenario.

"They're probably going to go until 1 o'clock," said Martin, who then joked, "Let them go to until 3 in the morning. But anyhow, they've got a day to rest, so we'll have a barnburner against either one on Saturday."
=========================================
No. 1 UCLA 4, No. 16 Vanderbilt 0
7 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #27 Dennis Novikov (UCLA) vs. #10 Ryan Lipman (VAN) 6-3, 3-6*
2. #25 Marcos Giron (UCLA) vs. #48 Gonzales Austin (VAN) 6-1, 6-5*
3. #22 Adrien Puget (UCLA) def. Jeff Offerdahl (VAN) 6-2, 6-1
4. #75 Dennis Mkrtchian (UCLA) vs. Kris Yee (VAN) 6-4, 3-3*
5. #119 Clay Thompson (UCLA) def. Marc van der Merwe (VAN) 6-1, 6-2
6. Karue Sell (UCLA) def. Rhys Johnson (VAN) 6-4, 6-3

Doubles
1. #42 Giron/Novikov (UCLA) def. #38 Lipman/Austin (VAN) 8-4
2. #77 Puget/Sell (UCLA) vs. van der Merwe/Johnson (VAN) 5-5*
3. Brigham/Thompson (UCLA) def. Offerdahl/Eswaran (VAN) 8-0

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (5,3,6)
* = unfinished

Southern Cal Takes Down Baylor, Ohio State Beats Texas A&M to Advance to Men's D-I Quarterfinals

2013-05-16T22:33:00.001-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

The scores certainly don't reflect it, but Southern Cal and Ohio State had their hands full as day turned to night at the Khan Outdoor Center Thursday.

No. 4 seed and four-time defending champion Southern California dropped the doubles point but came back to defeat No. 13 Baylor 4-1, while No. 5 Ohio State shut out No. 12 Texas A&M to avenge one of their two defeats this year.

USC won its 27th straight match in the NCAA tournament, and head coach Peter Smith likened this evening's win over Baylor with one of the early victories in that impressive streak.

"The last time we had a round of 16 match like that was in 2009 against Stanford," said Smith. "They battle and how long did that match take? Three hours and 20 minutes? And I felt like they were winning it for about three hours. Every match went three sets, and I love that. Once it got going, I was just telling every guy, this is a battle, just enjoy it."

The teams split first sets, with Baylor taking the openers at lines 2, 3 and 6. USC closed out all the matches in which they had the first set, with Emilio Gomez at 1, Roberto Quiroz at 4 and Eric Johnson at 5 closing out their matches to make it 3-1. Baylor was unable to make inroads in those matches, but USC worked their way into a third set with Raymond Sarmiento at 2 and Yannick Hanfmann at 3 taking second sets from Julian Lenz and Mate Zsiga.

Hanfmann and Zsiga were late in the third, tied at 5-5 when Hanfmann, a sophomore from Germany, broke Zsiga at love and stepped to the line to serve out the win.

It was a comfortable place for Hanfmann, who clinched the Team Indoor title for the Trojans in 2012 and the NCAA title for them last year.

"I don't prefer to be the one at the end, but it happens like that," said Hanfmann. "I've been in that situation a couple of times, so I think I know how to deal with it. I'm pretty calm out there and the coaches help me with that. It's an uncomfortable situation, but I handle it comfortably."

Hanfmann hit two big serves to get to 30-0, then put away a short forehand to earn three match points. He missed his first serve, just barely, on the first one, but his second serve was so good that Zsiga couldn't get it back in play.

"To have it come down to Yannick, it's a comfortable feeling," said Smith. "He's improved so much, and the whole match I was thinking how much better he is than a year ago. Zsiga is the biggest warrior, I call him the beast, and you've got to beat that guy. "

===========================================
No. 4 USC 4, No. 13 Baylor 1
4 p.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #7 Emilio Gomez (USC) def. #24 Patrick Pradella (BAY) 6-4, 6-2
2. #55 Julian Lenz (BAY) vs. #16 Ray Sarmiento (USC) 6-4, 3-6, 3-1*
3. #45 Yannick Hanfmann (USC) def. #84 Mate Zsiga (BAY) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
4. #36 Roberto Quiroz (USC) def. #109 Tony Lupieri (BAY) 6-2, 7-6(2)
5. #90 Eric Johnson (USC) def. Diego Galeano (BAY) 6-3, 7-5
6. #68 Marko Krickovic (BAY) vs. Jonny Wang (USC) 6-4, 5-6*

Doubles
1. #63 Zsiga/Galeano (BAY) def. #37 Hanfmann/Sarmiento (USC) 8-6
2. #47 Gomez/Quiroz (USC) vs. Pradella/Maytin (BAY) 8-5
3. Lenz/Lupieri (BAY) def. de Vroome/Johnson (USC) 8-5

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (1,4,5,3)
* = unfinished
=============================================

Ohio State had the added motivation of an early season 4-3 loss to Texas A&M, but unlike that February day in College Station, this time the Buckeyes took the doubles point.

"Doubles is key," said Ohio State head coach Ty Tucker. "We try to bring energy, do good things. It helps when you have the NCAA champ from last year playing three doubles."

After taking the doubles point, Ohio State took four first sets in singles, but Texas A&M earned a split at No. 3, with Harrison Adams taking the second set from Connor Smith. Chris Diaz was having difficulty closing out Aggie Jackson Withrow at No. 5, but he finally gave Ohio State a 2-0 lead, closely followed by Buckeye Peter Kobelt, who won the battle of the one-handed backhands with Junior Ore 6-4, 7-6(4) at line 2.

Smith was serving for the match against Adams at 5-3, but was down 15-40 in that game before closing out a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win.

"Was I down 15-40?," the senior from Florida asked. "I don't even remember, I guess I was. I was just playing one point at a time. It was tough conditions--I haven't played under the lights all year, and with all the wind swirling, it was just tough. He's one of those players where I feel he goes really good, then goes down, so you just have to stay with him the whole time. He's a very talented player, but he's a freshman, and I just didn't want to lose to a freshman."

Tucker was full of praise for Smith, who had lost his match at No. 5 singles in the previous meeting between the two teams.

"Connor Smith was very, very good," said Tucker. "Owned the doubles court at No. 1 doubles, and came through. We would have like to have seen him put up more of a battle in the second set, but Connor Smith, grandpa, doesn't want to it end. He wants to play a few more times."

Looking ahead to USC in Saturday's quarterfinals, Tucker knows his team faces a challenge.

"We're 0-4 in the last 4 and they've owned us," said Tucker, who lost to USC at the 2012 Indoor final that Hanfmann clinched. "They've done some good things. The doubles point will obviously be key, but I'd hate to lose to them again. I'd have to ask Peter Smith if I could go out; he'd be in charge of me. Five in a row, he owns me."

No. 5 Ohio State 4, No. 12 Texas A&M 0
4 p.m. CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #12 Blaz Rola (OSU) vs. #18 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU) 3-6, 7-5, 1-0*
2. #8 Peter Kobelt (OSU) def. #100 Junior Ore (TAMU) 6-4, 7-6(4)
3. #71 Connor Smith (OSU) def. #103 Harrison Adams (TAMU) 6-4, 1-6, 6-3
4. #73 Devin McCarthy (OSU) vs. #76 Shane Vinsant (TAMU) 7-6(2), 6-5*
5. #104 Chris Diaz (OSU) def. Jackson Withrow (TAMU) 6-1, 7-5
6. Jordan Szabo (TAMU) vs. Hunter Callahan (OSU) 6-3, 4-6, 3-1*

Doubles
1. #12 Kobelt/Smith (OSU) def. #8 Ore/Withrow (TAMU) 8-4
2. #29 Adams/Vinsant (TAMU) def. #90 McCarthy/Van Engelen (OSU) 8-5
3. Rola/Callahan (OSU) def. Efferding/Szabo (TAMU) 8-6

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (5,2,3)
*= unfinished

No. 2 Virginia and No. 7 Tennessee Post Contrasting Wins to Set Up Quarterfinal Meeting

2013-05-16T18:59:00.001-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL--

The celebrations told the story.

Mac Styslinger of Virginia barely pumped a fist after clinching No. 2 Virginia's 4-0 victory over unseeded Cal, while Hunter Reese of No. 7 seed Tennessee did a deep knee bend and let out a roar after earning the Volunteers' fourth point against No. 10 Mississippi State.

Virginia is into the quarterfinals for the ninth consecutive year, and after winning the doubles point and five of the six first sets against the Bears, it was a question of who, not if.

Tennessee also captured the doubles point, but the teams split the first sets in singles, so the Volunteers 4-2 victory was far from assured.

Jarryd Chaplin made it 2-0 Tennessee with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Jordan Angus at line 4 before Mississippi State got on the board with a 6-2, 6-2 win from Pedro Dumont over Ed Jones at line 6. Tennessee got their cushion back when Brandon Fickey took a 6-3, 6-2 decision from James Chaudry at 3. Mississippi State responded with Zach White's 6-4, 6-3 win over John Collins at 5 to make it 3-2, meaning the match would come down to courts 1 and 2.

By then, the ITA's top-ranked player, Mikelis Libietis of Tennessee, had split sets with No. 6 Romain Bogaerts at 1, while Reese was down a set point with Malte Stropp at 6-3, 4-5 30-40. A good first serve got Reese out of that tight spot and he held for 5-5, then broke Stropp to take a 6-5 lead. Stropp continued to play aggressively in the final game but a lucky net cord winner for Reese gave him a 30-0 lead and he closed it out from there.

Reese was ready for a tough match from Stropp.

"It's like the fourth time I've played him and he's tough," said the sophomore from Georgia. "We battle every time. We've had some weird ones. I've saved match points and won, he saved like ten match points before I won, and we've had some ridiculous matches. I was up a break in both sets and he came back in both sets. It's so back and forth. He can turn it on, he's a great player, he can move you all over the court and you gotta stay tough the whole match."

Tennessee survived a 4-3 match against Clemson in the regional final in Knoxville, a win that head coach Sam Winterbotham agreed may have helped his team.

"It helps you lose years off your life," joked Winterbotham. "Honestly, that was one of the funnest college tennis matches I've been a part of in a long time. They competed so well, both teams. But it helps. They feel like they've earned it (a place in the round of 16) and they are ready to keep advancing."

No. 7 Tennessee 4, No. 10 Mississippi State 2
Noon CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #1 Mikelis Libietis (TENN) vs. #6 Romain Bogaerts (MSU) 3-6, 6-1, 3-1*
2. #34 Hunter Reese (TENN) def. #57 Malte Stropp (MSU) 6-3, 7-5
3. Brandon Fickey (TENN) def. James Chaudry (MSU) 6-3, 6-2
4. Jarryd Chaplin (TENN) def. Jordan Angus (MSU) 6-3, 6-3
5. Zach White (MSU) def. John Collins (TENN) 6-4, 6-3
6. Pedro Dumont (MSU) def. Edward Jones (TENN) 6-2, 6-2

Doubles
1. #1 Libietis/Reese (TENN) def. #13 Stropp/Angus (MSU) 8-6
2. Wilkinson/Dumont (MSU) def. Fickey/Chaplin (TENN) 9-8(4)
3. #34 Jones/Collins (TENN) def. Bogaerts/White (MSU) 8-6

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (4,6,3,5,2)
* = unfinished
========================================

Virginia got their singles wins from Julien Uriguen at No. 6, over Riki McLachlan, Alex Domijan over Christoffer Konigsfeldt at No. 2 and Styslinger at line 4 over Gregory Bayane.

Cavalier head coach Brian Boland made a change in his lineup prior to the match, removing Ryan Shane at 4, allowing Stylslinger and Justin Shane to move up a slot, and Uriguen to move into the No. 6 spot.

"We'll look at each match," said Boland of the lineup moves. "We feel we have some good options and we'll see where we're at. It's a good problem to have."

After two straight appearances in the finals, Boland has heard the question countless times, but is this Virginia's year?

"We're just going to play every match as hard as we can," said Boland. "I felt like we prepared well for the tournament, like we have every year. I'm really proud of our consistency. Our guys come to play every day. We've fallen short in some close matches over the years at the end, but we've been there, and given ourselves a chance every year. The consistency that we've been able to provide year in and year out and coming ready to play I think is a testament to a lot of hard work from our current and former players. We're really proud of that."
==========================================
No. 2 Virginia 4, California 0
Noon CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #3 Jarmere Jenkins (UVA) vs. #38 Ben McLachlan (CAL) 6-3, 4-6, 0-0*
2. #2 Alex Domijan (UVA) def. #86 Christoffer Konigsfeldt (CAL) 6-2, 6-4
3. #39 Mitchell Frank (UVA) vs. #60 Campbell Johnson (CAL) 6-2, 3-0*
4. Mac Styslinger (UVA) def. Gregory Bayane (CAL) 6-4, 6-1
5. Mads Engsted (CAL) vs. Justin Shane (UVA) 7-6(4), 3-1*
6. Julien Uriguen (UVA) def. Riki McLachlan (CAL) 6-0, 6-1

Doubles
1. #4 Jenkins/Styslinger (UVA) def. #26 Johnson/Konigsfeldt (CAL) 8-4
2. #21 Domijan/Frank (UVA) def. Engsted/McLachlan (CAL) 8-5
3. Bayane/Melton (CAL) def. #89 Shane/Uriguen (UVA) 8-6

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (6,2,4)
*Unfinished

Pepperdine, Georgia Men Advance to Rematch in Quarterfinals

2013-05-16T15:30:00.000-04:00

©Colette Lewis 2013--
Urbana, IL

No. 3 seed Georgia and No. 11 seed Pepperdine will meet again in the quarterfinals after winning the first dual matches of the Men's NCAA Division I Round of 16.

Pepperdine lost the doubles point, but came back strong in singles to beat unseeded Memphis 4-2 Thursday morning at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Center on the University of Illinois campus. Georgia held off a late charge by No. 14 Oklahoma to take a 4-1 victory over the Sooners.

Pepperdine head coach Adam Steinberg was impressed with the Memphis Tigers for their energy and that of their fans, who drove the seven hours north to support them.

"So much credit to Memphis, I'd never seen them, but they have a great team," said Steinberg. "They were supported so well. We're just a little too far to bring enough people, but it was great for them. What an amazing season they had."

Steinberg wasn't about to panic when his team lost the doubles point, since they had lost 11 doubles points during the year and went on to win eight of those matches.

"We remained calm," said Steinberg. "Last year we came to the Sweet 16 and we lost the doubles point to Tulsa, and I reminded them of that and that we went to the final four. So there was no reason to panic. We've won a lot of matches this year down the doubles, and I talked about what we needed to do. We didn't do that in the doubles, but in the singles, we did a great job of fighting, and that's what we are."

Pepperdine tied it up with Alex Sarkissian defeating Joe Salisbury at line 2 6-2, 6-3, but Memphis regained the lead with David O'Hare's 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 6. It stayed that way for a while, but Pepperdine had the first sets on the other four courts. Memphis got one split, at line 4, but couldn't earn another. The Tigers' Connor Glennon, who broke his left wrist in a car accident a few weeks ago and did not play doubles, hung with Pepperdine's Sebastian Fanselow for a set, but with only a slice backhand available to him, he fell 7-6(3), 6-1 to pull Pepperdine even. Mousheg Hovhannisyan gave the Waves a 3-2 lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win at line 5, and just minutes later, Finn Tearney clinched for Pepperdine with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lucas Vrnak of Memphis.
==========================================
No. 11 Pepperdine 4, Memphis 2

9 a.m. CT – North Courts
Singles
1. #11 Sebastian Fanselow (PEPP) def. Connor Glennon (MEM) 7-6 (3), 6-1
2. #62 Alex Sarkissian (PEPP) def. Joe Salisbury (MEM) 6-2, 6-3
3. #107 Finn Tearney (PEPP) def. Lukas Vrnak (MEM) 6-2, 6-4
4. Johnny Grimal (MEM) vs. #102 Francis Alcantara (PEPP) 2-6, 6-3, 4-2*
5. Mousheg Hovhannisyan (PEPP) def. David O’Leary (MEM) 6-4, 6-4
6. David O’Hare (MEM) def. Davis Sofaer (PEPP) 6-4, 6-1

Doubles
1. #64 Salisbury/O’Hare (MEM) def. #43 Fanselow/Alcantara (PEPP) 8-2
2. Vmak/Grimal (MEM) vs. Sarkissian/Tearney (PEPP) 5-4*
3. De Zutter/O’Leary (MEM) def. Hovhannisyan/Sofaer (PEPP) 8-5

Order of Finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (2,6,1,5,3)
* = unfinished
==========================================

Georgia looked sharp in the doubles against an Oklahoma team coached by two former Bulldogs, head coach John Roddick and assistant Bo Hodge.

It didn't take long for the Sooners to overcome that deficit, however, with Axel Alvarez Llamas defeating Austin Smith at No. 3 6-1, 6-1.

Eric Nunez gave Georgia a 2-1 lead with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Nick Papac at line 6, and Hernus Pieters made it 3-1 with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Dane Webb at line 4.

Georgia's Nathan Pasha had taken the first set from Guillermo Alcorta at line 2, and Wagland had the first set for Georgia at 1 over Costin Paval, but both dropped their second sets. Meanwhile, Georgia's Garrett Brasseaux was down 3-0 in his final set with Leonard Stakhovsky at line 5, giving the Sooners hope that they would post another point and put pressure on the two Bulldogs just starting the third set.

Brasseaux took the next five games of the match however and had three match points at 0-40 with Stakhovsky serving at 3-5, only to lose the game, as the clouds rolled in and a few sprinkles were visible on the bright blue area surrounding the courts. Stakhovsky took a medical timeout at the changeover of that game, forcing Brasseaux to think about serving for the match. The junior from Louisiana made it interesting but when he got to match point at 40-30, he shut the door by serving and volleying, executing a drop volley that spun back into the net.

"It had been working for me all match, and he actually hit a good return," said Brasseaux. "He hit another good pass and I hit a stab volley to save it."

After the abrupt departure of their top player KU Singh prior to the regionals, the Georgia team has banded together.

"The Bulldogs that are, are the Bulldogs that are here," said head coach Manny Diaz. "We moved on a long time ago. We were in this position for nine matches this year, and our team has used that as a way to come together. We're very close and just a fighting team, a blue collar, play for each other kind of team."

Diaz said he was conflicted in coaching against two of his former players.

"In a way it's difficult and it's a way it's fun," said Diaz. "They're great guys and they're doing a tremendous job with that program, and it's just too bad one of us had to go out of the tournament. They have a great team, and if I had to pick somebody not to play in the round of 16, it would have been them. We had a great victory today, we earned it and it was physically and emotionally draining."

As for the rematch with Pepperdine, which saw the Waves take out Georgia 4-3 in Athens, Diaz downplayed the revenge factor.

"From one year to the next, teams change," said Diaz, who will have only two players on the court who played the Waves last year in Athens. "The only thing that doesn't change is the coaches."
==========================================
No. 3 Georgia 4, No. 14 Oklahoma 1
9 a.m. CT – South Courts
Singles
1. #21 Costin Paval (OKLA) vs. #33 Ben Wagland (UGA) 5-7, 6-4, 5-4*
2. #47 Nathan Pasha (UGA) vs. #58 Guillermo Alcorta (OKLA) 7-6 (1), 2-6, 2-1*
3. #110 Axel Alvarez Llamas (OKLA) def. Austin Smith (UGA) 6-1, 6-1
4. #115 Hernus Pieters (UGA) def. #64 Dane Webb (OKLA) 7-5, 6-3
5. Garrett Brasseaux (UGA) def. Leonard Stakhovsky (OKLA) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
6. Marco Nunez (UGA) def. Nick Papac (OKLA) 6-4, 6-3

Doubles
1. #5 Pieters/Wagland (UGA) vs. #46 Paval/Webb (OKLA) 4-4*
2. #15 Pasha/Brasseaux (UGA) def. #68 Alcorta/Alvarez Llamas (OKLA) 8-5
3. Nunez/Diaz (UGA) def. Formentera/Papac (OKLA) 8-4

Order of Finish: Doubles (2,3); Singles (3,6,4,5)
* = unfinished

National Open Recap; Live Coverage of NCAA D-1 Begins Thursday; UCLA's Novikov Will Play for UCLA After Suspension in Regional for Arrest

2013-05-15T23:17:00.000-04:00

My recap of Monday's East Grand Rapids National Open, which featured titles by Paul Oosterbaan and Anna Sanford, was published today at the Tennis Recruiting Network. It was quite a shock to the system to go from temperatures in the 40s on Monday to the upper 80s today in Champaign-Urbana, the site of the NCAA Division I championships.

I hadn't seen the new 12-court facility at the University of Illinois until today, and it is beautiful. Although the next two days will prove the real test, it appears that both matches will be easy to track at the same time. The men's round of 16 matches kick off the tournament this year, with the 9 a.m. (Central) matches featuring No. 11 seed Pepperdine against this year's Cinderella, Memphis, and no. 3 seed Georgia against No. 14 Oklahoma. John Roddick, a Georgia alum, will take on his former coach and team for the second time in the final stage of the NCAA championships. The noon matches are No. 7 seed Tennessee versus No. 10 seed Mississippi State, and No. 2 Virginia versus unseeded Cal.

The 4 p.m. matches are No. 5 seed Ohio State against No. 12 Texas A&M, and No. 4 seed and four-time defending champion Southern Cal against No. 13 seed Baylor.

The long day will end with No. 8 Kentucky versus No. 9 Duke and No. 16 seed Vanderbilt versus No. 1 seed UCLA. The lineups are available, as are links to live streaming, at the Illinois NCAA tournament website.

In the past few days the rumors of the arrest of UCLA sophomore Dennis Novikov began to circulate, and the tips that I had received suggested both DUI and firearms were involved. Here is what I've learned from my sources about the arrest, which was prior to the regional last weekend.

Novikov was with friends in the Santa Barbara area, where he was planning to spend the night at another friend's home. While waiting in the car for his host to return home and let them in, he took a BB pistol, which belonged to him, and stuck it out the window for target practice on a nearby tree. A neighbor witnessed this action and called the police, who arrested Novikov. Alcohol was not involved in the incident. His court date is in June.

UCLA has a policy that an arrest by an athlete results in immediate suspension from the next game or match, and Novikov did not play in the Bruins' first round match against University of Missouri-Kansas City last Friday. He played in the Drake match and will play Thursday against Vanderbilt.

I hope to have a statement from UCLA and when I receive it, I will post it here.

National Open Results; Upcoming College Showcases; Cox Retires at Arkansas; Tennis Junior Aces Magazine

2013-05-14T20:11:00.000-04:00

I spent Monday at the USTA National Open in East Grand Rapids, Michigan and I'll have an update on the boys and girls 18s finals there for Tennis Recruiting Network tomorrow. Below are the results of the National Opens completed yesterday around the country:

Boys 12s:
Joseph Brailovsky(5) def. Scott Sculley(6) 7-5, 6-1
Nathan Han(4) def. Nathan Arimilli(3)    6-4, 3-6, 10-3
Govind Nanda(1) def. Alexey Lunin(2) 6-2, 6-2
Garrett Johns(1) def. Anuj Watane(2) 6-1, 6-2

Girls 12s:
Lea Ma(1) def. Tia Mukherjee(4)    6-4, 6-7(5), 10-6
Zoe Hitt(1) def. Thea Rice(2) 7-6, 3-6, 10-5
Britt Pursell(5) def. Vivian Cheng 4-6. 6-4, 10-5
Nicole Stephens(3) def. Whitney Osuigwe(1) 6-3, 1-6, 11-9

Boys 14s:
Patrick Kypson(1) def. Andrew Fenty(7)    6-1, 6-2
Sean Hill(3) def. Alafia Ayeni(2) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3
Trent Bryde(5) def. Alexander del Corral(1) 6-3, 4-6, 6-1
Maxwell Mendelsohn(1) def. Alex Gee(4) 6-4, 6-1

Girls 14s:
Kayla Day(1) def. Katya Tabachnik(2) 6-4, 7-6
Raveena Kingsley(3) def. Isabelle Boulais 6-3, 6-1
Alexandra Angyalosy(2) def. Madeline Meredith(1) 6-3, 7-6
Hannah Lairmore(2) def. Victoria Flores(1) 7-6(4), 6-1

Boys 16s:
Martin Joyce(1) def. Jacob Hansen 6-3, 6-0
Cameron Klinger(3) def. Lane Leschly 6-3, 7-5
Steven Karl(6) def. Alex Phillips 6-1, 7-6(5)
Daniel Gealer(3) def. Nikolas Ramadan(1) 6-3, 3-1, ret.(inj)

Girls 16s:
Abigail Chiu(1) def. Ellie Douglas 2-6, 7-6, 6-0
Claire Liu(2) def. Sarah Hu(3) 6-0, 6-3
Abigail Desiatnikov def. Gaby Pollner    4-6, 6-2, 7-6(3)
Christina Rosca(4) def. Jessica Failla(3) 6-2, 6-2

Boys 18s:
TJ Pura def. JC Aragone    7-6, 6-4
Andrew Schafer(5) def. Thomas Mayronne(2) 7-6(5), 6-3
David Hsu(1) def. William Little(2) 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
Paul Oosterbaan(5) def. Thomas Fawcett(1) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4)

Girls 18s:
Alexandra Letzt(5) def. Meredith Xepoleas 6-3, 6-4
Spencer Liang(2) def. Peggy Porter(1) 6-2, 1-6, 6-2
Rachel Pierson(1) def. Caroline Brinson(3) 6-2, 6-4
Anna Sanford def. Alexis Nelson(5) 1-6, 6-1, 6-2

The panel at last year's USTA College Showcase in Athens

Two College Showcases are scheduled in the Midwest section, with the first one held in conjunction with the NCAA Division I tournament in Champaign-Urbana, this Sunday, May 19th. For more information on that event, which is sponsored by the USTA, click here for the pdf.

The Midwest section is having their College Showcase on June 27, the day of the finals of the Midwest Closed. For more information on that event, see this page on the section's website.

Robert Cox, the men's head coach at Arkansas is stepping down after 26 seasons leading the Razorbacks. For more on Cox's career and his new responsibilities within the athletic department, see this article from the school's athletic website.

I've mentioned the new Tennis Junior Aces magazine before, which is available for free on the iPad every other month. If you don't have an iPad, you can still download some of the content on the website, including this article on preparing for college tennis by the college placement advisor at Saddlebrook Tennis Academy.

Black, Paul Win ITF Grade 4 Championships in Plantation; Fratangelo, Muhammad Take Pro Circuit Titles; Taylor Townsend Update

2013-05-13T22:07:00.001-04:00

Tommy Paul and Tornado Alicia Black gave themselves early birthday presents last week--their first ITF tournament titles.

The top-seeded Black, who turned 15 yesterday, defeated unseeded Katerina Stewart 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 in Saturday's final at the Plantation Grade 4 tournament, avenging her loss to Stewart in the 2011 Junior Orange Bowl 14s final.

Fifth seed Paul, who will be 16 on Friday, defeated unseeded Stephen Watson 6-2, 6-0 in the boys final. No. 7 seeds Kevin Major and Justin Roberts of the Bahamas won the doubles championship, beating No. 4 seeds Alejandro Tabilo of Canada and Lamar Remy of the US 6-4, 3-6, 10-7. The girls doubles title went to the unseeded team of Sophie Chang and Mercedes Hammond, who beat Alexa Bortles and Chloe Ouellet-Pizer, also unseeded, 6-4, 7-5.

Complete draws can be found at the tournament page at usta.com.

The third of the three clay court Grade 4s in Florida is this week in Delray Beach. Toshiki Matsuya of Japan and Paul are the top two seeds in the boys draw. Dasha Ivanova and Black are the top two seeds in the girls draw. See the TennisLink site for the complete draws.

At last week's ITF Grade 1 in Morocco, Floridian Johnnise Renaud, the No. 3 seed, reached the final, where she lost to No. 2 seed Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-4. That showing moves Renaud up to 52 in the ITF junior rankings, which means she is close to direct acceptance into the Wimbledon Juniors.

On the US Pro Circuit, Bjorn Fratangelo, who has made four Futures finals this year, won his second title at the $10,000 event in Orange Park, Florida. Last year at the same tournament, the unseeded Fratangelo lost in the first round to top seed Gerald Melzer of Austria 6-2, 6-2; this year, as the No. 4 seed, the 19-year-old from Pittsburgh beat Melzer, again the top seed, 7-5, 6-3 in the final. This week the men are in Tampa for another $10,000, with Fratangelo, who made the final there last year, the No. 5 seed.

The women were at a $25,000 event in Raleigh, with Asia Muhammad taking both the singles and doubles titles. Muhammad, who was unseeded, beat Chalena Scholl, also unseeded, 6-2, 6-2 in the singles final, then teamed with Allie Will to take the doubles too. Muhammad and Will, the top seeds, defeated No. 2 seed Jessica Moore and Sally Peers of Australia 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

The women are in Landisville Pennsylvania this week for a $10,000 tournament. Qualifying will be completed on Tuesday. See draws for both tournaments at the Pro Circuit page at usta.com.

Last year at this time, Daniel Nguyen was setting out to help Southern California win its fourth straight NCAA title. This year, as USC goes for a record fifth in a row, Nguyen has gone on a winning streak of his own, taking two consecutive $15,000 singles titles in Korea. Last week he defeated 16-year-old Hyeon Chung of Korea 4-6, 7-5, 6-4. At the $10,000 Futures in Mexico, former Texas Longhorn Miguel-Angel Reyes-Varela of Mexico won the singles title, his first on the ITF men's circuit, while former UCLA Bruin Nick Meister and future USC Trojan Connor Farren took the doubles title.

Taylor Townsend was in New Haven Connecticut today for a community service event in conjunction with August's New Haven Open, and several area newspapers covered the event and interviewed her. In this article from the New Haven Register, Townsend talks about her new coach, fitness regime and diet. Townsend, who hasn't played since the Family Circle Cup early last month, is heading to Europe, where she's apparently received a qualifying wild card into the WTA Brussels Open. She is also scheduled to play the Junior Championships at Roland Garros next month.

Allie Kiick, who was on the original acceptance list for the French juniors, has withdrawn.

Women's NCAA Division I Sweet 16 Set; Barry Men, Armstrong Atlantic Women Take Division II Titles

2013-05-12T21:10:00.000-04:00

The final seven Sweet 16 teams were decided today, with 15 of the 16 women's seeds advancing, after 14 of 16 seeds reached the men's final stage Saturday.

The one unseeded women's team, Duke, retained their top 16 ITA team ranking despite a series of misfortunes, but for the regionals was sent to Lubbock, Texas, home of Texas Tech, who received the 16th seed, despite their No. 17 ranking.

Due to injuries suffered by Rachel Kahan, Monica Turewicz and Ester Goldfeld, and the dismissal of Beatrice Capra from the team due to academic violations, the Blue Devils have been unable to field a six-player team since early April, when Goldfeld broke her wrist. Prior to Goldfeld's injury, coach Jamie Ashworth had recruited as a walk-on former high school tennis player Nicole Lipp, who had completed her eligibility in soccer at Duke, to fill the No. 6 slot. After Goldfeld's injury, Lipp was forced to move up to No. 5, and Duke couldn't field three doubles teams, giving their opponents at least one point before singles started with a forfeit at 6. (For the complete story of their misfortune this season, see this article from the Duke website.)

Duke somehow managed to beat Florida State 4-3 with only five players, but that was their only win in that scenario, as they suffered losses to Georgia Tech, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Maryland in ACC play, then lost to Virginia Tech in the ACC tournament to finish the season with four straight losses.

But in Lubbock, they beat Ole Miss 4-1 in the first round, and today defeated Texas Tech 4-3 to make their most improbable appearance in the Sweet 16. They will play two-time defending champion and No. 1 seed Florida Friday morning in Urbana, and there is no chance, given the circumstances, that their match will equal last year's thrilling semifinal. But if there was ever a team who could rightfully claim they're just happy to be there, it's Duke.

And as a side note, the NCAA language that states a team must have six players in the lineup is incorrect. I checked with the NCAA, and they said the Participants Manual is wrong, with four, not six, the minimum number of players a team must field.

The other 4-3 decision on Sunday went to No. 14 Virginia, who pulled something of a Houdini on Texas. Both Hana Tomljanovic and Li Xi were down 4-1 (two breaks) in their third sets with Texas's Elizabeth Begley and Noel Scott respectively, but both fought back to force tiebreakers, which they both won. Xi, who saved two match points in the second set clinched Virginia's third straight trip to the Sweet 16 with a 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(0) win at line 4, after Tomljanovic had defeated Begley 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(4) at line 3.

The women's Sweet 16:

Florida(1) v. Duke
Alabama(9) v. California(8)
Southern Cal(5) v. Stanford(12)
Clemson(13) v. Georgia(4)

Texas A&M(3) v. Virginia(14)
Northwestern(11) v. Miami(6)
UCLA(7) v. Michigan(10)
Nebraska(15) v. North Carolina(2)

The women's draw, including times for Friday, is here. The men's draw is here.

The Division II champions were crowned Saturday in Surprise, Arizona, with No. 1 Barry taking the men's title over No. 2 and defending champion Armstrong Atlantic 5-4. From this account, it sounds like a thrilling match, and with the win, Barry finished their perfect season 29-0.

Armstrong Atlantic did get a title Saturday however, with the women defending their 2012 championship with a 5-2 victory over BYU-Hawaii. For reasons that elude me, No. 1 Barry and No. 2 Armstrong Atlantic played in the quarterfinals, with Armstrong Atlantic avenging their only loss of the season by a 5-3 score. For the recap of the possibly anticlimactic final, see this account at ncaa.com.

University of Oregon Tennis Player Alex Rovello Dies in Diving Accident Saturday

2013-05-12T19:40:00.001-04:00

The excitement and drama of the first weekend of the NCAA Division I tournament was muted Sunday, when word began circulating via facebook and twitter that University of Oregon tennis player Alex Rovello had died in a diving accident Saturday.

Reports say the 21-year-old Rovello, who had just completed his junior year, was hiking with college friends when he jumped 60 feet into a natural pool and did not resurface.

Official confirmation from the sheriff's department came this afternoon, and the entire tennis community continued to express its shock and sadness at this tragedy. Rovello was widely admired by everyone who knew him, and his loss will be deeply felt.

The University of Oregon has yet to release a statement, but several area publications have been following the story closely, including the Eugene Register-Guard, The Oregonian and the Daily Emerald.

Memphis Downs No. 6 Seed Ole Miss to Reach NCAA Division I Men's Sweet 16

2013-05-11T23:06:00.001-04:00

The Sweet 16 for the NCAA Division I men's team tournament is set, with 14 seeds, plus No. 18 Cal and No. 32 Memphis.

The Memphis Tigers pulled off the day's biggest shocker, perhaps not rivaling the Denver win over No. 15 Florida in Friday's first round, but unexpected nonetheless, beating No. 6 seed Ole Miss 4-2. Memphis was the No. 2 seed in the Oxford regional, but with a ranking of 32, they just squeaked into that grouping. The Tigers caught a break in the first round, when an underrated Brigham Young team was forced to compete without their top two players due to academic suspensions. Ole Miss, despite their seeding, has been inconsistent all year, and Memphis took advantage.

Ole Miss's Nik Scholtz and Jonas Lutjen are ranked No. 3 in the country as a doubles team, but they lost 8-5 to unranked Joe Salisbury and David O'Hare at No.1, while Memphis's Lukas Vrnak and Johnny Grimal beat No. 49 Stefan Lindmark and Johan Backstrom by the same score to make it 1-0. Scholtz and Lutjen won in singles, but that was it for the Rebels, as O'Hare beat Adrian Skogeng at line 6, Grimal beat Lindmark at line 4, and David O'Leary held his nerve at No. 5. Up 6-4, 4-1 over Backstrom with Memphis up 3-2, O'Leary lost two straight games, but he won the next two for a 6-4, 6-3 victory and the biggest win in the program's history.

The other unseeded team in the final 16 is Cal, who spotted Denver the doubles point, but took four rain-interrupted singles matches, several of them finishing indoors, to earn their spot in Thursday's round of 16.

Two spots in the Sweet 16 came down to the third set of the final match, with No. 7 seed Tennessee's Brandon Fickey coming through for the Volunteers over Clemson and No. 12 seed Texas A&M's Junior Ore doing the same for the Aggies over archival Texas.

Fickey and Clemson's Gerardo Meza were the only players still on the court for their entire third set at No. 3, and Fickey was down a break early in that third set before breaking Meza at 4-5 for a 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-4 victory in another match that finished indoors.

Ore provided even more drama and some redemption as well with his 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(3) victory over Lloyd Glasspool at line 2. Ore came out on the short end of a similar situation against Georgia's Ben Wagland in the SEC tournament semifinals, losing a third set tiebreaker, but he reversed that result today, playing aggressively and even serving and volleying a few times in the match's late stages.

The Round of 16 matchups for the men next Thursday:

UCLA(1) v. Vanderbilt(16)
Duke(9) v. Kentucky(8)
Ohio State(5) v. Texas A&M(12)
Baylor(13) v. Southern Cal(5)

Georgia(3) v. Oklahoma(14)
Pepperdine(11) v. Memphis
Tennessee(7) v Mississippi State(10)
Cal v. Virginia(2)

The complete slate of matches in the women's Round of 16 won't be known until Sunday evening, but nine teams have booked their spots in Urbana, all of them seeded.

No. 8 Cal will play No. 9 Alabama, with the Bears beating Auburn 4-0 and Alabama taking down Memphis by the same score.

No. 13 Clemson advanced with a 4-2, six-hour win over Vanderbilt that included a two-hour rain delay. Clemson will play the winner of the match Sunday between No. 4 Georgia and Arizona State. No. 12 Stanford took out last year's Cinderella Rice 4-0 and the Cardinal will play the winner of Sunday's Southern Cal(5) - UC-Irvine match.

Top seed Florida meets Georgia Tech Sunday, after the defending champion Gators cruised past Marist, while Georgia Tech clawed past Yale 4-3. The Yellow Jackets forfeited the match at No. 6 singles for undisclosed reasons, but still were able to claim the victory. The winner of that match will play the winner of the Duke - Texas Tech(16) match Sunday.

Although the NCAA manual states that a lineup must consist of six players, Duke once again played only five, forfeiting No. 6 singles and No. 3 doubles. But the Blue Devils won both doubles matches and three singles matches to beat Ole Miss 4-1. Texas Tech had no trouble with College of Charleston, winning that match 4-0.

On the other side of the women's draw, two round of 16 matchups are set. No. 2 seed North Carolina, who lost the doubles point but beat Tennessee 4-1 today, plays No. 15 seed Nebraska, who beat UNLV 4-1. It is Nebraska's first trip to the Sweet 16 in the program's history.

No. 6 Miami will meet No. 11 Northwestern after the Hurricane's blanked Purdue and Northwestern took a tough 4-2 decision from Baylor. No. 10 Michigan reached the Sweet 16 with a 4-0 win over Notre Dame and will play the winner of No. 7 UCLA and Oklahoma State, who play Sunday. No. 3 seed Texas A&M plays TCU on Sunday for a place in the final 16, with the winner playing the winner of the match between No. 14 Virginia and Texas, who also play Sunday.

The women's draw is here, the men's draw is here.

Denver Men Shock No. 15 Seed Florida in NCAA First Round: Memphis Women Post First Tournament Win; Round Table II with Championship Predictions

2013-05-10T22:02:00.002-04:00

Fifty first round matches were played today in the NCAA Division I tournament, with several surprises, but no real shockers, until this evening. That's when the unranked Denver men came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat No. 15 seed Florida in Gainesville.

Denver was placed in the 49-64 grouping after going 11-11 and winning the WAC title to earn an automatic bid. The Pioneers lost the doubles point and were down 2-0 when Florida's Gordon Watson won at No. 5, but got on the board with senior Enej Bonin's win at No. 1. Michael Alford of Florida won at 4 to give the Gators that 3-1 lead, but they couldn't finish it with Denver's Jens Vorkefeld making it 3-2 with a win at 2. Needing both wins in the two matches still on court, Denver got them in quick succession. Max Krammer defeat Bob van Overbeek 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 at line 3, and moments later, Alex Clinkenbeard defeated Billy Federhofer 7-5, 1-6, 6-1 to put the Pioneers in the second round for the first time in program history. See the Gatorzone website for more on the match and quotes from first-year head coach Bryan Shelton of Florida.

All 32 matches were played in the men's first round today, and in additional to Denver, the only 49-64 team to win, seven teams in the 33-48 grouping came out on top over their opponents in the 17-32 grouping. (Click on the school name for the athletic website story.) Those seven are: UNC-Wilmington, who beat South Carolina 4-0; Virginia Tech, who beat Michigan 4-2; Washington, who beat Notre Dame 4-3; North Carolina State, who beat Auburn 4-1; Minnesota, who beat Virginia Commonwealth 4-3 (with Enej Bonin's twin brother Rok the hero in that one); Northwestern, who beat Wake Forest 4-3, and San Diego, who beat Alabama 4-3.

There were 18 women's first round matches on Friday, with two mild surprises among them. (There was also a match unfinished, with No. 6 seed Miami leading North Florida 3-0 when rained postponed play until Saturday). In its first NCAA match in program history, Memphis, in the 33-48 grouping, beat Florida State 4-1, and UNLV, also in the 33-48 grouping, beat Tulsa 4-3. Both Florida State and Tulsa were in the 17-32 groups.

Part II of the Tennis Recruiting NCAA round table was published today, with the college tennis experts asked to make their predictions. The only two men's teams selected were No. 1 UCLA and No. 2 Virginia, with the bulk of panel selecting the Cavaliers, including me. Florida was the consensus pick on the women's side, but I went against the grain on that one.

Follow the draws, which also have links to live scoring (and live video when available) at ncaa.com. Women's are here and men's are here.

My Interview with Marc Lucero about RAMP Academy; Black vs. Shishkina in Plantation ITF Grade 4 Semis; Pro Circuit Update

2013-05-09T20:59:00.000-04:00

When the USTA downsized at the Carson facility last fall, there was some fear the Home Depot Center would become a ghost town, but fortunately a private academy has taken up the slack, with former USTA coaches Marc Lucero, Patrick Nagle and Andrew Laing, along with Rick Buchta, forming the RAMP Tennis Academy. Last month I spoke with Lucero about their new venture, which resulted in this question and answer session at the Tennis Recruiting Network.

On the other side of the country, former top ATP player Johann Kriek has a relatively new academy in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he spoke about his career and development philosophy in this interview posted at USA Today.

The ITF Grade 4 tournament in Plantation saw top boys seed Henrik Wiersholm lose to Jake DeVine in the second round, but top girls seed Tornado Black is tearing through the draw. Black, who will be 15 in a few days, has lost only eight games in her four wins, and in today's quarterfinal against CiCi Bellis, Black won 6-2, 6-0. She will take on doubles partner and No. 3 seed Maria Shishkina in Friday's semifinal, a rare chance to see the two prodigies face off. Way back in 2009, Shishkina won the Eddie Herr 12s with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Black in the final; the next (and last time) they met, in 2010, Black beat Shishkina 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(4) in the final of the 12s Clay Courts.

The other girls semifinal features No. 12 seed Chloe Ouelett-Pizer against unseeded, but very dangerous, Katerina Stewart. Stewart has been nearly as impressive as Black, losing just nine games, and she eliminated Daytona Beach champion Sofia Kenin 6-3, 6-0 in today's quarterfinal.

The boys semifinals have unseeded Stephen Watson against Catalin Mateas, also unseeded, and Daytona Beach champion Alex Rybakov, the No. 4 seed, against No. 5 seed Tommy Paul.

For complete results and draws, see the tournament page at usta.com.

At the $10,000 Futures in Orange Park, Florida, Mitchell Krueger and Kyle Edmund of Great Britain will renew their rivalry in Friday's quarterfinals. Krueger won their first round Wimbledon Juniors encounter 10-8 in the third last July, one of the best matches of the boys tournament, while Edmund took their semifinal meeting at a $10,000 Futures in Alabama on clay last October 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Edmund, who won last week's Futures in Vero Beach, is on a seven-match winning streak. Other Americans in the quarterfianls are Dennis Nevolo, Greg Ouellette and Bjorn Fratangelo, with the latter two playing each other on Friday.

At the $25,000 women's event in Raleigh, North Carolina, juniors Jamie Loeb, Chalena Scholl, Hayley Carter, Samantha Crawford and Mayo Hibi all advanced to the quarterfinals. Crawford, the top seed, will play qualifier Carter and Loeb, who beat former Florida No. 1 Allie Will, the No. 5 seed, 2-6, 6-3, 7-5, meets Asia Muhammad. Muhammad defeated wild card Taylor Davidson 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 today after Davidson had surprised No. 4 seed Maria-Fernanda Alvarez-Teran of Bolivia in the first round.

In the bottom half, No. 7 seed Hibi plays Scholl, and in the international quarterfinal, No. 2 seed Adriana Perez of Venezuela faces No. 6 seed Alyona Sotnikova of Ukraine.

Roland Garros Junior Acceptances Feature Remarkable Fields; Singh Update; Embree Profile; Gomez Turning Pro?

2013-05-08T20:14:00.001-04:00

The Roland Garros Junior acceptances were posted today by the ITF, and the fields are incredibly strong for both girls and boys. Every boy ranked from 1-44 has entered, including No. 1 and Australian Open boys champion Nick Kyrgios of Australia, who will be the top seed. That puts the initial boys cutoff at 44, after last year's final main draw cutoff was 63.

Kyle Edmund of Great Britain received direct entry based on his ATP ranking of 511, and No. 76 Lucas Gomez of Mexico received direct entry as the Central America/Caribbean representative.* In addition to those 46, there are two special exempt spots, eight wild cards and eight qualifiers.

Five US boys made the main draw: Thai Kwiatkowski, Stefan Kozlov, Noah Rubin, Luca Corinteli and Spencer Papa. Martin Redlicki is in qualifying, four out of the main draw. The qualifying cutoff is 69, with Spain's Albert Alcaraz Ivorra receiving entry into the qualifying based on his ATP ranking of 610.

The girls have just two players in the Top 45 missing--No. 4 Francoise Abanda of Canada, who has played just one match this year, a first round loss in March at the $25,000 Innisbrook Pro Circuit event, and No. 32 Samantha Crawford of the United States.

No. 55 Sara Tomic, Bernard's 15-year-old sister, received entry as the Oceania representative*, and both Allie Kiick and Vicky Duval are in the main draw via their WTA rankings of 298 and 285. The other US girls receiving direct entry are: Taylor Townsend, Christina Makarova, Sachia Vickery and Jamie Loeb. Louisa Chirico is the only US girl in qualifying, which has a cutoff of 74, and she is currently eight out of the main draw. Two girls, Mayya Katsitadze of Russia, with a WTA ranking of 375, and Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain, with a WTA ranking of 398, received entry into qualifying based on their WTA rankings.

ITF No. 1 and Australian Open girls champion Ana Konjuh of Croatia, who has played only one $10,000 tournament and Fed Cup since Australia, will be the top seed in Paris.

*the explanation for admittance to these players, from the ITF regulations: In addition the highest ranked entrant from each of the following areas – South America, North America, Central America and Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania, if not already included in a) or b) above shall be accepted for main draw if their ranking is 80 or higher or qualifying if their ranking is 150 or higher. (Note: a & b are ITF junior ranking and WTA/ATP ranking).

In the wake of the news yesterday that KU Singh had left the team at the University of Georgia, website Dawgs247 posted this article with comments from Singh on his departure. This article from Macon's The Telegraph provides additional details on Singh's departure, which he informed Georgia head coach Manny Diaz of Tuesday afternoon. Diaz says he did not try to talk Singh out of his decision. "...He had already made a decision. He had already purchased his ticket.”

If there is a polar opposite of Singh, it would probably be Florida's Lauren Embree, who is the first player to be named SEC Player of the Year three straight years and has been most outstanding player of the past two NCAA team events. For more on Embree's career, see this feature from the Orlando Sentinel.

I do not speak or read Spanish, but Google Translate provides me enough information to comprehend that Emilio Gomez is not planning on returning to Southern Cal for his senior year. Here is the article from ESPN Desportes, with the title translated as "Gomez and his step to professionalism."

And Cal is reporting that Campbell Johnson, who was the second alternate in singles, has moved into the main draw. I'm not certain, because the NCAA list hasn't been updated, but I suspect BYU's Patrick Kawka and Singh are the two players who are out.

Read more here: http://www.macon.com/2013/05/08/2471106/the-strange-case-of-ku-singh.html#storylink=cpy

KU Singh, Georgia's No. 1, Quits Team; Additional Tennis Notes, Jarring and Otherwise

2013-05-07T20:36:00.002-04:00

The University of Georgia announced today that their No. 1 player, KU Singh, has quit the team. The complete announcement:

Senior KU Singh has notified men’s tennis head coach Manuel Diaz that he has decided to leave the team effective immediately.

Singh’s decision comes just three days before the second-ranked and third-seeded Bulldogs are set to begin NCAA Championships play in Athens, with first and second round matches scheduled for May 10-11 at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. Singh was ranked No. 4 in the nation in singles prior to his departure, with an overall record of 17-9.

“This is a very close group and today they’re closer than ever,” Diaz said. “Our program will continue to stress teamwork, togetherness, and playing with our hearts for each other, as it always has. We are united and are moving forward in a positive manner.”

Insiders in Athens are not exactly shocked by this, with signs of discord surfacing earlier this year. The 22-year-old from India, who had transferred from Illinois after a brief stint there in the spring of 2011, did not travel with the team to this year's ITA Team Indoor for undisclosed reasons. The timing is obviously unfortunate however, especially given the loss of Nick Wood to an ankle injury shortly after the Team Indoor.

Singh's departure also has implications for the NCAA individual tournament singles draw, where he was the No. 5 seed. Another player will move into both the numerical and alphabetical seedings, and of course an alternate will move into the main draw. If the committee goes according to rankings, Duke's Henrique Cunha will move from the 9-16 group to No. 8 and Washington's Kyle McMorrow will now be seeded. Guillermo Alcorta of Oklahoma is currently the first alternate.

And before I move on to other tennis news, hats off to Georgia's athletic department for getting this news out officially. While I'm sure it's not pleasant for them, it's the right thing to do, for everyone involved. Meanwhile, there's been nothing from Brigham Young on why their top two players will not be competing in the regional Friday.

There's already been a lot of drama off the tennis court this week on the professional tours. Sloane Stephens, who is currently mired in a puzzling slump, was featured in the current issue of ESPN the magazine this month, and she explained in no uncertain terms that her relationship with Serena Williams is nothing like it was portrayed earlier this year.

Bernard Tomic's father John has been charged with assault in Madrid, accused of an altercation with Bernard's hitting partner, Thomas Drouet of Monaco. Chris Clarey of the New York Times provides this report, which contains a rogues gallery of tennis parents and also a Nick Bollettieri rebuttal of the generalization that a parent as coach is a recipe for trouble. Clarey later revealed that the ATP has suspended John Tomic's credential privileges at its events.

Speaking of Bollettieri, his second annual Discovery Open tournaments are coming up at the end of this month for 9, 11, 13, and 15 age divisions for both boys and girls. Winners of each of the eight tournaments receive a free week at the Academy and an evaluation from Bollettieri and staff, with the opportunity for a full scholarship. Entries close on Friday, May 10th. See the tournament website for more information on applying.

If you are looking for a tennis camp for this summer, check out the list Lisa Stone at Parenting Aces has compiled. Two of my direct sponsors, IMG Bollettieri Academy and College Tennis Exposure Camps are among those with summer camps, and I would appreciate it if you would use the links on this page to request more information about their offerings.

I ran across this item from a Northern California tennis blog about a recent tournament win for 2011 Boys 14s national champion Cameron Klinger, who has been missed this year on the junior circuit.

Somehow I totally missed this, although I am fairly certain there was no press release by the USTA, but Saddlebrook's Craig Boynton, John Isner's longtime coach, joined the USTA as a National Coach back in March.

And yesterday, the USTA held a conference call with Shelby Rogers and Alex Kuznetsov, the winners of the French Open Har-Tru Wild Card Challenge. The complete transcript is here. My question was near the end, about how they felt about using this method of determining a wild card rather than a tournament like the one the USTA holds for the Australian Open wild card. Unsurprisingly, since neither was invited to participate in that AO wild card tournament in Atlanta last year, they prefer this method.

For the AP's article on Kuznetsov and Rogers, click here.