Shocker of the day, week, month, year, decade, century, maybe longer – #1 USC playing without Eric Johnson and Nick Crystal goes down to #51 Tulsa 4-3.
USC came out strong and really blew out Tulsa in doubles winning 6-1 and 6-0 at 2 and 3 despite having new doubles pairing on each court. Eric Johnson did play in doubles but I guess it was a coaches decision to give him and Nick Crystal the day off in singles and it ultimately proved to be costly.
Still even with those 2 guys out of the singles lineup you figure there is no way that Hanfmann and Quiroz are both going to lose and sure enough they both did in straight sets.
When I was looking at Saturday’s matches and deciding which ones to preview I quickly passed this one over because I didn’t think there was any way possible that Tulsa could win this match regardless of whether USC sat a couple of guys. But I guess there is a reason they play the matches because you never know what can happen on a given day.
Tulsa’s Or Ram-Harel pulled off the 1st upset of the day when he took out Yannick Hanfmann 6-3, 6-2 at #1 singles to tie the match up at 1 but a short while later Jonny Wang would put USC back ahead 2-1 with a 7-5, 6-0 win at #3 singles over Matthew Kirby. Tulsa’s Alejandro Espejo evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-4, 7-6(0) win over Roberto Quiroz at #2 singles which set the stage for 3 3rd sets on the remaining courts. After dropping the 1st set at both #5 and #6, Tulsa’s Mitchell Pritchard and Dylan McCloskey would each take the 2nd set and would both head to a 3rd set tiebreaker. McCloskey would jump out to a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak but USC’s Connor Farren would fight off 3 match points to tie it at 6. Farren would hit each of the next 2 shots just long (he appealed both calls to the chair but neither was overturned much to his dismay) and with that Tulsa had taken a 3-2 lead. The tiebreaker at #5 was just a few points behind but Tulsa’s Mitchell Pritchard would grab the early lead and never give it up as he finished off Rob Bellamy 7-5 in the tiebreak to clinch the stunning Tulsa win.
Now it wouldn’t be college tennis if there wasn’t some kind of uncertainty about something and if you look at each of the school’s recaps they both show a different singles lineup from Tulsa at 3, 4, 5, and 6 than what the scoreboard during the match showed. I watched the live stream on courts 5 and 6 at the end and while the clarity wasn’t good enough to make out faces I do remember hearing the Tulsa players yelling out “Come on Mitchell” during the tiebreak at #5 singles so the assumption is that Mitchell Pritchard did play at #5 singles and clinch the match despite the recap saying differently. The score entered into the ITA’s system also shows the lineup that matches the scoreboard. All I want to do is to give credit to where it’s due so if it was Carlos Bautista that clinched it at #5 like the recaps say then so be it.
UPDATE: Both the USC and Tulsa recaps below now show the correct people for Tulsa so it’s nice to see Pritchard get his recognition for clinching.
1. #71 Or Ram-Harel (TU 13.25) def. #6 Yannick Hanfmann (USC 15.05) 6-3, 6-2
2. Alejandro Espejo (TU 13.72) def. #20 Roberto Quiroz (USC 14.43) 6-4, 7-6(0)
3. #31 Jonny Wang (USC 14.23) def. Matthew Kirby (TU 12.87) 7-5, 6-0
4. #72 Max De Vroome (USC 14.13) def. Carlos Bautista (TU 12.71) 7-5, 5-7, 6-5(4)
5. Mitchell Pritchard (TU 12.52) def. Rob Bellamy (USC 13.09) 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(5)
6. Dylan McCloskey (TU 12.56) def. Connor Farren (USC 13.70) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(6)
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South Bend, IN: After Notre Dame won a tight doubles point that was decided by a tiebreak on 1, the teams would split 1st sets with Notre Dame taking the opening set at 1, 5, and 6 (5 & 6 in tiebreaks) with Illinois grabbing the opening set at 2, 3, and 4. All singles matches except #5 would finish in straight sets with Tim Kopinski and Aleks Vukic winning at #3 and #4 to put Illinois up 2-1. Notre Dame would answer with straight set wins at #6 and #1 by Alex Lawson and Quentin Monaghan to put the Irish up 3-2. Illinois’s Hiltzik brothers would then take center stage and rise to the occasion as Jared finished off Josh Hagar in straight sets at #2 singles and then Aron would win 12 straight games at #5 singles to clinch the team win with a 6-7, 6-0, 6-0 win.
Note – Notre Dame’s #4 Eric Schnurrenberger sat out due to injury which forced the Irish to shift everyone up a spot from 4 on down.
Illinois recap
Notre Dame recap
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Los Angeles, CA: UCLA won the doubles point but Stanford kept it close in singles by winning 3 first sets but the one set they really needed was at #3 singles and once UCLA’s Martin Redlicki took it 9-7 in the tiebreak things started going UCLA’s way. Karue Sell, Mackenzie McDonald, and Martin Redlicki would all win in straights with Redlicki clinching it. Stanford picked up a straight set win from John Morrissey at #2. After the match was clinched, UCLA’s Ryoto Tachi finished off a 3rd set bagel of David Hsu at #6 while Stanford’s Nolan Paige won a 10 point supertiebreak that was played in place of a 3rd set at #5.
Notes – UCLA played without its usual #4 singles player Gage Brymer and according to the UCLA recap Dennis Mkrtchian sustained some kind of injury during the first set of his match at #2 singles.
North Carolina started the morning off with a routine 4-1 win over Minnesota with the Tar Heels taking all completed sets except for the 1 set that Brayden Schnur dropped at #1 singles before he retired early in the 2nd set. No word yet on what caused the retirement. Minnesota also played without it’s usual #2 Jack Hamburg (13.04) so everyone else had to slide up a slot which didn’t help the Gophers cause.
UNC recap
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Yeah I should pack that back in.
Holy guacamole! What happened to holy guacamole? I thought that was funny and different. Don't rein yourself in.
Whoever was playing #5 against Bellamy clinched it for Tulsa, 4-2. I guess that was Pritchard.
Sounds like a wild match – don't suppose you can confirm who won the clincher for Tulsa? Scoreboard showed Mitchell Pritchard and it sure sounded like all the Tulsa players were saying "Come on Mitchell" during the tiebreak but all the recaps are now saying he was at 6 and Carlos Bautista clinched it at 5 against Bellamy?
I was also there. Tulsa played and fought great in singles, grinding the balls away and wore down USC players or until they made mistakes. They deserved their victory.<br /><br />On the other side of the net, it was a big under-estimation of the opponent by Peter Smith and his players. Tanner Smith and Thibault Forget as doubles #3? And Wang, who is a poor doubles player, paired up with Hanfmann as doubles #2? Hanfmann played like he did not want to be there, only showing flashes of his normal game late in the 2nd set when he was way behind, too late into the game and Tulsa #1 was not giving away any silly mistakes. Quiroz played poorly in set 1 as well. Johnson and Crystal were pulled out to give them rest as reward for their recent streak of wins. It all pointed to the coach thinking that Tulsa would be an easy opponent. And you can see it in his demeanor – when Quiroz went down in tiebreaker, Peter Smith went to coach De Vroome on court 4.<br /><br />USC lost 3 tiebreakers – court 2 (7-2, I think), 5 (7-5) and 6 (8-6). My guess is from now on, USC will play its main line-ups and avoid paying dearly like it did today. Will be interesting to see how Tulsa play Pepperdine and UCLA on their California swing.<br /><br /><br />
They really missed Johnson at 3/4, he is the heart of that team, and Crystal has been unbeatable at 6. #1 and #2 can't both lose to a team like this, only the team knows what's up with that. Good lesson, and you gotta develop the other guys at times, but it cost them for now, but think it may pay off in the future.
Actually just a follow-up on the post to add some more details about the match for those who probably are dying to know how this could have happened. . .Lots of interesting tidbits. I actually thought the match was not going to be played because the weather forecast had been for rain in the afternoon, but it was typically sunny, though a bit chilly and somewhat windy. . .They were offering free cupcakes to those in attendance, but the cupcakes were a disappointment–maybe a portend of things to come. . .Two heroes from USC's historic 2012 national championship team, Steve Johnson and Emilio Gomez, were on hand as well, in between pro tournaments. Maybe they inspired Tulsa more than USC. . .USC's doubles lineups were all new, suggesting that coach Peter Smith wanted to shake things up a bit, but doubles turned out to be easy. That wasn't the problem. . .When the match ended on Court 5 with the third-set tiebreaker, the Tulsa players stormed the court screaming in the typical fashion, but this prompted the Tulsa coach to apologize, as Court #4 (DeVroome) was still playing. His apology was directed toward Peter Smith, who looked on in stunned silence from a distance, motionless. What an image. Maybe he realized that he made the classic mistake of underestimating his opponent. But he's clearly the best coach out there, so as a big-time USC fan I'm pretty confident that the team will eventually regroup and contend again for the NCAAs. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a major shakeup though. Maybe Eric Johnson plays #1 the next time. He's a senior too. . .After the match the Tulsa players took out their phones and took snapshots of the scoreboard. Most likely the biggest tennis moment they will ever have. Good for them. Congratulations to them and their coaches, who obviously did something right. Emotional letdown coming though. Wouldn't be surprised if they laid an egg against Pepperdine tomorrow.
I was there at the USC-Tulsa shocker. It seems USC's easy victory in doubles influenced the coach's decision to rest Johnson and Crystal, or maybe to give Bellamy and Farren some playing time. (Johnson was actually running around on the court as a student coach during the singles.) Bellamy and Farren fought hard, but they were up against opponents who had nothing to lose and were swinging for everything, it seemed. Give Tulsa credit. They played out of their minds, although at #1 and #2 it was USC's shockingly poor play that was just as important. Tough to figure out what's been wrong with Hanfmann and Quiroz over the past few weeks, as they have not played well in doubles either.