I’m going to make my predictions on the 2 matches out in Los Angeles even though its looks like a wash out today – ground is wet as of 8am. If they get these matches in they’d almost definitely play singles first and would only play doubles if necessary. (Both matches have been officially been cancelled due to rain)
#11 Wake Forest (4-1) at #2 Oklahoma (2-0) – 1pm est/12pm cst – Live Scoring & Fox Sports – Wake Forest is coming off a 4-2 loss at Oklahoma State on Friday night while Oklahoma plays for the first time since last weekend when they won a couple of tuneups against Troy and Utah State. The big question mark for Oklahoma is whether Andrew Harris makes his season debut because if he doesn’t that might make Oklahoma a little vulnerable at the bottom of the lineup. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Tony Bresky flop Bogaerts and Ho at #3 and #4 after Bogaerts got beat pretty soundly on Friday night at #3 against Oklahoma State’s Arujn Kadhe. Last season Oklahoma went to Winston-Salem and won 5-2 but I think this one has the makings a 4-3 match.
1. #60 Axel Alvarez (OU 14.51) vs. Petros Chrysochos (WF 14.02)
2. Andrew Harris (OU 14.77) vs. #26 Skander Mansouri (WF 14.26)
3. Spencer Papa (OU 14.14) vs. #103 Jonathan Ho (WF 14.00)
4. #91 Alex Ghilea (OU 14.14) vs. Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.00)
5. Florin Bragusi (OU 13.87) vs. Dennis Uspensky (WF 13.61)
6. Andre Biro (OU 13.75) vs. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.54)
I’m going to take Wake Forest in doubles because they’ve already played 5 matches together, with 3 of those being against tougher competition, while Oklahoma has just had the 2 against lighter opposition. If Andrew Harris plays in singles, which he hasn’t since last year’s NCAAs, he’ll probably be a little rusty so I’d be surprised if he beat Skander Mansouri. If the lineups above are used I’d take Axel Alvarez, Spencer Papa, Alex Ghilea, and Florin Bragusi for Oklahoma and Skander Mansouri and Christian Seraphim for Wake Forest. If Harris doesn’t play and OU has to slide everyone up I think it’ll get interesting because I’d like Wake at 5 and 6 with Papa and Mansouri being the one that may decide it. Prediction: Oklahoma 4-3
Last Year’s Meeting:
#2 Oklahoma 5, #19 Wake Forest 2
#6 Georgia (2-1) vs. #8 USC (3-0) – 1pm est/10am pst – Live Scoring – Georgia is coming off a 6-1 loss to UCLA while USC is coming off a 4-3 win over Florida. Georgia had the more physical match yesterday with 3 of the 6 singles matches going to a third set plus Oosterbaan played 2 long tiebreak sets. All of the singles matches in the USC/Florida match finished in straight sets with only DeVine and Jaede playing tighter matches. Georgia may be the slightly stronger team but it all depends on how well they bounce back from yesterday.
Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #28 Austin Smith (UGA 14.28) vs. #115 Max de Vroome (USC 13.95)
2. #20 Wayne Montgomery (UGA 14.22) vs. #41 Nick Crystal (USC 14.10)
3. #40 Paul Oosterbaan (UGA 13.80) vs. #83 Jake DeVine (USC 13.51)
4. Jan Zielinski (UGA 13.67) vs. #69 Logan Smith (USC 13.76)
5. Emil Reinberg (UGA 13.26) vs. Jack Jaede (USC 13.48)
6. Ben Wagland (UGA 13.24) vs. Thiabault Forget (USC 13.26)
Depth: Nick Wood (UGA 13.61); Laurens Verboven (USC 13.54), Rob Bellamy (USC 13.38)
USC played tremendous doubles against Florida while Georgia got off to too slow of a start at #1 and #3. I’m going to take USC in doubles and if the teams stay with the same singles lineups as yesterday I see Georgia sweeping the top 3 while USC sweeps the bottom 3. Close match but the doubles point ends up being the difference. Prediction: USC 4-3
Last Year’s Meeting:
Singles competition
Official: Clark Weaver T-2:20 A-510
#20 Florida (3-2) at #12 UCLA (4-0) – 4pm est/1pm pst – Live Scoring – UCLA welcomed back Mackenzie McDonald on Saturday and after a sluggish start he found his rhythm in the second set and then played his best in the third. Florida went toe-to-toe with USC but couldn’t overcome the loss of the doubles point and fell 4-3.
Projected Singles Lineup:
1. #31 Diego Hidalgo (UF 13.95) vs. Mackenzie McDonald (UCLA 14.98)
2. #49 Elliott Orkin (UF 13.79) vs. Gage Brymer (UCLA 13.93)
3. #91 Alfredo Perez (UF 13.98) vs. #48 Martin Redlicki (UCLA 13.82)
4. #62 Chase Perez-Blanco (UF 13.90) vs. Karue Sell (UCLA 14.22)
5. Gordon Watson (UF 13.53) vs. #98 Logan Staggs (UCLA 13.51)
6. Maxx Lipman (UF 13.30)vs. Joseph DiGiulio (UCLA 13.49)
Depth: #97 McClain Kessler (UF 13.53), Jordan Belga (UF 12.92); Austin Rapp (UCLA 13.36)
UCLA is going to be favorite at just about every spot in the singles lineup assuming Mackie plays again today. Florida’s best chances in my opinion are at #3 and #5 but it won’t be enough to overcome UCLA winning all the other courts. If they stop at the clinch I’ll go UCLA 4-0; if they play them out I’ll say 5-2. Prediction: UCLA 5-2
Last Year’s Meeting:
Official: Clark Weaver T-3:33 A-196
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