North Carolina kept up the pace in singles and claimed four opening sets with Brayden Schnur, Ronnie Schneider, Jack Murray, and Robert Kelly taking them at 1, 2, 4, and 5. Ohio State’s Hugo Di Feo and Martin Joyce took the opening sets at 3 and 6 but the Buckeyes would need to turn at least two other courts to keep this one going.

UNC’s Robert Kelly was the first off the court with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Ralf Steinbach at #5 in a match where Kelly was never in trouble. Kelly broke Steinbach to start the second set and then pulled away without facing much resistance.

Martin Joyce gave Ohio State some good news when he rang up the Buckeyes first point with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Anu Kodali at #6. Joyce pretty much led the match wire to wire.

UNC’s Jack Murray put the Tar Heels up 3-1 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Herkko Pollanen at #3 but Ohio State’s Hugo Di Feo answered with a 6-2, 7-6(1) win at #3 over Brett Clark.

While Brayden Schnur and Mikael Torpegaard were likely headed to another tiebreak at #1, UNC’s Ronnie Schneider finished off Chris Diaz 6-4, 6-4 in a break filled match at #2. Schneider broke Diaz to go up 4-3 in the second but Diaz broke back for 4-4. Schneider broke again and then served it out to clinch the UNC win.

As much as Ohio State was fighting all match it just seemed like losing the doubles point really deflated them. They got off to a slow start in singles and never recovered on those three courts that they lost in straights.

Here are some post-match clips from Ronnie Schneider, Jack Murray, and Brayden Schnur courtesy of UNC.

Feb 13, 2016 at Charlottesville, VA (Boar’s Head Sports Club)

1. Brayden Schnur (NC 14.09) vs. #5 Mikael Torpegaard (OSU 14.44) 7-6, 5-5, unfinished

2. #23 Ronnie Schneider (NC 14.01) def. #42 Chris Diaz (OSU 13.98) 6-4, 6-4

3. #16 Hugo Di Feo (OSU 14.23) def. Brett Clark (NC 13.77) 6-2, 7-6

4. #89 Jack Murray (NC 13.77) def. #18 Herkko Pollanen (OSU 13.61) 6-2, 6-3

5. #62 Robert Kelly (NC 13.85) def. Ralf Steinbach (OSU 13.84) 6-4, 6-1

6. Martin Joyce (OSU 13.74) def. Anudeep Kodali (NC 13.21) 6-2, 6-3

1. #3 Brett Clark/Robert Kelly (NC) def. #14 Ralf Steinbach/Martin Joyce (OSU) 6-2

2. Jack Murray/Brayden Schnur (NC) def. #19 Mikael Torpegaard/Herkko Pollanen (OSU) 6-4

3. Blaine Boyden/Ronnie Schneider (NC) vs. Chris Diaz/Hugo Di Feo (OSU) 3-4, unfinished

Ohio State 9-1; National ranking #8

North Carolina 7-0; National ranking #7

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

ITA National Team Indoor Quarterfinals

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The second match of the day had a lot of momentum swings with UCLA going up early, then Texas A&M dominated in the middle of the match, before UCLA closed strong to win it 4-2.

The doubles point was tooth and nail the whole way with all three courts going to a tiebreak at virtually the same time. UCLA got early break leads in all three tiebreaks but Texas A&M got both #1 and #3 back on serve by the time they hit the changeover. UCLA’s #1 team of Mackenzie McDonald and Martin Redlicki would take the next three points to go up 6-3 and Redlicki was serving to try and close it out. Redlicki dumped a mid-court overhead into the net to make it 6-4 but the Bruins closed it out on the next point to take it 7-4.

UCLA’s #2 team of Austin Rapp and Gage Brymer, who normally play at #3, led 4-2 at the changeover and then extended the lead to 6-4* against Texas A&M’s Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant. Adams came forward on the next point but his volley sailed long and UCLA had the court and the doubles point with a 7-6(4) win.

The match at #3 between Texas A&M’s Max Lunkin/Jordi Arconada and UCLA’s Karue Sell/Maxime Cressy officially went unfinished with A&M up 6-4 in the TB. The odd thing was A&M won the match 7-4 but for whatever reason it wasn’t counted – must have finished a split second after the clinch though on my streaming feed it finished at least 10 seconds before UCLA clinched at #2.

Sell normally plays doubles with Joseph DiGiulio but Billy Martin decide to switch it up and bring in the freshman Max Cressey, “Cressy has a good serve and volleys well and Karue and Joe hadn’t looked as good indoors and were struggling to hold serve so I thought we’d make a change.”

“Winning the doubles point is always big when your playing teams of this caliber plus it gave us some momentum going into singles,” said head coach UCLA head coach Billy Martin.

Each team took three opening sets in singles with Arthur Rinderknech, Jackson Withrow, and Max Lunkin taking sets for Texas A&M at 1, 5, and 6 while UCLA’s Gage Brymer, Martin Redlicki, and Karue Sell secured sets for UCLA at 2, 3, and 4.

Texas A&M really turned the tide in the second sets when Shane Vinsant earned a split with a 6-1 set over Gage Brymer at #2 while Jordi Arconada took the second set 6-4 over Martin Redlicki at #3. AJ Catanzariti dropped the opening set at #4 to Karue Sell but Catanzariti went up 3-0 in the second. Both Jackson Withrow and Max Lunkin were closing in on wins at #5 and #6 plus Arthur Rinderknech had come back from 5-1 down in the second to level his match with Mackenzie McDonald at 5-5.

UCLA’s Billy Martin was starting to get concerned and rightfully so, “we won three first sets and it looked good but then it took a turn in the second sets plus we were down the whole time at #5 and #6.”

Jackson Withrow closed out Logan Staggs 6-3, 6-2 at #5 and just minutes later Max Lunkin finished off Joseph Di Giulio 6-1, 6-4 at #6. Texas A&M was now up 2-1 and seemed to have UCLA right where it wanted them but just as quickly as Texas A&M took the momentum the tide turned back in UCLA’s favor.

Martin Redlicki regrouped at #3 after dropping the second set to Jordi Arconada. He quickly went up 4-1 in the third and ended up finishing off Arconada 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to even the match up at 2-2. “The new balls at the start of the third set really helped Martin’s serve and it helped his forehand penetrate better through the court,” said Billy Martin.

UCLA’s Karue Sell reeled off four straight games at #4 and would serve up a set and 4-3 but Catanzariti would break back and hold to go up 5-4. Sell held for 5-5 and then went up 0-40 on Catanzariti’s serve but Catanzariti fought off all four break points to hold for 6-5. Sell held from 40-30 to send it to a second set tiebreak and then got his first mini-break to go up 3-2. Sell would go on to win 4 of the next 5 points to close out Catanzariti 6-4, 7-6(3) and put UCLA up 3-2.

“Karue got a bit tired and played a little sloppy early in the second set but he clawed his way back in. He is such a veteran and has been so rock solid over the years, his record has been exceptional, and he knows what to do in these big moments and how to embrace it,” said assistant coach Grant Chen.

Gage Brymer had dropped 9 of the last 10 games to lose the second set and go down a double-break at 3-0 in the third set but he started to pick up some stream off Sell’s rally on the adjacent court. He also got some relief when Mackenzie McDonald closed out the second set at #1 which meant the entire match wouldn’t necessarily be riding on his shoulders. Brymer broke Vinsant to make it 1-3, then held for 2-3, and broke again to even it at 3-3. Brymer held for 4-3 then broke Vinsant on the deciding point to go up 5-3. Brymer would hold at love to close out a wild comeback win 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 and send the Bruins on to the National Indoor Semifinals.

Feb 13, 2016 at Charlottesville, VA (Boar’s Head Sports Club)

1. #34 M McDonald (UCLA 15.01) vs. #8 A Rinderknech (TAMU 14.53) 4-6, 7-6(3) , 3-0 unf.

2. #80 Gage Brymer (UCLA 14.10) def. #39 Shane Vinsant (TAMU 14.01) 6-1, 1-6, 6-3

3. #37 Martin Redlicki (UCLA 13.86) def. Jordi Arconada (TAMU 13.81) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2

4. Karue Sell (UCLA 14.32) def. AJ Catanzariti (TAMU 13.44) 6-4, 7-6(3)

5. Jackson Withrow (TAMU 13.88) def. Logan Staggs (UCLA 13.44) 6-3, 6-2

6. Max Lunkin (TAMU 13.47) def. Joseph Di Giulio (UCLA 13.52) 6-1, 6-4

1. #12 Mackenzie McDonald/Martin Redlicki (UCLA) def. Arthur Rinderknech/Jackson Withrow (TAMU) 7-6(4)

2. Gage Brymer/Austin Rapp (UCLA) def. Harrison Adams/Shane Vinsant (TAMU) 7-6(4)

3. Max Lunkin/Jordi Arconada (TAMU) vs. Maxime Cressy/Karue Sell (UCLA) 6-6, (6-4)

UCLA 7-1; National ranking #9

Texas A&M 10-1; National ranking #2

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

ITA National Team Indoor Quarterfinals

Steve Denton, Texas A&M Head Coach – On the match

“It started with a highly-contested doubles point, it’s not often that you see all three doubles matches go into a tie-breaker. Those could have gone either way, but they were able to win that point and it turned out that was a crucial point today. With how decisively we won at five and six, if we had taken that doubles point and put a lot of scoreboard pressure on them up 3-0 with four matches still on the court. That could have made the difference. After the doubles I thought the key was a couple tie-breakers in singles matches that also did not go our way, with Arthur and AJ in tie-breakers in the second-set. Losing tie-breakers in the doubles and in those two singles matches was the real difference today.”