Cal’s Mads Engsted and JT Nishimura cruised to a 6-2 win at No. 3 doubles over Gage Brymer and Max Cressy but the Bruins appeared to be in control with 4-1* and *4-2  leads at No. 1 and No. 2. Cal would get the break back on both courts and Filip Bergevi and Florian Lakat would take the final five games at No. 1 to win it 6-4 and give the Bears the doubles point.

UCLA came back in singles and took opening sets at 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. UCLA sophomore Martin Redlicki made quick work over the slumping Andre Goransson by winning 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2. Goransson went 13-2 in the fall with 7 ranked wins but he’s just 5-8 in dual-match play with a 1-8 record against ranked opponents.

UCLA senior Karue Sell would put the Bruins ahead 2-1 with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Oskar Wikberg at No. 4. Sell went up early breaks in both sets and never looked back.

UCLA junior Mackenzie McDonald won his ninth straight match and put the Bruins a point away from the clinch with a 6-2, 7-6(3) win over Florian Lakat No. 1.

It looked like Cal senior Mads Engsted would pick up a win at No. 5 when he led Logan Staggs 6-4, 5-1 but Staggs would rally and take the next six games to steal the second set 7-5.

Cal sophomore J.T. Nishimura put the Bears second point on the board with a come from behind 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Joseph Di Giulio at No. 6. The win was Nishimura’s third in a row while Di Giulio saw his six match winning streak get snapped.

Cal’s hopes of a comeback were fading by the minute as Logan Staggs had opened up a big lead in the third at No. 5 while Gage Brymer was just a game away at No. 3.

Brymer probably thought he’d need three sets to get past Cal’s Filip Bergevi, especially since Bergevi led 6-2 in the first set tiebreak, but Brymer came back to take the opening set tiebreak 10-8. Brymer went up 3-1 in the second set but Bergevi broke and held to even it at 3-3. Bergevi would serve for the second set up 5-4 but Brymer broke and held for 6-5. Brymer went up 30-40 on the Bergevi serve while Staggs was up 5-1, 40-0 at No. 5. Brymer didn’t waste any time and finished off Bergevi on the next point to take it 7-6, 7-5.

Note: Cal’s Billy Griffith, who has been playing at No. 2 singles/doubles, didn’t play for unknown reasons

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For the second day in a row USC dropped the doubles point, after Stanford won at No. 1 and No. 3, but the Trojans turned things around in singles and won it 6-1.

USC freshman Jake DeVine was the first off the court with a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of Sameer Kumar at No. 4 and then senior Max de Vroome would make it 2-1 Trojans with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Tom Fawcett at No. 1. It was de Vroome’s sixth straight win and his second over Fawcett in the last five weeks.

USC freshman Jack Jaede put the Trojans head 3-1 with a 6-4, 7-6(7) win over Maciek Romanowicz at No. 6. Jaede came back from a 4-0 deficit in the second set tiebreak and fought off a set point when serving at 6-7.

USC sophomore Thibault Forget ran his dual-match record to 13-1 with a clinching 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Nolan Paige at No. 5.

The two remaining matches were played out with USC’s Nick Crystal coming back from 5-7, 1-4 down at No. 2 to win 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 over David Wilczynski while USC’s Logan Smith defeated Michael Genender 6-3, 0-6, 6-4 at No. 3

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

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For the second time in the last seven days SMU went on the road and knocked off a top 20 team after picking up 4-2 win over No. 17 South Florida. The match was originally supposed to be played outdoors on USF’s campus in Tampa but the wet weather forced the match indoors some 60 miles away at the IMG Academy in Bradenton.

The change in venue didn’t effect USF’s play in doubles as the Bulls took the point with wins at No. 1 and No. 3 but SMU was able to retake the momentum during single play.

Hunter Johnson (SMU)

The Mustangs took four opening sets and would win two of them in straight sets and the other two in three sets. Marker Kerner and Yates Johnson were the straight set winners at No. 4 and No. 6 while Samm Butler and Hunter Johnson won in three sets at No. 2 and No. 3.

South Florida’s Roberto Cid won in straight sets at No. 1 while the match at No. 5 was abandoned with USF up a set.

FYI, the original box score from SMU’s recap showed Yates Johnson losing and Slobodchikov winning but the recap said otherwise. I also suspect that the matches at No. 2 and No. 3 were reversed because Cotrone has played No. 1 or No. 2 all year with the same going for Hunter Johnson.

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After a great day of tennis we were treated to a great nightcap with No. 12 Texas Tech pulling out a dramatic 4-3 win in Waco over No. 38 Baylor.

Baylor’s Max Tchoutakian and Tommy Podvinski played at No. 1 doubles for the first-time ever and rolled over the ITA No. 6 team of Hugo Dojas and Felipe Soares 6-1. Baylor claimed the doubles point when Felipe Rios and Jimmy Bendeck, who were playing at No. 2 for the first-time ever, defeated the ITA No. 53 team of Alex Sendegeya and Bjorn Thomson 6-3.

The reason Baylor had to make some changes to its doubles and singles lineups was because Will Little, who normally played at No. 1 doubles and No. 4 singles, had to sit out with an injury.

It didn’t take long for Texas Tech to take the lead because Connor Curry took care of Tommy Podvinski 6-1, 6-0 at No. 5 while Bjorn Thomson defeated walk-on Tyler Stayer 6-2, 6-1 at No. 6. Alex Sendegeya extended the lead to 3-1 with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Felipe Rios at No. 3. It was Sendegeya’s fourth win in his last five matches while Rios dropped his fifth straight.

Baylor started its comeback when senior Julian Lenz ousted Felipe Soares 6-4, 7-5 at No. 1 and it continued when freshman Jimmy Bendeck tied the match at 3-3 with a 6-2, 7-6(5) win over Jolan Cailleau at No. 3.

As Bendeck finished off Cailleau at No. 4, Texas Tech senior Hugo Dojas was serving for the second set at No. 2 leading Max Tchoutakian 5-2. Dojas held on the deciding point when Tchoutakian was overruled, for the third time in the match, on a line call on Dojas’s serve. Dojas had the second set 6-2 plus with the point penalty he started off the third set up 0-15 on Tchoutakian’s serve.

Tchoutakian shook off the point penalty and held from 40-15 to go up 1-0. Tchoutakian would then break on the deciding point to go up 2-0 but Dojas broke back from 30-40 to make it 1-2. Tchoutakian broke again on the deciding point to go up 3-1 and then he went up 40-30 on his next service game. Tchoutakian would hit an overhead into the bottom of the net to bring up the deciding point and then Dojas forced a Tchoutakian error to get the break for 2-3. After four straight breaks, Dojas would hold for 3-3 and then Tchoutakian would come back from 30-40 down to hold for 4-3.

Dojas went down 15-40 on his 3-4 service game when Tchoutakian called Dojas’s first serve out. Dojas appealed the call and the chair overturned it. Since it was Tchoutakian’s fourth overrule it resulted in a game penalty and thus erased all three break points that Dojas was facing.

Hugo Dojas (Texas Tech)

Dojas would then break from 30-40 to go up 5-4 but he wouldn’t be able to serve it out with Tchoutakian breaking from 30-40 to tie it at 5-5.

Tchoutakian held at love for 6-5 and then Dojas held from 40-30 to send it to a tiebreak. Tchoutakian went up an early mini-break at *2-1 but a well hit drop shot by Dojas evened it at 2-2. Tchoutakian went up another mini-break when he punished a pretty weak Dojas second serve to go up *4-3 but Dojas evened it at 4-4 when he forced a Tchoutakian backhand error.

Dojas went up 5-4* with a forehand winner on the sideline – I thought the shot was pretty close but there was no way Tchoutakian could risk an overrule which would have defaulted him.

Dojas went up 6-4 with an ace down the T but he followed that up with a double fault to make it 6-5*.  The match would come to a conclusion on the next point when Tchoutakian hit a solid backhand that hit the tape and kicked back on his side of the court. Dojas had the win taking it 6-7, 6-2, 7-6.

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Columbia debuted its new PlaySight HD cameras on Saturday afternoon and the viewing audience got to see an exciting Ivy League match against No. 40 Dartmouth. Columbia came into the match having won its last 16 doubles points against Ivy League foes but Dartmouth was poised to put an end to that streak.

Columbia’s Mike Vermeer and Michal Rolski were the first to finish with a close 7-5 win over Dovydas Sakinis and Max Fliegner at No. 2. They broke to start the match but Dartmouth broke back for 2-2 and then held for 3-2. It stayed on serve until Vermeer and Rolski broke on the deciding point to go up 6-5 and then CU served it out for the win.

Dartmouth would answer with a 7-5 win of its own as Max Schmidt and Roko Glasnovic defeated Miguel Alda and Christopher Grant at No. 3. Schmidt and Glasnovic trailed *2-4 but they won three straight to go up 5-4. Columbia would hold on the deciding point for 5-5 but Dartmouth held and then broke on the deciding point to win 7-5.

Over at No. 1, Dartmouth’s Brendan Tannenbaum and George Wall jumped out to an early *3-1 lead but Columbia’s Shawn Hadavi and Richard Pham broke back and held for 3-3. It would stay on serve the rest of the way until Columbia went up 3-0* in the deciding tiebreak and they’d eventually make it 5-2*. Dartmouth’s Tannenbaum would hit two big first serves to make it 4-5* then Hadavi double faulted to make it 5-5. Wall hit a return winner off a Hadavi second serve to make it *6-5 and then he won the next point on his serve to take it 7-5.

Columbia came back in singles and took opening sets on the first four courts while Dartmouth took the last two. Four of the six matches would finish in straight sets with Columbia senior Mike Vermeer the first off the court with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Brendan Tannenbaum at No. 4. Vermeer broke Tannenbaum to go up 4-3 in the first and then he held and broke again to take the opening set 6-3. Vermeer went up 5-0 in the second and served it out two games later for a 6-3, 6-1 win.

Columbia junior Shawn Hadavi gave Columbia its first lead of the day with a routine 6-2, 6-2 win over Dovydas Sakinis at No. 1. Hadavi opened up a 4-0 lead to start the match before Sakinis held and broke to make it 4-2. Hadavi broke back and held to take the set 6-2. Hadavi went up 5-0 in the second and had a match point on his serve on the deciding point but Sakinis got the break. Sakinis held for 2-5 before Hadavi served it out.

Dartmouth sophomore Max Fliegner tied the match at 2-2 with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Richard Pham at No. 5.  Fliegner broke Pham to go up 4-2 in the first and then held for 5-2. Pham would hold and break for 4-5 but Fliegner broke back to take the set 6-4. Fliegner rolled in the second set going up 5-2 and then breaking to win it 6-2.

Columbia senior Eric Rubin put Columbia back in front with a 6-4, 6-3 win over George Wall at No. 3. Wall broke Rubin to start the match and held for 2-0 but Rubin held, broke, and held to go up 3-2. Rubin would break Wall’s 4-5 service game to take the opening set 6-4. Rubin jumped out to a 3-0* lead in the second but Wall held, broke, and held to even it at 3-3. Rubin would promptly take the next three to close it out 6-3.

Both of the remaining matches would go three-sets and it would ultimately be Columbia freshman Timmy Wang that would clinch it with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win over Max Schmidt at No. 6. Schmidt jumped out to a double-break 4-1 lead in the first set before Wang broke and held to make *4-3. Schmidt held and then broke to take the opening set 6-3. Wang broke Schmidt to go up 3-2 in the second but Schmidt broke back for 3-3. Wang broke back and held for 5-3 and would take the set 6-4. Wang broke Schmidt’s 3-3 service game in the third set but Schmidt broke back to even it at 4-4. Wang would break back to go up 5-4 thanks to a couple of Schmidt double fault and then the Columbia freshman would serve it out from 40-30 to clinch the win. Video clip from Columbia senior Chris Sabaitis:

The remaining match at No. 2 was abandoned with Columbia freshman Victor Pham serving up a break at 4-3 in the third.

6. Timothy Wang (CU) def. Max Schmidt (DART), 3-6 6-4, 6-4

Post-Match Quotes from Dartmouth’s recap

Pacific picked a nice 4-3 win on Saturday over No. 54 Pepperdine. Pacific won the doubles point with wins at No. 1 and No. 2 but Pepperdine rallied to take four first sets in singles.

Pepperdine would pick up straight set wins from Pedro Iamachkine and Jack Van Slyke at No. 5 and No. 6 while Pacific got straight set wins from Sem Verbeek and Miguel Diaz at No. 1 and No. 4.

Pepperdine’s Lautaro Pane tied the match at 3-3 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 win at No. 2 but Pacific’s Daniel Alameh would win the decider 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 over Stefan Menichella at No. 3.

The finish of the match was a little confusing if you were following the live scoring at home because the scoreboard showed Menichella winning both the first and second sets yet it still kept recording a score in the third set. Even after Alameh won the final set 6-3 the scoreboard showed that Pepperdine won the match 4-3. It wasn’t until several minutes later that it changed to show Alameh winning the second set and thus the match.