When Friday’s NCAA Women’s Doubles Final gets underway Texas’s Lulu Sun and Kylie Collins will be facing an ACC opponent for the fifth match in a row after the duo came back from a set down and 6-2 down in the third set supertiebreak to defeat Virginia’s Rosie Johanson and Emma Navarro 4-6, 7-5, 10-8.
Sun and Collins will be attempting to win Texas’s first NCAA Women’s Doubles Championship. They are the fourth Texas women’s doubles team to play for a NCAA Women’s Doubles Championship with the most recent coming all the way back in 1996. In a five-year stretch from 1992 to 1996 Texas had doubles finalists in 1992, 1993, 1995, and 1996 (same pairing in 92/93) though they came up short in each of those finals.
Sun and Collins’s finals opponent will be North Carolina’s Makenna Jones and Elizabeth Scotty. The UNC team defeated their third ACC opponent in the past four matches with a 6-3, 6-4 win over NC State’s Alana Smith and Anna Rogers. If Jones and Scotty can win the title on Friday, they’d become the second UNC doubles team to win a NCAA Women’s Doubles Championship. Sara Anundsen and Jenna Long won the title in 2007 with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over William & Mary’s Megan Moulton-Levy and Katarina Zoricic.
The men’s doubles final will be an All-SEC affair between Tennessee and Auburn.
Tennessee’s Adam Walton and Pat Harper became the school’s fifth doubles team to advance to the men’s doubles final after a 7-5, 6-4 win over Baylor’s Sven Lah and Constantin Frantzen. If Walton and Harper can raise the trophy on Friday they’d be the fourth Tennessee team to do so with Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese the most recent in 2014. Libietis and Reese won what has to be up there for the most exciting finals ever when they defeated Ohio State’s Kevin Metka and Peter Kobelt 7-6(4), 6-7(3), 7-6(6).
Walton and Harper’s opponent will be Auburn’s Finn Murgett and Tad Maclean. The Auburn duo ousted Pepperdine’s Guy Den Ouden and Adrian Oetzbach 6-4, 6-1. Murgett and Maclean are the second Auburn team to advance to the final joining Mark Kovacs and Andrew Colombo who won it in 2002 with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 win over Stanford’s Scott Lipsky and David Martin.
The teams met during the regular season with Murgett and Maclean edging Walton and Harper 7-6(5).
The last time two doubles teams from the same conference met in the final was in 2015 when Texas’s Lloyd Glasspool and Soren Hess-Olesen defeated Texas Tech’s Hugo Dojas and Felipe Soares 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Both final matches will start following the conclusion of the singles final which will be no earlier than 1:30 pm ET. Below are some more details and stats on Thursday’s semifinal matches.
NCAA Women’s Doubles – Semifinal Results
[4] Makenna Jones/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina def. Alana Smith/Anna Rogers, NC State 6-3, 6-4
Kylie Collins/Lulu Sun, Texas def. Rosie Johanson/Emma Navarro, Virginia 4-6, 7-5, 10-8
- [4] Makenna Jones/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina def. Alana Smith/Anna Rogers, NC State 6-3, 6-4
- Match Time: 1 hour 22 minutes
- First Set: Exchange of breaks in the third and fourth game of the match; UNC broke Rogers from 30/40 to go ahead 4-3 then after Scotty held on the deciding point for 5-3 UNC broke Smith at love to take the set
- Second Set: First 4 games went to the deciding point with UNC winning 3 to take a 3-1 lead; Jones held at love for 4-1 then Rogers held and NCST broke Scotty on the deciding point to put it back on serve at 4-3; UNC broke Smith on the deciding point for 5-3 (Smith had led 40/30); NCST broke Jones from 15/40 to make it 5-4*; UNC broke Rogers from 15/40 (included 2 double faults) to win it
- Deciding Points: 11 – UNC won 7
- Best Prior Results for UNC at NCAAs: Sara Anundsen/Jenna Long (2007 Champ); Daavettila/Sanford (2018 Semifinalist); Hayley Carter/Whitney Kay (2016 Semifinalist)
- Kylie Collins/Lulu Sun, Texas def. Rosie Johanson/Emma Navarro, Virginia 4-6, 7-5, 10-8
- Match Time: 1 hour 33 minutes
- First Set: Stayed on serve until UVA broke Sun from 15/40 to go ahead 4-3; Texas broke Navarro on the deciding point for 4-4 but UVA broke Collins at love for 5-4; Johanson served out the set at love
- Second Set: Texas led 5-2* after breaking Johanson and Navarro in back-to-back service games (UVA broke Sun in between to neutralize the first break); UVA fought off 4 set points when Johanson came back from 0/40 to hold for 3-5; UVA fought off another set point with a break of Sun on the deciding point for *4-5; UVA fought off yet another set point when Navarro held on the deciding point for 5-5 (had led 40/0); Collins came back from 15/30 down to hold for 6-5 then Texas broke Johanson at love to take the set
- Third Set Supertiebreak: Virginia led *6-2 then Texas won the next 2 to make it 6-4*; Virginia went up another mini-break at *7-4 but Texas took the next 4 points to take a 8-7* lead; Virginia tied it at 8-8 but Texas won the last 2 points to win it 10-8
- Deciding Points: 9 – Virginia won 5
- Best Prior Results for UT at NCAAs: Cristina Moros/Farley Taylor (1996 Finalist); Cristina Moros/Kelly Pace (1995 Finalist); Susan Gilchrist/Vickie Paynter (1993 & 1992 Finalist)
NCAA Women’s Doubles Final
[4] Makenna Jones/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina vs. Kylie Collins/Lulu Sun, Texas (NB 1:30 pm)
Road to the Final
- [4] Makenna Jones/Elizabeth Scotty, North Carolina
- def. Alana Smith/Anna Rogers, NC State 6-3, 6-4 in SF
- def. Sofia Munera/Natasha Subhash, Virginia 6-3, 6-3 in QF
- def. Katarina Kozarov/Julia Adams, Furman 2-6, 7-6(2), 11-9 in R16 (fought off 1 MP)
- def. Ava Hrastar/Gia Cohen, Georgia Tech 3-6, 6-3, 14-12 in R32 (fought off 4 MPs)
- Kylie Collins/Lulu Sun, Texas
- def. Rosie Johanson/Emma Navarro, Virginia 4-6, 7-5, 10-8 in SF
- def. Andrea Garcia/Nandini Das, Florida St. 6-3, 6-7(2), 10-5 in QF
- def. [2] Sara Daavettila/Cameron Morra, North Carolina 6-0, 6-1 in R16
- def. Cameron Corse/Page Freeman, Notre Dame 6-3, 6-2 in R32
NCAA Men’s Doubles – Semifinal Results:
Finn Murgett/Tad Maclean, Auburn def. Guy Den Ouden/Adrian Oetzbach, Pepperdine 6-4, 6-1
[3] Adam Walton/Pat Harper, Tennessee, def. [5-8] Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen, Baylor 7-5, 6-4
- Finn Murgett/Tad Maclean, Auburn def. Guy Den Ouden/Adrian Oetzbach, Pepperdine 6-4, 6-1
- Match Time: 1 hour 41 minutes
- First Set: The first 3 games went to a deciding point with the serving time getting the hold; Murgett and Maclean broke Den Ouden on the deciding point for 4-2 but Den Ouden and Oetzbach broke Maclean on a deciding point to put it back on serve at 4-3*; Oetzbach held for 4-4 and then Murgett came from 15/40 down to hold for 5-4; Auburn broke Den Ouden at love to take the set 6-4
- Second Set: Auburn jumped out to a 3-0* lead then Den Ouden held to make it 3-1; Maclean came back from 30/40 down to hold for 4-1 then Oetzbach was broken on the deciding point to put Auburn ahead 5-1; Murgett served it out at love
- Deciding Points: 9 – Auburn won 7
- Best Prior Result for Auburn at NCAAs: Mark Kovacs/Andrew Colombo (2002 Champ)
- [3] Adam Walton/Pat Harper, Tennessee, def. [5-8] Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen, Baylor 7-5, 6-4
- Match Time: 1 hour 13 minutes
- First Set: Baylor led 4-1* and had 3 break points for 5-1 but Harper came back from 15/40 down to hold; Tennessee broke Lah from 30/40 and then Walton held at love for 4-4; Frantzen held at love for 5-4 then Harper held from 40/30 for 5-5; Tennessee broke Lah at love for 6-5 and Walton served out the set from 40/30
- Second Set: Only break of the set came when Tennessee broke Lah’s 3-3 service from 30/40 (Lah had led 30/0); Harper served out the match at love
- Deciding Points: 2 – Tennessee won them both
- Best Prior Results for UT at NCAAs: Mikelis Libietis/Hunter Reese (2014 Champ), Davey Sandgren/JP Smith (2010 & 2009 Finalist); Rodney Harmon/Mel Purcell (1980 Champ); Andy Kohlberg/Michael Fancutt (1979 Finalist)
NCAA Men’s Doubles Final:
[3] Adam Walton/Pat Harper, Tennessee, vs. Finn Murgett/Tad Maclean, Auburn (NB 1:30 pm)
Road to the Final
- [3] Adam Walton/Pat Harper, Tennessee
- def. [5-8] Sven Lah/Constantin Frantzen, Baylor 7-5, 6-4 in SF
- def. Loïc Cloes/Clément Marzol, South Alabama 6-4, 6-2 in QF
- def. Marcus McDaniel/Andres Martin, Georgia Tech 7-6(3), 6-2 in R16
- def. Sean Sculley/Garrett Johns, Duke 6-0, 6-4 in R32
- Finn Murgett/Tad Maclean, Auburn
- def. Guy Den Ouden/Adrian Oetzbach, Pepperdine 6-4, 6-1 in SF
- def. Riley Smith/Daniel Cukierman, Southern California 7-6(2), 3-6, 10-3 in QF
- def. Tristan McCormick/Axel Nefve, Notre Dame 6-4, 1-6, 10-7 in R16
- def. Jordan Chrysostom/RyanFishback, Virginia Tech 6-2, 6-4 in R32
- Regular Season Meeting: Murgett/Maclean def. Walton/Harper 7-6 (5)
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