National Indoor Semifinal Recap: Georgia Upsets #1 Stanford 4-3; North Carolina Blanks Duke 4-0
The finals are set at the Women’s National Team Indoor Championships in Seattle and it’ll be the No. 5 seed Georgia taking on the No. 2 seed and defending champion North Carolina. Georgia snapped Stanford’s 25-match winning streak by knocking off the top seeded Cardinal 4-3 in a match that lasted just over 3 hours and 20 minutes while North Carolina beat No. 3 seed Duke 4-0 in 2 hours and 30 minutes.
Stanford jumped out to the early lead after taking the doubles point with a 6-3 win at No. 1 and a 7-5 win at No. 2 but Georgia came back strong in singles and claimed four opening sets. Georgia freshman Meg Kowalski was off the court quickly after a 6-1, 6-1 win at No. 6 and sophomore Vivian Wolff put the Bulldogs in front with a 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 4. Stanford sophomore Janice Shin evened the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 5 but Georgia junior Marta Gonzalez made it 3-2 with a 7-5, 6-2 win at No. 2. Stanford senior Caroline Lampl tied it at 3-3 with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 win at No. 3 so the match would be decided by a third set at No. 1 singles.
Georgia sophomore Katarina Jokic jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the final set against Stanford sophomore Michaela Gordon however Gordon would hold and break to even it at 3-3. Gordon went up 40/30 in her next service game however Jokic would take the next two points to break for 4-3. Jokic held at love for 5-3 and then broke Gordon from 15/40, after a Gordon drop shot sailed wide, to take it 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Georgia will be making its eighth appearance in the finals of the National Team Indoors with the Bulldogs going 3-4 in the previous seven. Georgia’s most recent finals appearance came in 2015, a 4-1 loss to North Carolina, while their last title came back in 2002.
Semifinals Set at Women’s NTI; Florida Fights Past TCU; Ohio State Overpowers Georgia; Texas Tech Tops Tulane; LSU is Walking in Memphis; Old Dominion Women Stun Tennessee
There was tennis played again in Seattle after snow wiped out Saturday’s schedule at the Women’s National Team Indoors and while most of the favorites won there was one mild upset. In an all-SEC dual, it was the No. 5 seed Georgia coming back from 3-1 down to defeat No. 4 Vanderbilt 4-3. The Commodores took the early lead with a 7-5 win at No. 1 doubles and a 6-4 win at No. 2 and then the teams split opening sets in singles. Georgia’s Katarina Jokic put the Bulldogs on the board with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 but Vandy answered seconds later with a 6-2, 7-6 win from Christina Rosca at No. 2. Vandy’s Amanda Meyer extended the lead to 3-1 with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 4 and it looked like the match was all but over with Emily Smith leading 5-0 in the third at No. 5. However, Georgia junior Elena Christofi would win the next seven games to close it out 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. The Christofi comeback changed the momentum on the rest of the courts as well and both Meg Kowalski and Lourdes Carle would pull away in their third sets to complete the 4-3 Georgia win.
“We won a lot of third set matches today, and it was super exciting out there,” said Georgia coach Jeff Wallace. “This was our biggest test so far, and we knew anybody you play out here is going to be really good, and it’s going to be a battle. It takes a lot of maturity and discipline to hang in there like Elena did after getting down 5-0 and fighting back. Katarina (Jokic) got us on the board at No. 1 with a big win in a matchup of two of the best players in the country and then two freshmen came through in Meg (Kowalski) and Lourdes.
Weather Wipes out Saturday Schedule in Seattle (& Part of LA); Cal Bears Down Against USC; UNC Edges Illinois; Miss State Stays up Late to Beat Tulane
Tennis was played in many parts of the country on Saturday but one place where it wasn’t was in Seattle. Almost a foot of snow closed down the University of Washington and made the roads unsafe so the second day of the Women’s National Team Indoors was called off. As it stands right now a full schedule will be played on Sunday with the main draw quarterfinal matches to be played at 10 am and 1 pm pacific time while the consolation matches are scheduled for 4 pm and 7 pm pacific time. The semifinals will be played on Monday with a Tuesday final though I’m not sure if they’ll be another round of consolation matches played on Monday. Check out Slam.Tennis for the full schedule along with any changes that are made throughout the day.
While snow knocked out play in Seattle it was rain that did in the highly anticipated top 10 men’s clash in Los Angeles between No. 7 UCLA and No. 10 Stanford. However just 12 miles away at USC there was no rain and No. 5 USC and Cal were able to play a full four plus hour classic that saw Cal come back from 1-3 down to stun USC 4-3. It was the second day in a row the Trojans led a match at home 3-1 only to see the lead disappear in heartbreaking fashion.
Wild Friday Recap: Long Opening Day at the Women’s NTI in Seattle; Virginia Upsets #1 Wake Forest; Stanford Stuns #5 USC 4-3
The opening day at the Women’s National Team Indoors in Seattle turned into an extremely long day despite singles being played first in each of the eight round of 16 matches. Three of the first four matches were decided by a sudden death doubles point with the higher seeded team winning each of those matches. Due to the weather closing down the University of Washington at 3pm (pacific) the final match of the day between Stanford and LSU was shifted to the Seattle Tennis Club with the match not getting underway until 7:30pm (pacific) after initially having a 2pm start time.
The No. 3 seed Duke edged Ohio State 4-3 in the opening match at the Nordstrom Tennis Center. The Blue Devils got off to a great start in singles picking up five opening sets and they’d get lightning quick wins from Kaitlyn McCarthy and Ellyse Hamlin at No. 4 and No. 6 singles with the duo only dropping only two games total. Despite the big early deficit, the Buckeyes would withstand the storm and fight back to get splits on three of the other courts while adding a straight set win from Isabelle Boulais at No. 1. Kolie Allen actually gave OSU its first point with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 win at No. 3 and then after Boulais tied it at 2-2 Shiori Fukuda would put the Buckeyes in front with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 2. In the final singles match at No. 5, Duke’s Margaryta Bilokin picked up a crucial break on the deciding point to go in front 5-4 in the third and then she’d serve it out to win 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
The match-deciding doubles point saw three lopsided scores with Duke winning 6-1 at No. 2, Ohio State winning 6-1 at No. 1, and Duke’s Kelly Chen and Meible Chi clinching the victory at No. 3 with a 6-2 win.
What to Watch This Weekend; Oklahoma State Nips Northwestern 4-2; Bid Goswami To Retire After 37 Years
It’s Friday which means we have another action packed weekend of tennis upon us. The big event on the women’s side is the ITA National Team Indoors in Seattle. There has already been a change to Friday’s schedule with 4 to 6 inches of snow in the forecast. The opening matches will be moved up from 9 am to 8 am pacific, the second pair of matches which were originally scheduled for 12 noon will start at 10 am, the third pair of matches were moved up from 3 pm to 12 pm, and the final matches were moved up from 6:30pm to 2pm. All matches on Friday will start with singles with doubles only being played if the match is tied at 3-3. All the updated match times are available on my live scoring page and over on Slam.Tennis. According to this release from the University of Washington, all of Saturday’s matches have been cancelled however I’ve yet to see any confirmation of this from the ITA. (Update: there will be no tennis played on Saturday at the University of Washington – there may be a limited number of matches played at the Seattle Tennis Club however that decision will be made later on Friday)
There are also going to be plenty of good matches this weekend on the men’s side. Some of the more intriguing matches on Friday are #1 Wake Forest at #13 Virginia (will be a non-conference match), #10 Stanford visits #5 USC, and #2 Ohio State hosts Arizona State, On Saturday #3 Mississippi State will play #19 Tulane in a neutral site match in Lubbock, Stanford will close out its LA road trip at #7 UCLA, #14 Illinois will host #8 North Carolina, and #17 Tennessee and Duke will meet in Lake Nona in a match to be carried live by the Tennis Channel. To close out the weekend on Sunday, #2 Ohio State will host #24 Georgia, #1 Wake Forest hosts #9 Baylor, and #15 TCU welcomes in #4 Florida. To follow all of these matches check out my live scoring page which also has links to several other matches.
Illini Rallies Past Irish in Wednesday Nite Thriller; Women’s NTI Draw Released; New Rankings Are Out
Notre Dame, ranked No. 11, went into Wednesday’s night home clash against No. 14 Illinois with an undefeated record and seeking a fourth win over a top 15 opponent but despite a great start in singles they’d be unable to hang on as Illinois came storming back from a 3-1 deficit to win 4-3. Illinois, which was playing just its second match of the season after getting an automatic berth into the National Indoors due to being the host, jumped out to the early 1-0 lead after claiming doubles wins at No. 1 and No. 2. Notre Dame came back in singles and won all six opening sets and would finish three out in straight sets with Alex Lebedev, Tristan McCormick, and Guillermo Cabrera winning at No. 1, No. 4, and No. 6.
Illinois managed to get splits on the other three courts and one by one they’d all fall the way of the Illini. Zeke Clark cut the deficit to 3-2 with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 3 and Caleb Chakravarthi tied it at 3-3 with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 5. The deciding match at No. 2 would be a back and forth affair with Illinois junior Aleks Kovacevic coming out on top over Notre Dame sophomore Richard Ciamarra 6-7, 6-2, 6-4. Ciamarra went up a break at 4-3 in the third but Kovacevic broke back, held, and broke again to close it out.
Sunday Recap: Boston College Upsets #10 Syracuse; Michigan Mauls #6 Texas; Vandy Bounces Back Against Northwestern; Notre Dame Knocks Off Another Top 15 Foe
Boston College pulled off the upset of the day on Sunday with a historic first-ever top 10 win when it upset No. 10 Syracuse 4-3 in a match that started before noon but almost lasted until the kickoff of the Super Bowl. The Eagles, now 7-0, jumped out to the early lead with what turned out to be a crucial doubles point with wins at No. 2 and No. 3. Syracuse bounced back in singles and took the opening set on three of the four courts in action however each team would claim two wins a piece which meant it’d come down to the final two matches to go on court at No. 5 and No. 6. Syracuse tied it up at 3-3 with a straight set win at No. 6 but BC would get the clincher from freshman Laura Lopez who picked up a 7-6, 6-3 at No. 5.
“I am so proud of how hard our girls compete,” said head coach Nigel Bentley. “They have worked so hard. They understand there are no short cuts. They earned an awesome win today against a top-10 team. Our captain senior Jackie Urbinati had another amazing third set comeback and everyone really fed off her energy. Yufei Long was outstanding beating one of the nation’s top players.”
“To watch Laura get her first ACC win under that kind of pressure was tremendous to witness. The doubles teams battled hard every point, and everybody contributed to this complete team win. I’m very happy for our team and program, it’s a great day for BC women’s tennis.”
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