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I thought the big story of the day would be TCU thumping Texas A&M or Georgia blanking Ole Miss but Stanford stole their thunder as the Cardinal stunned #5 USC 4-3. Each of these 3 big matches all had monster crowds on hand with TCU drawing over 1700, Georgia had over 1800, and while I didn’t see an attendence figure from Stanford the pictures I saw showed the stands pretty full.


Stanford took the doubles point with quick wins at 2 and 3 but then USC got off to a hot start in singles by taking the opening set on 4 courts. USC’s Max De Vroome would tie the match at 1 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #5 singles over Nolan Paige but moments later Stanford’s David Hsu would knock off Nick Crystal at #6 singles by a 6-3, 6-4 score. Hsu’s win over Crystal was probably the most surprising result because Crystal brought a 14-1 dual match record into the match and he had only dropped 4 games to Hsu in the first meeting in late February.  

It looked like USC would tie it back up at 2 when Roberto Quiroz led John Morrissey 7-6, 5-2 at #2 singles but Morrissey fought back to force a 3rd set.

Jonny Wang would tie it at 2 after he defeated Robert Stineman 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 at #4 singles but Stanford would go up 3-2 when Tom Fawcett rallied from a set down to defeat Yannick Hanfmann 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 at #1 singles.

Eric Johnson tied it at 3 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 at #3 singles over David Wilczynski but by then Stanford’s John Morrissey had opened up a 4-1 lead in the 3rd set at #2.

Morrissey would face 3 breaks points when serving at 4-2, 15-40 but he fought all 3 off and held for 5-2.  After a Quiroz hold, the pivotal point in Morrissey’s 5-3 service game would come at 30-15. Quiroz was in control of the point and when Morrissey hit a volley that sat up on the service line everybody figured Quiroz would hit a forehand into the open court but instead he dumped it into the net.  Morrissey had 3 match points but only needed 1 as Quiroz’s backhand sailed wide and with the miss Stanford had pulled off the rare double of beating USC and UCLA on back-to-back days. Below is the final service game via Sven Nommensen’s youtube. 

Stanford recap

“I started playing more aggressive tennis and really went after my serve, said Morrissey. “I just wanted to keep the points short, stay and aggressive and do more with the serve and volley. This was a great match and the whole weekend was just phenomenal.

#36 Stanford 4, #5 USC 3
April 11, 2015 – Palo Alto, CA (Taube Family Tennis Center)
Doubles
1) No. 36 Morrissey/Stineman (STAN) vs. Crystal/Quiroz (USC) abandoned
2) Fawcett/Maciek Romanowicz (STAN) d. Johnson/Wang (USC) 6-2
3) Paige/Wilczynski (STAN) d. de Vroome/Thibault Forget (USC) 6-3
Order of Finish: 3, 2 
Singles
1) No. 41 Tom Fawcett (STAN 14.32) d. No. 6 Yannick Hanfmann (USC 14.85) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
2) No. 100 John Morrissey (STAN 13.95) d. No. 19 Roberto Quiroz (USC 14.47) 6-7 (5), 7-6 (2), 6-3
3) No. 123 Eric Johnson (USC 14.30) d. David Wilczynski (STAN 13.84) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
4) No. 33 Jonny Wang (USC 14.19) d. Robert Stineman (STAN 13.18) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
5) No. 75 Max de Vroome (USC 14.06) d. Nolan Paige (STAN 13.32) 6-4, 6-4
6) David Hsu (STAN 13.81) d. No. 86 Nick Crystal (USC 13.98) 6-3, 6-4
Order of Finish: 5, 6, 4, 1, 3, 2
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of April 10th.  For more details about UTR check out their website. 
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What was expected to be one of the best matches of the day turned into one of the bigger blowouts as #10 TCU ran roughshod over #7 Texas A&M 4-0 in a match that last only an hour and 54 minutes. TCU was just 12-10 in doubles coming into this one but that didn’t stop them from rolling Texas A&M at #2 and #3 to grab the point.

The teams split the opening sets in singles but before Texas A&M had a chance to get into the match TCU’s Cameron Norrie, Facundo Lugones, and Cameron Norrie would all finish their respective matches in straight sets to seal the win in under 2 hours.  The amazing thing is that Shane Vinsant, Arthur Rinderknech, and AJ Catanzariti had only dropped a combined 7 matches coming in yet they all got routed on the same day. Hats off to David Roditi for getting past Texas A&M for a 2nd time this year.

TCU recap

“It is a huge win,” head coach David Roditi said. “I have so much respect for the Texas A&M program overall and they have been absolutely dominating us for a long time. For this group to put in the work they have been doing and getting better and with the freshmen coming through like that speaks a lot about what this team really wants. This team was hungry and for them to come out and beat the SEC Champions 4-0 makes me so happy for them and so proud. It is just a great moment for our program.”
“We played so bad in doubles at SMU in our last match and there was only one way we could go in doubles action and it was to get better,” Roditi said. For our No. 3 doubles team to come out like that and take a quick set like that is huge. The way we look at the doubles point is that it is almost like a bonus point for us because we haven’t been getting it that often. We are so used to not winning it that it is just a nice bonus when we do have it and it just makes a huge difference especially when you are playing at home. For a visiting team to come out here and be down the doubles point and take four singles from us is going to take a really good team to do that.”
“That is one of our goals is to protect our home here,” Roditi said. “For us to be able to play those teams at home is great. What a crowd and what a great day for college tennis. It was a clean match, a great atmosphere and people came out and supported us.
“I want to thank the alumni, the country club members and just the entire community for the support today. The guys really feed off of it and I hope to see every one of them at our match against Texas next weekend.”

Texas A&M recap

#10 TCU 4, #7 Texas A&M 0

Apr 11, 2015 at Fort Worth, Texas (Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #60 Jeremy Efferding (TAMU 14.26) vs. #48 Nick Chappell (TCU 13.86) 6-3, 0-3, unf
2. #63 Guillermo Nunez (TCU 13.70) def. #64 Shane Vinsant (TAMU 14.24) 6-3, 6-2
3. #50 Cameron Norrie (TCU 14.22) def. Arthur Rinderknech (TAMU 14.25) 6-0, 6-4
4. Arnau Dachs (TCU 13.88) vs. #55 Harrison Adams (TAMU 13.64) 4-6, 6-3, unf
5. Facundo Lugones (TCU 13.85) def. #78 AJ Catanzariti (TAMU 14.24) 6-4, 6-2
6. Jordi Arconada (TAMU 13.37) vs. Will Stein (TCU 13.34) 7-6(5), 1-1, unf
Doubles competition
1. #18 Nick Chappell/Will Stein (TCU) vs. #13 Harrison Adams/Shane Vinsant (TAMU) 3-4, unf
2. #29 Trevor Johnson/Cameron Norrie (TCU) def. #41 Jeremy Efferding/Jordan Szabo (TAMU) 6-3
3. Hudson Blake/Guillermo Nu?ez (TCU) def. Arthur Rinderknech/AJ Catanzariti (TAMU) 6-1
Match Notes
Texas A&M 17-4; National ranking #7
TCU 19-6; National ranking #10
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2); Singles (3,5,2)
T – 1:54
A-1707

Who Wins The Rematch on Saturday in Fort Worth

#10 TCU
  19 (40%)
#7 Texas A&M
  28 (59%)


Votes so far: 47
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Georgia wrapped a share of the SEC regular season title and the #1 seed in next week’s SEC Tournament with a 4-0 win over #14 Ole Miss.  The doubles point was up for grabs after Georgia won at #3 and Ole Miss won at 2.  There were no breaks of serve at #1 and in the tiebreak Ole Miss would lead 6-4 with Nik Scholtz serving for the point.  Georgia’s Austin Smith and Ben Wagland would fight back to take the final 4 points and lock up the doubles point by winning the tiebreak 8-6. Odd twist at the end of the doubles (per UGA blog) – Ole Miss’s Zvonimir Babic double faulted to give Georgia the point and after Georgia’s guys hit the ball back Babic hit the ball out of the complex and apparently since it was the 2nd penalty against the team the chair assessed a game penalty that rolled over to singles.  Since Babic didn’t play in singles that meant his partner Nik Scholtz started out down a break with Smith serving at 1-0 to begin play.

Georgia jumped all over Ole Miss in singles taking 5 of 6 opening sets and Nick Wood, Paul Oosterbaan, and Austin Smith would each close out their matches in straight sets to seal the shutout win.

It looked like Georgia senior Nathan Pasha would get the clinch because he led Gustav Hansson 6-4, 5-2 at #3 singles and he had a match point on the Hansson serve but Hansson managed to hold and then break to stay in it.  After Pasha held for 6-5, Austin Smith would hold serve himself to seal the win at #1 and thus halt all the remaining matches.

Below are some nice pics of the big crowd in Athens along with a clip showing match point for Smith.

Georgia recap

“This is a great way to end the regular season,” said head coach Manuel Diaz. “We had great play on all six singles courts. Nick (Wood) gave us the first point, Paul (Oosterbaan) the second, and this was a tremendous win for Austin at No. 1. He is really locked in and finishing the regular season on point. He is playing tremendous tennis and is so focused right now. After we lost to Mississippi State, our guys recommitted, and they see how to handle the important matches and not take anything for granted. Now we go into the SEC Tournament with a lot of momentum and the number one seed.”
“Ole Miss was serving so well and it kept them in the match,” Diaz said. “Even though we got a lead in that tiebreaker, I thought our guys kept their composure and poise and continued to fight. That doubles point could have gone either way, and the match may have been a little bit different. I give credit to our No. 1 team. They played tremendous tennis.”

Ole Miss recap

#8 Georgia 4, #14 Ole Miss 0
April 11, 2015 at Athens, Ga. (Dan Magill Tennis Complex)
Singles competition
1. #34 Austin Smith (UGA 14.22) def. #16 Nik Scholtz (OM 14.10) 6-4, 6-4
2. #84 Stefan Lindmark (OM 14.18) vs. #27 Wayne Montgomery (UGA 14.51) 7-5, 3-3
3. #25 Nathan Pasha (UGA 14.28) vs. Gustav Hansson (OM 13.76) 6-4, 6-5, unf
4. Ben Wagland (UGA 13.30) vs. William Kallberg (OM 13.25) 7-6 (8-6), 2-3, unf
5. Nick Wood (UGA 13.84) def. Vinod Gowda (OM 12.97) 6-1, 6-2
6. Paul Oosterbaan (UGA 13.68) def. Grey Hamilton (OM 12.47) 6-2, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #1 Austin Smith/Ben Wagland (UGA) def. #46 Zvonimir Babic/Nik Scholtz (OM) 7-6 (8-6)
2. Gustav Hansson/Stefan Lindmark (OM) def. Wayne Montgomery/Paul Oosterbaan (UGA) 6-2
3. Nathan Pasha/Nick Wood (UGA) def. Grey Hamilton/William Kallberg (OM) 6-3
Match Notes
Ole Miss 16-7 (8-4); National ranking #14
Georgia 19-3 (11-1); National ranking #8
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (5,6,1)

Official: Clark Weaver T-2:31 A-1811

Who Wins on Saturday in Athens

#8 Georgia
  33 (75%)
#14 Ole Miss
  11 (25%)


Votes so far: 44 
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Top 25 (as of 10pm Saturday)

Rank School Points
1 Oklahoma 88.89
2 Baylor 74.06
3 Illinois 69.58
4 Virginia 64.87
5 Georgia 63.79
6 Texas A&M 63.66
7 TCU 61.32
8 Duke 59.43
9 USC 58.73
10 Texas 58.00
11 Ohio State 47.91
12 Ole Miss 43.59
13 North Carolina* 43.02
14 Virginia Tech 41.59
15 Wake Forest 41.40
16 San Diego 39.10
17 UCLA 39.06
18 Florida 37.45
19 South Florida 36.40
20 Vanderbilt 35.93
21 Texas Tech 34.60
22 Mississippi State 33.88
23 Stanford* 33.40
24 Columbia* 32.17
25 LSU* 30.62