Saturday had several close ones with both Baylor and Oklahoma pulling through in the BNP Paribas Collegiate Challenge while San Diego and Princeton both won tight ones in the Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic. There was also a good one in Nashville where Vanderbilt won a 3rd set tiebreak in the deciding match to avoid getting upset by unranked Kentucky.
The headliner of the day was between #3 Baylor and #4 USC. It was almost a forgone conclusion that Baylor would take the doubles point with how dominant they’d been in doubles play but USC had the point well within grasp. Baylor’s #3 duo of Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios were first off the court with 6-3 win but USC’s #1 pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz answered with a 6-4 win. So it all came down to #2 doubles where Baylor’s Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano had jumped out to an early break lead on USC’s Max De Vroome and Eric Johnson. USC’s 2s would break back to even it at 4 then get a De Vroome hold to go up 5-4 and then would go up 0-30 on the Galeano serve. The Baylor 2s would win 4 straight points to hold for 5-5 but then Eric Johnson would hold at 40-15 to put USC up 6-5. For the second service game in a row Baylor would go down 0-30 but they’d dig themselves out again by winning 3 straight points to go up 40-30. After USC got the next point to make it 40-40, which was a deciding/break point, Lenz dropped the hammer on a 1st serve and sent to a tiebreak. The tiebreak was all Baylor as they jumped out to a 4-0 lead and ended up cruising to a 7-1 win.
In singles, Baylor jumped out to an early break lead at 1, 2, 5, 6 while USC got the early advantage at 3 and 4. The first to finish was Baylor’s Felipe Rios as he snapped Nick Crystal’s 10 match winning streak with a 6-2, 6-3 win at #6 singles. After falling behind 4-2 in the 1st, USC’s Roberto Quiroz would win 4 straight to close out the opening set then would keep the momentum going in the second and would finish off Tony Lupieri 6-4, 6-3 at #2 singles.
Eric Johnson would then even the match at 2-2 with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Max Tchoutakian at #3. Johnson led virtually the entire match before giving up his break lead late in the 2nd set. After falling behind 5-4 in the 2nd, Johnson won the final 3 games to close it out.
It looked like for a while that Jonny Wang would be the first off the court after he jumped out to a 6-2, 4-1 lead on Vince Schneider but the BU sophomore rallied to take 4 straight to go up 5-4 in the 2nd. Wang would then do as Johnson did and win the final 3 games to close it out 6-2, 7-5.
USC was now just a point away with a 3-2 lead but Baylor had the upper hand on each of the 2 remaining courts. Baylor senior Mate Zsiga would tie it up a 3 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Max De Vroome at #5 singles. Zsiga led this match wire to wire by breaking De Vroome to start both the first set and second sets. Zsiga would not be broke the entire match.
The final match on court was at #1 singles between Julian Lenz and Yannick Hanfmann. Lenz cruised in the 1st set taking it 6-2 and it stayed close deep into the 2nd set until Hanfmann broke Lenz to go up 5-4. However Hanfmann would get broke serving for the set and Lenz would consolidate the break with a hold and would then break again to take the match 6-2, 7-5.
It’s interesting to note that all 6 singles matches were finished in straight sets and none even made it to a tiebreak.
Baylor recap
TOP QUOTE #1
“It was a great match at No. 2 doubles. There were a lot of dramatic momentum swings. You looked up there for a while and it felt like we were going to win and then you looked up there a little while later and it felt like they were going to win. I thought both teams did a good job of competing hard. We fought off a match point to get to the tiebreaker and then did a great job in the tiebreaker.” – head coach Matt Knoll on doubles
TOP QUOTE #2
“It is kind of funny that we had such a competitive match and all the matches only went two sets. They are super good, but Felipe (Rios) certainly helped us get momentum with what he did. It was really good tennis all over the place.” – Knoll on the singles wins
TOP QUOTE #3
“It is great to be in the finals. We knew at this event we were going to have to play great to win matches. Now we have the No. 1 team in the country waiting for us in the finals. They beat us earlier this year and have a great program. It is going to be a super opportunity for us. We have to play these kind of matches to get better and it is going to help us. It is a great chance for our guys to be pushed.” – Knoll on playing Oklahoma
FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of March 21st. For more details about UTR check out their website.
#3 Baylor 4, #4 Southern California 3
Mar 21, 2015 at Indian Wells, California (Indian Wells Tennis Garden)
Singles competition
1. #4 Julian Lenz (BU 14.63) def. #8 Yannick Hanfmann (USC 14.92) 6-2, 7-5
2. #20 Roberto Quiroz (USC 14.36) def. #29 Tony Lupieri (BU 14.21) 6-4, 6-3
3. Eric Johnson (USC 14.01) def. #36 Max Tchoutakian (BU 14.15) 6-3, 7-5
4. #35 Jonny Wang (USC 14.18) def. Vince Schneider (BU 13.50) 6-2, 7-5
5. Mate Zsiga (BU 13.86) def. #50 Max de Vroome (USC 14.30) 6-4, 6-4
6. Felipe Rios (BU 13.73) def. #51 Nick Crystal (USC 14.06) 6-2, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. #4 Yannick Hanfmann/Roberto Quiroz (USC) def. #40 Mate Zsiga/Tony Lupieri (BU) 6-4
2. #77 Julian Lenz/Diego Galeano (BU) def. #50 Eric Johnson/Max de Vroome (USC) 7-6 (7-1)
3. Vince Schneider/Felipe Rios (BU) def. Thibault Forget/Nick Crystal (USC) 6-3
Match Notes
Southern California 13-3; National ranking #4
Baylor 14-2; National ranking #3
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (6,2,3,4,5,1)
Who Wins?
Votes so far: 6
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In the first semifinal of the day it looked like Columbia had a really good chance to pull off the upset after they took the doubles point and 3 opening sets against #1 Oklahoma. However while Oklahoma’s Andrew Harris, Axel Alvarez, and Spencer Papa would finish off each of their matches in straight sets only Columbia’s Mike Vermeer would be able to do the same. After Max Schnur took the first set 7-6 at #3, Oklahoma’s Dane Webb would win 12 of the next 17 games to clinch the win. The match at #4 was halted with Columbia’s Ashok Narayana leading 3-2 in the 3rd set.
OU recap
“Dane did a terrific job for us, Roddick said. “He turned his match around and did a terrific job of clinching the match for us. Columbia really made us work hard today.
“Andrew did a great job not letting Lin into the match,” Roddick said. “Axel and Spencer also did a great job of capitalizing on their opportunities.”
#1 Oklahoma 4, #29 Columbia 2
Mar 21, 2015 at Indian Wells, California
Singles competition
1. #19 Andrew Harris (OU 14.78) def. #16 Winston Lin (COL 14.23) 6-2, 6-2
2. #7 Axel Alvarez (OU 14.47) def. #83 Dragos Ignat (COL 13.63) 6-4, 6-1
3. #26 Dane Webb (OU 14.29) def. Max Schnur (COL 13.13) 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-3
4. #53 Alex Ghilea (OU 14.13) vs. Ashok Narayana (COL 13.35) 4-6, 6-4, 2-3, unf
5. Spencer Papa (OU 13.76) def. Shawn Hadavi (COL 13.32) 6-1, 6-3
6. Mike Vermeer (COL 13.38) def. Florin Bragusi (OU 13.59) 6-2, 6-4
Doubles competition
1. #5 Dane Webb/Axel Alvarez (OU) def. #20 Max Schnur/Ashok Narayana (COL) 6-4
2. #57 Winston Lin/Mike Vermeer (COL) def. #69 Alex Ghilea/Andrew Harris (OU) 7-6 (7-2)
3. Dragos Ignat/Bert Vancura (COL) def. Spencer Papa/Florin Bragusi (OU) 6-4
Match Notes:
Columbia 7-3; National ranking #29
Oklahoma 15-1; National ranking #1
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (1,2,5,6,3)
BNP Paribas Collegiate Challange Semifinals
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San Diego won the tournament it co-hosted with San Diego State by knocking off #33 Drake 4-2. The Toreros took the doubles point and picked up straight sets wins by Uros Petronijevic, Filip Vittek, and Jordan Angus at 1, 2, and 3 singles.
San Diego recap
“It’s a team goal to go undefeated throughout the year, and to be undefeated at home thus far has been huge,” head coach Brett Masi noted afer the victory. “To play all three matches at home this week was a big advantage. We play our best tennis on our home courts, but playing back-to-back matches everyday against top-45 teams is not easy. In the end, it feels great to take first place in a tournament, especially hosting. We won in 2011 at the inaugural tournament, and since then we haven’t been able to do so until today. It’s a great tournament and we were able to turn it around even after struggling in our last couple of matches on the road. We played great tennis the past few days and I am really proud of the guys for staying focused and playing their best tennis.”
#30 San Diego 4, #33 Drake 2
March 21, 2015 at San Diego, Calif. (Skip and Cindy Hogan Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. #58 Uros Petronijevic (USD 13.96) def. #42 Alen Salibasic (DRAKE 13.87) 6-1, 6-4
2. #81 Filip Vittek (USD 13.22) def. #38 Ben Lott (DRAKE 13.70) 7-5, 6-4
3. Jordan Angus (USD 13.59) def. Matt Frost (DRAKE 13.05) 6-4, 6-3
4. Ravi Patel (DRAKE 13.55) def. Romain Kalaydjian (USD 12.97) 6-3, 6-4
5. Geoffrey Fosso (USD 12.80) vs. Calum MacGeoch (DRAKE 12.43) 4-6, 6-1, 1-2, unf
6. Ben Mullis (DRAKE 13.20) def. Ciaran Fitzgerald (USD 12.68) 6-1, 6-0
Doubles competition
1. #41 Filip Vittek/Jordan Angus (USD) def. Ben Lott/Bayo Phillips (DRAKE) 6-3
2. Romain Kalaydjian/Uros Petronijevic (USD) vs. Alen Salibasic/Ben Mullis (DRAKE) 4-5, unf
3. Ciaran Fitzgerald/Geoffrey Fosso (USD) def. Matt Frost/Ravi Patel (DRAKE) 6-1
Match Notes
Drake 18-6; National ranking #33
San Diego 12-4; National ranking #30
Order of finish: Doubles (3,1); Singles (6,1,3,4,2)
Final round of Hilton San Diego Mission Valley Spring Classic
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Princeton capped off the weekend in San Diego by taking 3rd place in the San Diego Classic with a 4-3 win over Ivy League rival Harvard. With the match deadlocked at 3-3 it came down to a 3rd set at #6 and it was Princeton’s Luke Gamble who was the hero as he broke Shaun Chaudhuri to go up 4-3 and then he held serve two more times to take it 6-4 in the 3rd.
Coach Billy Pate on the matches:
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