It seemed like the story of the day wasn’t who was playing; it was who wasn’t playing as several big names were missing from their respective team’s starting lineups.
The big rematch between Baylor and Virginia didn’t come close to matching the level of play that we saw the first time around. Virginia was without 2 of it’s starters with neither Thai-Son Kwiatkowski or Alexander Ritschard playing. Below is a quote from Virginia’s recap that talks about the absence of the 2 players:
“We have two losses this year and both have come at the hands of Baylor,” said head coach Brian Boland. “They were the better team today but I am so pleased with our process. What a tremendous group of guys, doing things the right way. We continue to get better as this group of guys really understands and accepts the process. Dustin Taylor, Scott Brown and the rest of the staff are doing a great job with this group. The best is in front of us and we continue to get better with each day. We didn’t play two starters today and that was a choice I made.
Kim Gorum, who runs the In-Match Blog for Baylor, commented that Ritschard didn’t make the trip to Waco due to being ill and also mentioned that Kwiatkowski practiced with the team the last few days so I’m not sure if he picked up a last minute illness or injury or if it was something else.
With Kwiatkowski and Ritschard out, both Mac Styslinger and Henrik Wiersholm were chosen to fill in along with Collin Altamirano and JC Aragone having to slide up a spot. Virginia also shifted its #2 and #3 doubles teams due to the absences and inserted Jonathan Cornish into the doubles lineup which was his first action since playing against Liberty and Morgan State (big step up in competition). It should also be noted that Baylor’s usual #4, Diego Galeano, played doubles but did not play singles and according to the blog he took an injury timeout to have his left knee wrapped during the doubles point.
Just as Baylor did in the last meeting they jumped on Virginia during the doubles point with Julian Lenz and Diego Galeano winning 6-3 at #2 while Vince Schneider and Felipe Rios won 6-1 at #3. Virginia’s #1 team of Ryan Shane Luca Corinteli won by a 6-3 score.
Baylor kept the momentum going throughout the first sets and managed to take 5 of 6 with only Collin Altamirano grabbing 1 for Virginia at #3.
Baylor’s Mate Zsiga extended the BU lead to 2-0 as he was the first to finish with a 6-0, 6-2 shellacking of JC Aragone at #5. UVA’s Collin Altamirano would get the Hoos on the board with a 6-2, 6-2 win at #3 but shortly thereafter Felipe Rios would make it 3-1 Baylor as Rios closed out Wiersholm 6-1, 6-4.
Mitchell Frank dropped his opening set at #2 but then rallied to win 12 of the next 14 games to take out Tony Lupieri 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 and with that Virginia had closed to within 3-2. There wouldn’t be a 3rd and 4th point for Virginia because despite fighting hard at #1, Ryan Shane just couldn’t get the lead wrestled away from Julian Lenz as Lenz managed to close out the match in straight sets despite Shane breaking him twice in the 2nd set. After the clinch they played out the remaining match and within 2 or 3 minutes Vince Schneider gave Baylor its 5th point as he took out Styslinger 7-6, 6-4.
Here some comments from Baylor’s recap though it has no mention of the UVA guys missing in action.
TOP QUOTE #1
“We are just trying to get to four points. Some guys are playing great and some guys not so great. We have got some guys that have to get going. It seems like over the course of a year, it kind of flows that way. I am sure that some of the guys that didn’t win today are going to be great later and vice versa. We have to take our team win and feel great about it. The guys that played great we have to take and try to improve and those that didn’t have to bounce back for Tuesday.” – head coach Matt Knoll on the match
TOP QUOTE #2
“Julian is a very experienced guy. He has been in that situation a lot. We know he is going to be a fighter and be resilient. He was able to do that today and hold serve to get us out the door. Ryan plays huge and I am proud of Julian for getting through it.” – Knoll on Julian Lenz’s win
TOP QUOTE #3
“It’s funny because we don’t really practice doubles. We feel confident with our partners. Coach has figured out the lineup we need to win and it has worked. We don’t do anything special to be honest. We try to make good decisions and it has worked so far.” – senior Mate Zsiga on success in doubles
Baylor recap
Virginia recap
#5 Baylor 5, #11 Virginia 2 – FINAL
Doubles:
1. #55 Ryan Shane/Luca Corinteli (UVA) def. #56 Mate Zsiga/Tony Lupieri (BU) 6-3
2. Julian Lenz/Diego Galeano (BU) def. Mitchell Frank/Collin Altamirano (UVA) 6-3
3. Vince Schneider/Felipe Rios (BU) def. Mac Styslinger/Jonathan Cornish (UVA) 6-1
Order of Finish: (3,1,2)
Order of Finish: (3,1,2)
Singles
1. #11 Julian Lenz (BU 14.69) def. #2 Ryan Shane (UVA 14.54) 6-4, 7-5
2. #59 Mitchell Frank (UVA 14.85) def. #23 Tony Lupieri (BU 14.32) 3-6, 6-1, 6-1
3. Collin Altamirano (UVA 14.69) def. #40 Max Tchoutakian (BU 14.22) 6-2, 6-2
4. Vince Schneider (BU 13.46) def. #91 Mac Styslinger (UVA 14.02) 7-6(6), 6-4
5. Mate Zsiga (BU 13.82) def. JC Aragone (UVA 13.88) 6-0, 6-2
6. Felipe Rios (BU 13.62) def. Henrik Wiersholm (UVA 13.77) 6-1, 6-4
Order of Finish: (5,3,6,2,1,4)
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Austin, TX: Many people including me thought Wake Forest had a decent chance to pull the upset over Texas but when word spread that Noah Rubin was a no-go that changed the complexity of this match since Wake had to move everyone up a spot. It was reported by Tennis Atlantic’s Jeff McMillan that Rubin had a cast on his left wrist so that would explain him not playing.
Since there was no live scoring available (supposedly no internet?) the only scores updates during the match came from Jeff so if you want to check out his twitter for the flow of the match by all means take a look at it.
Neither team has released it’s recap yet so I guess news of the win is traveling by telegraph.
Texas recap
#6 Texas 4, #12 Wake Forest 3 – FINAL
Doubles:
1. Hess-Olesen/Glasspool (TX) def. Seraphim/Mansouri (WF) 6-2
2. Ho/Tabrizi (WF) def. Goldhoff/Berkowicz (TX) 6-4
3. Bogaerts/Kan (WF) def. Naumann/Reichmann (TX) 6-4
Singles:
1. #4 Soren Hess-Olesen (TX 14.94) def. #21 Romain Bogaerts (WF 14.29) 6-3, 6-2
2. #41 Lloyd Glasspool (TX 13.82) def. Skander Mansouri (WF 13.10) 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2
2. #41 Lloyd Glasspool (TX 13.82) def. Skander Mansouri (WF 13.10) 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-2
3. #70 Jonathan Ho (WF 13.55) def. #51 Adrien Berkowicz (TX 13.75) 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(8)
4. Keivon Tabrizi (WF 12.94) def. George Goldhoff (TX 13.75) 1-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4)
5. Nick Naumann (TX 13.87) def. Maksim Kan (WF 13.34) 4-6, 7-5, 6-0
6. John Mee (TX 13.54) def. Christian Seraphim (WF 13.55) 3-6, 6-1, 6-3
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Oxford, MS: As with the other 2 matches above this one was played indoors at Ole Miss’s 3 court facility so while that was fine during doubles it meant that only 3 singles matches could be played at once. Ole Miss would take the doubles point by winning the deciding match at #3 in a tiebreak and then the Rebels would take each of the first 3 singles matches to go on to close out the 4-0 shutout. Ole Miss won all 3 tiebreaks in the match and with it they took away any chance Vanderbilt had of gaining momentum.
Comments from Ole Miss’s coach:
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