A great start to the day in Chicago as Oklahoma comes back from getting shellacked in doubles to win 4 singles matches and knock off fellow Big 12 member Baylor 4-2. Baylor looked as fired up today as it did yesterday and it showed during the doubles point but once singles got underway that emotion started to fade as Oklahoma really established itself on the top 4 courts. Oklahoma took the opening set on 1, 2, 3, and 4 while Baylor was able to pick up opening sets at 5 and 6.
1. #40 Zsiga/Lupieri (BU) vs. #5 Alvarez/Webb (OU) 4-2
2. Lenz/Galeano (BU) def. Papa/Harris (OU) 6-2
3. Schneider/Felipe Rios (BU) def. Salazar/Ghilea (OU) 6-1
In the late afternoon match it was Georgia who got off to the fast start and surprised USC by taking the doubles point to grab the early 1-0 lead. Just one day earlier the Georgia duo of Montgomery/Oosterbaan looked out of sync and had a tough time keeping the ball in play but today was the exact opposite as they controlled play and finished points much quicker and won easily 6-1. Below is match point at #3 doubles.
USC’s #2 doubles team of Max De Vroome and Eric Johnson looked like they were going to cruise after going up an early double break and led 4-0 but Georgia’s Eric Diaz and Nathan Pasha chipped away at the lead with a Pasha hold, a break, and a Diaz hold to get within 4-3. USC held for 5-3 and then had a match point on the Pasha serve but he fought it off and then USC was broke serving for the match to even it at 5. While the 5-5 game was in progress Georgia would clinch the point by taking #1 doubles.
The Georgia #1 doubles pairing of Ben Wagland and Austin Smith pulled off a big upset over the ITA #1 ranked doubles team of Yannick Hanfmann and Roberto Quiroz but it took a little extra effort to close it out. After 5 straight holds to start the match Georgia would break the Hanfmann serve to go up 4-2 and would then consolidate the break with an Austin Smith hold for 5-2. Quiroz held for 3-5 then Ben Wagland served for the match and went up 40-15 but USC battled back to get the break for 4-5. Wagland and Smith refocused and managed to break back to take the court 6-4 which cliched the doubles point and gave Georgia the early 1-0 lead.
In singles play USC jumped out to early break leads on 2, 4, and 6 singles while Georgia would go up early breaks at 3 and 5.
USC’s Eric Johnson was in total control at #4 after breaking the Nick Wood serve to start the match and in fact he would break the Wood serve 6 straight times before Wood finally held to make it 1-6 1-5. Every facet of Johnson’s game was on while Wood struggled the entire match. Wood couldn’t find the range on his forehand with the majority of his shots either going too long or too short with Johnson jumping all over the short ones. The 6-1 6-1 scoreline was definitely odd considering they just played 2 weeks ago with Johnson winning 7-5 in the 3rd.
Down at 6 USC’s Nick Crystal would open up an early 3-1 lead before Paul Oosterbaan would break back to put it on serve at 3-2. Crystal would then reel off 8 straight games to not only take the opening set 6-2 but also open up a 5-0 lead in the 2nd set. During that 8 game stretch Oosterbaan struggled with his serve and Crystal kept the big 6’7 Bulldog on the run point after point. With nothing to lose Oosterbaan finally loosened up and started going for broke while Crystal started to tighten up and was hitting shot after shot into the bottom half of the net. Oosterbaan would win 4 straight to put it back on serve and it looked like we might be headed to a 3rd set which would have been a huge momentum boost for Georgia with several of the other guys in trouble. Unfortunately for Georgia the big Oosterbaan serve that got him 2 straight holds would fade away and Crystal would break at love to take the match 6-2, 6-4 to put USC up 2-1.
Exactly 2 minutes later the USC lead would be extended to 3-1 as Max De Vroome would finish off Ben Wagland 7-5 6-1 at #5 singles. Wagland jumped out to an early break lead at 2-1 but De Vroome would break back on the next game and would then break Wagland at love to take the opening set 7-5. The Wagland forehand that was working in the first set disappeared in the 2nd set and De Vroome made quick of him.
With all 3 of the back courts finished off everyone’s attention turned to the front 3 courts where USC just needed to win 1 of the final 3 matches while Georgia needed them all. Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery was up a break in the 3rd set at 1 while Nathan Pasha and Jonny Wang were on serve at 3 in a match that went back and forth. On the other remaining court USC’s Roberto Quiroz had a 7-6, 4-1 lead before Austin Smith held and then went up 0-30 on the Quiroz serve. Quiroz got the next 2 points to make it 30 all and then got a fortunate break when his volley hit the tape and trickled over to make it 40-30. Smith would force the deciding point and would get a look at a 2nd serve but he couldn’t get the return back in play as Quiroz’s lefty serve pulled Smith well into the doubles alley. Smith would hold to trim the deficit to 5-3 but Quiroz would promptly hold at love to send USC back to the finals for the 4th year in a row.
In the 2 remaining matches Georgia’s Wayne Montgomery had a 4-1 lead in the 3rd at #1 and Nathan Pasha and Jonny Wang were tied at 3-3 at #3.
Doubles:
Singles:
6. #49 Nick Crystal (USC) def. Paul Oosterbaan (UGA), 6-2, 6-4
Good catch, Russ. After Zsiga went up 4-2 I went over to sit courtside at 6 for the Rios/Salazar match because it looked like the 2nd set was getting tight and I lost track of that Zsiga/Ghilea match for a bit. You must have been sitting over by the Papa/Galeano match which I thought was a good slugfest. Very impressed with Papa – big frame – with a nice all around game.
Actually, Zsiga served for match at 5-2, which means he lost 11 straight games.