After a busy weekend there were a handful of matches on Monday including one match that started on Sunday but finished on Monday due to rain. Seventh-ranked UCLA played its first indoor match of the year at Tulsa and judging by the final score it looks like they’ll be ready to go when they begin the National Team Indoors on Friday. While many of the singles matches weren’t very close the doubles decider at No. 1 was as close as it gets. Tulsa’s Dominic Bechard and Okkie Kellerman had a golden opportunity to serve for the match when they went up 0/40 on Evan Zhu’s 5-5 service game however Zhu and Martin Redlicki battled back to get it to the no-ad point. On the no-ad point Zhu’s serve hit the tape and kicked up but a scrambling Bechard hit his forehand just long to give Zhu the hold for 6-5. Bechard held to send the match to a tiebreak and in the tiebreak Tulsa went up 3-2 after winning both points on Zhu’s serve. Zhu and Redlicki would come back and win both points on Bechard’s serve to go up 4-3 and then they made it 5-3 after Kellerman put a backhand into the net. A nice service return by Bechard forced a Redlicki error to put it back on serve but then Redlicki had a great service return himself to put the Bruins up 6-4. Redlicki framed a backhand off the roof on the next point to make it 6-5 but he redeemed himself on the next one with a nice volley that won the match 7-5.
UCLA quickly went up breaks on five of six singles courts and would end up taking all six first sets and they’d close out five of those in straight sets to take a 6-0 lead. Tulsa’s best chance at picking up a point came at No. 1 when Or Ram-Harel won the second set 6-0 to force a third set supertiebreak against Gage Brymer. Brymer was in front most of the tiebreak and despite a late charge from Ram-Harel he’d pull it out 13-11.
#7 UCLA 7, Tulsa 0
Feb 13, 2017 at Tulsa, OK (Michael D. Case Tennis Center)
Doubles competition
1. #16 Redlicki/Zhu (UCLA) def. Bechard/Kellerman (TULSA) 7-6(5)
2. #23 Ram-Harel/Kilani (TULSA) def. Di Giulio/Rapp (UCLA) 6-3
3. Brymer/Cressy (UCLA) def. Hing/Santos (TULSA) 6-3
Singles competition
1. #19 Gage Brymer (UCLA 14.26) def. #23 Or Ram-Harel (TULSA 14.25) 6-4, 0-6, 1-0(13-11)
2. #73 Martin Redlicki (UCLA 14.38) def. #115 Majed Kilani (TULSA 13.22) 6-3, 6-4
3. Evan Zhu (UCLA 13.90) def. Dominic Bechard (TULSA 13.01) 6-3, 6-2
4. Logan Staggs (UCLA 13.84) def. Mitchell Pritchard (TULSA 12.25) 6-3, 6-4
5. Austin Rapp (UCLA 13.64) def. Francois Kellerman (TULSA 12.94) 6-2, 6-2
6. #112 Maxime Cressy (UCLA 13.54) def. Daniel Santos (TULSA 12.78) 7-5, 6-2
Match Notes:
Tulsa 4-6
UCLA 6-1; National ranking #7
Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (3,5,4,2,6,1)
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Cal Poly ran its record to 4-2 with an authoritative 7-0 win over Loyola Marymount. As with the UCLA/Tulsa match, the doubles point was very competitive with a tiebreak deciding it at No. 3 (trying to find out score). Poly won 12 of 13 sets in singles with only No. 3 having a set that was closer than 6-3.
Cal Poly 7, LMU 0
Feb 13, 2017 at San Luis Obispo, Calif (Mustang Courts)
Singles Results:
1. Corey Pang (CPMT 13.96) def. Nick Borchenko (LMU 12.70) 6-2, 6-1
2. Ben Donovan (CPMT 13.53) def. Max Kaiser (LMU 12.26) 6-3, 6-1
3. Garrett Auproux (CPMT 12.60) def. Lukas Moenter (LMU 12.61) 6-3, 4-6, 10-4
4. Joshua Ortlip (CPMT 13.43) def. Gabriel Diaz Freire (LMU 12.82) 6-2, 6-3
5. Antoine Noel (CPMT 12.76) def. Alex Bourgeois (LMU 11.77) 6-2, 6-1
6. Axel Damiens (CPMT 12.70) def. Luke Bohuslav (LMU 12.21) 6-2, 6-0
Doubles Results:
1. Ben Donovan/Corey Pang (CPMT) def. Max Kaiser/Nick Borchenko (LMU) 6-4
2. Lukas Moenter/Gabriel Diaz Freire (LMU) def. Karl Endander/Timothy Tan (CPMT) 6-2
3. Joshua Ortlip/Garrett Auproux (CPMT) def. Luke Bohuslav/Ryan Brown (LMU) 7-6
Match Notes:
Cal Poly 4-2
Loyola Marymount 2-3
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (2,6,1,5,3,4)
Post-Match Quote from Poly’s recap
“Our guys came out in singles firing on all cylinders after a tough doubles point,” said assistant coach Garrett Patton. “I was proud of the way we competed throughout the entire lineup against a good LMU team.”
Arizona and Grand Canyon began this match on Sunday and after GCU won the doubles point and took all six first sets in singles it looked like the Lopes were going to get their first-ever win against a school from a Power 5 conference. Grand Canyon moved up from Division 2 to Division 1 in the summer prior to the 2013-14 season and before this season they had only played one match against a school from a Power 5 conference (USC 6-1 L).
Grand Canyon’s Adrian Legarreta won in straight sets at No. 3 to put the Lopes ahead 2-0 but Arizona managed to take the five other second sets to force a slew of third sets. Arizona’s Shoti Meparidze put the Wildcats on the board with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 win at No. 1 but GCU’s Valentin Lang extended the lead to 3-1 with a 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 win at No. 6.
Shortly after Lang’s win at No. 6 the rain came and play was suspended until Monday. At the time of the delay Arizona’s Will Kneale led 3-1 in the third at No. 2, the match at No. 4 between Arizona’s Trent Botha and GCU’s Lorenzo Fucile was even at 2-2 in the third (after Fucile had led 6-3, 4-1), and GCU’s Justin Cvitanovic led 7-6, 2-5 at No. 5.
Roughly 30 minutes after play resumed on Monday, Arizona’s Trent Botha would complete his comeback with a 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 win over Fucile at No. 4. Less than 10 minutes later the match would be tied at 3-all because Will Kneale would close out Mathieu Rajaonah 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 at No. 2. By this time Shoki Kasahara had know gone ahead 4-2 in the third against Cvitanovic at No. 5 and in just a few more minutes Kasahara would finish it off with a 6-7, 6-2, 6-2 win.
— Arizona Men’s Tennis (@ArizonaMTennis) February 13, 2017
Arizona 4, Grand Canyon University 3
Feb 13, 2017 at Tucson, Ariz (LaNelle Robson Tennis Center)
Singles competition
1. Meparidze, Shoti (ARIZ 12.67) def. Francois Musitelli (GCU 13.10) 2-6, 6-2, 6-2
2. Kneale, Will (ARIZ 12.90) def. Mathieu Rajaonah (GCU 13.08) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
3. Adrian Legarreta (GCU 12.11) def. Reguant, Alejandro (ARIZ 12.83) 6-2, 6-1
4. Botha, Trent (ARIZ 12.32) def. Lorenzo Fucile (GCU 12.79) 3-6, 7-5, 6-4
5. Kasahara, Shoki (ARIZ 12.80) def. Justin Cvitanovic (GCU 12.99) 6-7, 6-2, 6-2
6. Valentin Lang (GCU 11.83) def. Plaskett, Oliver (ARIZ 11.89) 6-3, 1-6, 6-2
Doubles competition
1. Philip Kuehnen/Adrian Legarreta (GCU) def. Kneale, Will/Meparidze, Shoti (ARIZ) 6-2
2. Botha, Trent/Plaskett, Oliver (ARIZ) def. Mathieu Rajaonah/Gregoire Balenci (GCU) 4-3
3. Lorenzo Fucile/Valentin Lang (GCU) def. Reguant, Alejandro/Kasahara, Shoki (ARIZ) 6-2
Match Notes:
Arizona 5-2
Grand Canyon 5-3
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (3,1,6,4,2,5)
Post-Match Quotes from Arizona’s recap
“Hats off to Grand Canyon,” said head coach Clancy Shields. “They have a great coach, their team is really good and I think that they came really fired-up and ready to beat us. In a lot of ways, they were winning 95% of the match, but somehow we stuck around, kept fighting, and gave ourselves a chance to win at the end. I’m pretty tough on our guys, but I’ll take my hat off to them for staying around and fighting to the end. We are going to learn a lot from this match and learn to start a little quicker in the future, but it was a great collegiate match. It’s never easy going two days in a row.”
Post-Match Quotes from GCU’s recap
“The guys played their hearts out this weekend,” head coach Greg Prudhomme said. “Today’s loss against U of A is a tough one to swallow due to how close we came to the win. Maybe we had a little bad luck with the match getting suspended last night with us so close to the finish line, but I give credit to U of A for their fight.”
“As tough as the loss is, I believe that defining moments can come from hard fought losses as well as good wins and I believe this is one of them,” Prudhomme added. “I know our guys are much stronger having come so close to some of the strongest teams in the country. We’ll take the valuable experience we gained and work even harder.”
The draws for the men’s National Team Indoor Championships should be out on Tuesday evening. Unlike the women’s draw which seeded the top eight with the other eight randomly slotted, the men’s draw will have a standard bracket with the No. 1 seed playing the No. 16 seed, the No. 2 playing the No. 15, and so forth. The men’s seeds will be based off an unpublished set of rankings though there usually isn’t much variance from the previous set of published rankings. Below are the 2/8 rankings with any activity since they were published.
2/8/17 Men’s Rankings (16 participants)
1. Virginia (def. #6 Florida 5-2)
2. Wake Forest (def. #12 Oklahoma State 4-3)
3. Ohio State (def. #10 Georgia 4-0)
4. California (def. Pepperdine 4-2)
5. North Carolina (def. Ole Miss 6-1)
6. Florida (lost to #1 Virginia 5-2)
T7. UCLA (def. Tulsa 7-0)
T7. Northwestern (def. NC State 6-1)
9. USC (def. UC Davis 6-1, def. San Francisco 6-1)
10. Georgia (lost to #3 Ohio State 4-0)
11. Texas (def. Purdue 4-0, def. Texas A&M CC 4-0)
12. Oklahoma State (def. Alabama 4-0, def. UMKC 7-0, lost to #2 Wake Forest 4-3)
13. Baylor (def. Purdue 4-0)
14. Oklahoma (def. Wichita State 6-1, def. Alabama 5-2)
16. Mississippi State (def. Miami 4-0, lost at South Florida 4-2)
NR. Utah State (def. Arizona 4-3, def. Marquette 4-0, def. Grand Canyon 4-3)
I can’t see Florida dropping any after losing at No. 1 Virginia plus they have the H2H win over UCLA which was ranked behind it. I think UCLA gets the No. 7 seed and Northwestern the No. 8 (even though they were tied last week) because if UCLA were the No. 8 they’d play USC in the first round which is a matchup that will happen two more times during the regular season. I think Georgia holds at No. 10 even with the loss to No. 3 Ohio State and I don’t see Oklahoma State dropping despite the loss to No. 2 Wake Forest.
Anticipated Draw
[1] Virginia vs. [16] Utah State
[8] Northwestern vs. [9] USC
[5] North Carolina vs. [12] Oklahoma State
[4] California vs. [13] Baylor
[3] Ohio State vs. [14] Oklahoma
[6] Florida vs. [11] Texas
[7] UCLA vs. [10] Georgia
[2] Wake Forest vs. [15] Mississippi State
Once the draw and master lineups are finalized I’ll begin working on my round of 16 previews. Last weekend I tore it up going 14-1 during the Women’s NTIs although the higher seed winning 12 of 15 matches made things a little easier. My previews/predictions will only be available for CTT subscribers so if you haven’t hoped on board yet now is the time to SIGN-UP – just $.33 a day!
Who knew that Grand Canyon Uni had this good of a team? Are there any different NCAA regulations for for-profit colleges, like GCU?
Interesting that the higher UTR lost every match in the Arizona vs Grand canyon match
Grand Canyon does have a surprisingly good team this year. Should definitely win the WAC and make the NCAA tournament.
Grand Canyon is ineligible for the NCAAs and WAC Tournament for one more year due to their transition from D2 to D1