The newest College Tennis Today contributor is Jeff McMillan. Jeff has been a rabid college tennis fan and follower for over a decade now and was the manager of the Clemson men’s team in the 2012 and 2013 seasons. He has attended the past 3 NCAAs in Waco, Tulsa and Athens as well as many matches at a variety of schools across the country. He will be reporting on the ACC men’s season as well as a few reports on the Pac 12 men.
The ACC season is about to really get going in the next few weekends but before that begins, there were 2 standout results this past weekend. The 1st one being Duke’s 6-1 victory over NC State.
Duke 6, NC State 1
The Duke Blue Devils went into Raleigh on Thursday coming off of some tough losses to nationally elite teams and were looking to get back on the winning track against a confident NC State team. Meanwhile the Wolfpack were looking to defend their home courts against a fellow top 20 ACC team.
Quotes:
NC State Coach Kyle Spencer: “Great ACC battle, as we knew it would be.Whenever you have two top-20 teams going at it, it’s going to be exciting. I thought the guys did a pretty good job of creating a good atmosphere. Duke did a good job of hanging in there and battling all the way. We had some guys really fight for their matches today, and it didn’t go our way, but I’m excited for where this program and this team is heading.”
Duke Coach Riley Smith: “This was definitely a big bounce back win for us. We had lost two in a row and in a tough stretch of playing all good teams. I was really pleased with everything today. The overall theme of today would definitely be grittiness and battling back. It was an absolute team effort and thats what we needed today. The atmosphere there at the end when we were deep in the final three sets and needed that one point, each guy felt like the final point was coming down to him and each guy thought he could get it. We were fortunate to win all three matches. The score looks one sided, but it was anything but that.
-This was a very nice win for Duke on the road and it sets them up nicely in the rankings before the big match vs #1 Wake Forest on Wednesday March 21.
Virginia 6, Notre Dame 1
The next big ACC result over the past weekend was Virginia’s 6-1 beating of Notre Dame. The college tennis world has been fascinating by the Virginia season thus far, wondering how the mighty dynasty of the past several years could have fallen so far in just 1 season (to the point of being unranked in the ITA rankings). But this win for the Cavaliers showed that this young UVA team is not simply chalking up this season as a rebuilding year just yet. After a lackluster performance vs Louisville on March 2 the Wahoo season was looking grim but signs of life emerged in a tight 4-3 loss to Illinois, followed by a 4-3 win over an improving UCF team. A ho-hum win over Boston College led into Sunday’s match vs Notre Dame. The Cavs came out strong vs the Irish, who to this point in the season, are in the midst of one of their most successful seasons in recent memory, with all of their previous losses coming only to teams on the top 20. The most impressive part of this win for Virginia was the lopsided nature of many of the singles courts, showing the talent that the Virginia freshmen have and could be a sign that they are getting better and better as the season progresses.
Doubles:
1. Aswin Lizen/Gianni Ross (UVA) def. #55 Brendon Kempin/Tristan McCormick (ND) 7-5
2. Carl Soderlund/Matthew Lord (UVA) def. Richard Ciamarra/ Matt Gamble (ND) 6-4
3. Guillermo Cabrera/ Alex Lebedev (ND) def. Ammar Alhaqbani/Spencer Bozsik (UVA) 6-3
Singles:
1. Carl Sderlund (UVA) def. #33 Alex Lebedev (ND) 7-6 (7-4), 7-5
2. Gianni Ross (UVA) def. Richard Ciamarra (ND) 6-2, 6-2
3. #28 Aswin Lizen (UVA) def. Guillermo Cabrera (ND) 6-4, 6-1
4. Matthew Lord (UVA) def. Tristan McCormick (ND) 6-4, 6-2
5. Matt Gamble (ND) def. Ammar Alhaqbani (UVA) 6-4, 6-2
6. Kyrylo Tsygura (UVA) def. William Howells (ND) 6-2, 6-3
Quotes:
Virginia Coach Andres Pedroso (on Soderlund’s solid win at #1): He (Sderlund) is a really good tennis player and the guy is one of the best competitors in the country. Having him at one is just good for the team confidence wise. Seeing that guy on the number-one court gives everybody a little bit of comfort because he is such a great player and he is a great competitor.
Other ACC results:
Florida State 5, Georgia Tech 2 – a good no-nonsense performance in singles for the favored Seminoles after dropping the doubles point
NC State 4, Virginia Tech 3 – Big rally from NC State after dropping doubles. 2 big 3 set wins by Igor Saveljic and Babelis put the Wolfpack over the top to avoid the upset
Wake Forest 7, Virginia Tech 0 – Deacs blank Hokies despite missing several key contributors.
Virginia 5, Boston College 2
UCF 4, Miami 3 – heartbreaking 3rd set tiebreak loss on court 4 for the Hurricanes as they fail to get a much needed ranked win
Wake Forest 4, USC 1 – The return of Chrysochos and Gojo meant a victory for Wake over the Trojans (who were playing without their top 2 themselves)
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