by Bobby Knight | Jan 18, 2016 | Blog
Normally Mondays are a light day for college tennis but due to the Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend we get an extra day of tennis. The schedule for the day shows 5 matches between ranked opponents plus an intriguing one in the Boro between Nashville neighbors Vanderbilt and Middle Tennessee State.I think the best match of the day will be in Memphis as #45 Memphis opens up its season by hosting #28 Oklahoma State. Oklahoma State opened up its season on Friday by only dropping 1 set in a pair of 7-0 shutouts over UNLV and Creighton. Below are some comments from Memphis head coach Paul Goebel about bringing in a big time opponent:”This is an exciting...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 18, 2016 | Blog
Well that didn’t take long – on the first weekend of the season a pair of Top 15 teams got upset as unranked Kentucky went into Durham and beat #13 Duke 4-3 and #62 Washington rebounded from a Friday loss to UCSB and knocked off #12 Texas by a 4-3 score. As I mentioned when the preseason rankings came out a week ago, the rankings didn’t really take into account the number of starters that some teams lost and thus ranked a few of them way too high. Both Texas and Duke fell into that category because each team had to replace 4 starters and most of the replacements were freshman. Anyway back to the day’s events starting first in Durham....
by Bobby Knight | Jan 17, 2016 | Blog
There’s been a lot of great college tennis action over the last 2 days but there’s still room for more as the MLK Holiday Weekend continues with 4 matchups between ranked teams.#36 Louisville is fresh off a Friday sweep of #63 Troy and Dayton and be looking to run its record to 4-0 as it faces #26 Northwestern and Morehead State. I have a feeling that Northwestern’s top 3 is going to be a little tough tough today and will help the Wildcats start off the season with a win. After the match Northwestern will hop back into the van and cruise back up to Chicago so they can play another match at 7pm central against Chicago State. #24 Florida opens...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 17, 2016 | Blog
It has become customary over the last several years to see schools play doubleheaders against perceived “lighter” schools but very rarely do you ever see the bigger school actually lose one of these – until today. #64 Clemson and Mercer met in Charlotte for a doubleheader and after Clemson took the opener 4-0 Mercer turned the tables on them in the nightcap and stunned the Tigers 4-3. According to Mercer’s recap it is the Bears first ever win against an ACC school although they had previous beaten Clemson but it was back in 1939 which was 14 years before the ACC was founded. Clemson won the opener 4-0 although Mercer was ahead in...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 16, 2016 | Blog
Friday brought us several good ones and I expect Saturday to do the same with 7 matchups between ranked opponents highlighted by #16 Virginia Tech going to Tuscaloosa to face #65 Alabama and #54 UC Santa Barbara trying to make it to 2 big wins in as many days as it faces to #12 Texas out in Seattle.Wake Forest opens its season against a pair of solid opponents, North Florida and East Tennessee State, and maybe we’ll get to see Petros Chrysochos and Dennis Uspensky in action with the pair just joining the team. For more info about Wake Forest you can check out my season preview.Another round of doubleheaders will take place in Lubbock between Texas Tech,...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 16, 2016 | Blog
The 2016 season is officially underway and it didn’t take long to get our first upset as #29 Tulsa came storming back from 3-1 down to stun #21 Cal 4-3. Tulsa made 3 roster additions this week and all 3 newcomers played tonight but it was the experienced veterans that came through with the match on the line.Tulsa got things started on the right foot by taking the doubles point with 6-4 wins at #1 and #3 but Cal still had to feel fairly confident going into singles with 5 of its 6 starters ranked in the ITA Top 90. Each team picked up three first sets and while Cal’s Filip Bergevi, Billy Griffith, and Oskar Wikberg finished in straight sets only one...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 15, 2016 | Blog
3 matches today between ranked teams with all 3 expected to be pretty close. Louisville is going to be starting a lot of new faces today so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Troy come into the Ville and pull off the upset.I guarantee you #13 Duke won’t be overlooking Elon after the Phoenix stunned them 2 years ago. Despite having a young team I still expect to see Duke pull through because Elon is just as young after losing 3 of its top 4 from last year.Cal and Tulsa ought to be a good one tonight and I’m sure it’ll be played indoors which will give Tulsa a little bit of an advantage however I expect to see Cal take it with 5 ranked...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 14, 2016 | Blog
When you think of ideal places to play college tennis the University of California in Berkeley has to be pretty high up on the list due to its strong academics, scenic views, and year-round mild climate. Cal has a recently renovated tennis facility, a tenured head coach, and is in one of the most fertile states for tennis but success in terms of conference and national titles has eluded them for years. The Bears have played second, third, and fourth fiddle to its in-state Pac-12 neighbors Stanford, USC, and UCLA for quite some time with Cal’s last conference title coming all the way back in 1953 when the conference was known as the Pacific Coast...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 12, 2016 | Blog
When you’re in the same conference as Virginia you know it’s going to be an uphill battle to win a conference championship but Wake Forest has come as close to beating the 9-time defending champs as just about anyone else in the last few years. Wake has played for the conference championship in 2 of the last 3 seasons and one of the main reasons is because of its head coach Tony Bresky. The 1998 Western Illinois graduate was part of Brian Boland’s staff during the years when the program went from an also-ran to a perennial powerhouse. Bresky learned how to recruit and put a team together and when he left Virginia after the 2010 season to take...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 12, 2016 | Blog
The dual-match doors have been unlocked and they are open for business – there will be 17 dual-matches this week between ranked teams plus I wouldn’t be surprised to see an unranked team upset a ranked opponent.The most intriguing matches in my opinion are #12 Texas at #62 Washington, #21 Cal at #29 Tulsa, Kentucky at #13 Duke, and #16 Virginia Tech at #65 Alabama. I’ll be interested to see what lineups Texas puts out on Tuesday against some lighter foes in preparation for its trip to Seattle to face both UC Santa Barbara and Washington. Even though Kentucky is unranked I’d make their match against #13 Duke a toss-up. Duke has a lot of...
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