by Bobby Knight | Apr 17, 2018 | Blog
This past weekend was a good penultimate weekend of Pac-12 regular season tennis. I personally got to enjoy it by making the 3.5 hour drive up to Salt Lake City to watch the Utes battle two fellow NCAA bubble teams in Washington and Oregon. On Friday afternoon the Utah/UW match was moved indoors as temperatures were well below the ITA minimum, infact there were some soft snow flurries in the air as I parked and walked into the indoor facility. Utah’s indoor facility is pretty high quality with great viewing available behind each court Utah won the doubles point but Washington would go on to win 2 straight singles points to gain the...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 17, 2018 | Blog
Third-ranked Vanderbilt, playing without its top player Astra Sharma (rib injury), captured its second straight SEC regular season championship in dramatic fashion on the road in Gainesville. The Commodores fell behind No. 10 Florida 3-1 and were trailing on each of the three remaining courts. Vandy junior Emily Smith trimmed the deficit to 3-2 by coming back from a break down in both the second and third sets to defeat Katie Kubicz 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 6. Vandy sophomore Christina Rosca tied it at 3-3 after coming back from 2-0 down in the third to defeat Josie Kuhlman 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 at No. 2. In the deciding match at No. 5, Vandy junior Summer Dvorak...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 16, 2018 | Blog
It was a pretty wild weekend of college tennis with several unexpected surprises. Some teams positioned themselves really well to get a NCAA at-large bid while others took some bad losses and may have put themselves on the outside looking in. We will start with the big winners of the week on the men’s side. Dartmouth extended its winning streak to four, and put itself in position to win its first Ivy League title since 1997, after coming back from a 3-0 deficit to stun No. 15 Columbia 4-3. Dartmouth senior Max Fliegner tied the match at 3-3 after coming back from a break down in the third set to defeat Columbia sophomore Adam Ambrozy...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 16, 2018 | Blog
This weekend had all the feel of the calm before the storm, with next weekend being the final matches before tourney time. Pretty much every team did exactly as expected this weekend. NC State continues to have a strong April, although they faltered on Sunday to a Virginia team that needed to prove it could win some tough conference matches, especially on the road. The Cavs split the weekend in Carolina, dropping their match against UNC on Friday.The heavyweights took care of business with Duke beating an up and coming Syracuse team. Wake did enough to remain in the mix taking care of Louisville on Sunday, but its loss on Friday to NC State felt like a...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 16, 2018 | Blog
With all the regular season conference play winding down it’s that time of year where teams gear up for conference tournaments (except the Ivy League, those smart guys sit back and watch… wait it’s better to play more to have a chance to improve your ranking right? not sure who the smart one’s are here). At the same time everyone is gearing up for conference tournaments all the teams that have a legitimate shot at hosting start looking at the rankings trying to figure out if they have a shot of making the top 16 to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. So of course you are wondering, how’s it look for my...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 12, 2018 | Blog
Friday Schedule#16 Southern Cal at Arizona – Arizona has had a seemingly cursed season with several close losses. They won’t have to worry about that this weekend as USC should win this match fairly easily. Prediction: USC 4-0#31 Cal at #4 Stanford – Stanford won the first meeting between these two rivals back in February 4-1. Cal has improved since the last meeting and Stanford’s elite aura has been somewhat diminished since February. The Bears will give the Cardinal a closer match this time around. Prediction: Stanford 4-3Washington at #35 Utah – Utah needs to defend the home court against unranked Washington to...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 12, 2018 | Blog
Big weekend coming up in the ACC. Today I will preview the Friday matches (Saturday/Sunday preview to come early on Saturday).There is actually one Thursday match but it is Florida State at Boston College and we all know how the BC ACC matches go.#1 Wake Forest at #39 Louisville – Louisville got a very much needed win last weekend at Duke. It kept their ranking from sinking below 40 and stopped the string of three straight ACC losses. Wake Forest did not look extremely impressive vs Clemson and Georgia Tech last weekend but they were able to get two wins despite some players missing for Davis Cup. This match will be closer than people may expect...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 11, 2018 | Blog
WOW! What a week! The SEC could not have planned this any better. We are down to the final weekend of the regular season and both the men’s and women’s titles are up for grabs and the teams involved are playing each other. For the men it’s Mississippi State at Texas A&M Friday night in what amounts to a winner-take-all match as it would be a complete shock if either team lost to LSU or Auburn Sunday after winning this match. On the women’s side you have Florida, South Carolina and Vanderbilt in a three-way tie and we get Vanderbilt at South Carolina and Vanderbilt at Florida. Assuming that Florida and...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 11, 2018 | Blog
Last week I took a look at the men’s conference races so now it’s time for the women. There will be 30 women’s conference tournaments this year with each winner earning an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. The only conference that does not have a tournament is the Ivy League which awards its automatic berth to the regular season champion. The only school that won’t be able to defend its conference title will be Wichita State which moved from Missouri Valley to the American after winning nine straight MVC titles. There will be 33 at-large bids into the NCAA Tournament with the at-large ranking cutoff expected to be 41 or...
by Bobby Knight | Apr 11, 2018 | Blog
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