by Bobby Knight | Feb 8, 2017 | Blog
Late Tuesday night the ITA released the draws for the upcoming Women’s National Team Indoor Championships which will take place this Friday through Monday in New Haven, Connecticut. Florida as expected is the top seed with North Carolina seeded No. 2 and Oklahoma State No. 3. Cal, which is the defending NTI champions, is seeded No. 7. Yale University will be the tournament hosts with the on-campus Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center the primary venue while the Tennis and Fitness Center of Rocky Hill (30 miles away) will host half of the first round matches and the consolation matches on Saturday and Sunday. FloTennis will live stream all the matches from...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 7, 2017 | Blog
The Tennis Recruiting Network (TRN) released it’s Winter Rankings of the Top 25 Women’s Recruiting Classes for the Class of 2017 and coming in at No. 1 was Jeff Wallace’s Georgia Bulldogs. Wallace signed a pair of blue chippers for next fall in Oklahoma’s Morgan Coppoc (11.16) and California’s Annette Goulak (10.67) along with Katarina Jokic (12.23) from Bosnia/Herzegovina. Coppoc is the top rated recruit in the Gulf States and has been ranked as high as sixth in the country while Goulak is the fourth rated recruit in California and has been ranked as high as 19th in the country. Jokic achieved a career high ITF junior ranking of...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 6, 2017 | Blog
The fourth Pac-12/SEC Challenge is in the books and the big winner from the weekend was the Florida Gators. Florida had only won one match at this event over the last three years but this year they doubled that number with a win over USC yesterday and today they took out UCLA 4-2. Florida started off the match in a 1-0 hole after UCLA won the doubles point with 6-4 wins at No. 1 and No. 3. The key point at No. 3 doubles came when UCLA’s Max Cressy was serving at 4-4 (40/40). Florida’s Elliott Orkin and McClain Kessler were in control of the point and had an overhead at the net to get the break but Cressy used his quick reflexes to block back the...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 5, 2017 | Blog
For the second day in a row Virginia faced a serious challenge but once again the bottom part of the lineup was able to come through when it counted and Virginia edged Kentucky 4-3. Virginia looked like it had the doubles point under control after winning 6-1 at No. 1 and leading 5-3 at No. 2 but Kentucky’s Will Bushamuka and Nils Ellefsen won four straight games to win the decider 7-5. Virginia would try to rebound in singles but gaining early momentum would be a little tougher than usual since Virginia’s strong No. 5 and No. 6 guys wouldn’t get a chance to start immediately due to Kentucky indoor facility only having four courts.Virginia...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 4, 2017 | Blog
The two-time defending NCAA Champion Virginia Cavaliers took the court tonight for the first time this season and while they came out on top against Vanderbilt it didn’t exactly go as smooth as some may have expected. Vanderbilt picked up a quick 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles but Virginia countered with a 6-3 win at No. 2 so it all came down to No. 3. Vanderbilt’s Billy Rowe and Lachlan McPhee broke Virginia’s serve to go up 5-4 and then McPhee served it out to give Vanderbilt the doubles point and early 1-0 lead. During singles play Virginia jumped out to early break leads at 1, 4, and 5 while Vanderbilt took the early lead at 2 and 3 (only...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 2, 2017 | Blog
There is another exciting weekend of dual-match action coming up with 15 matches taking place between top 25 teams with eight of those on the women’s side and the other seven on the men’s side. Four of the seven men’s matches take place at one site with No. 11 Florida hosting the fourth edition of the Pac-12/SEC Showdown. Florida and No. 5 Georgia will each play No. 6 UCLA and No. 8 USC in what has been a one-sided showdown over the last three years with the Pac-12 schools going a combined 8-2. Top ranked Virginia opens up its season with a three-match road swing through the Ohio Valley. The Cavaliers go to Vanderbilt on Friday, No. 15...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 1, 2017 | Blog
The February 1st Oracle/ITA Top 25 is out and while there wasn’t much movement in either the men’s or women’s Top 10 there was a lot of movement elsewhere. I’ll start with the men’s rankings which kept Virginia, Wake Forest, Ohio State, Cal, and Georgia in the top 5 with the only movement in the top 10 coming when Northwestern (9) and Texas (10) swapped spots at No. 9 and No. 10. The biggest riser on the men’s side was Baylor with the Bears coming up seven spots from No. 21 to No. 14 after picking up a road win at Texas A&M and then blanking SMU to qualify for the National Team Indoors in Charlottesville. Mississippi...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 31, 2017 | Blog
This past weekend was the first chance for several teams to knock the dust off their racquets and it was also our first chance to see some of the freshmen and January roster additions in action. I’ll go back through the weekend that was and give my thoughts on several teams and where I see them headed this season plus I’ll highlight those with stellar KOW performances. I’ll also take a look at the freshmen and January roster additions that could be difference makers for their respective teams. So who impressed me the most – I’ll start with Oklahoma, led by first-year head coach Nick Crowell, played some dominating...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 31, 2017 | Blog
The 2017 ITA Kick-Off Weekend is officially in the books after the conclusion of the last two region finals in Miami and Berkeley. Miami (FL) was looking to advance to the National Team Indoors for a 13th consecutive while Texas A&M was looking to make a second straight trip. The match was originally scheduled for Sunday but rain pushed it back until today and then today’s start was pushed back an additional 90 minutes due to a morning shower.Texas A&M took the early 1-0 lead after winning at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles and then the teams split opening sets in singles. Miami’s Estela Perez-Somarriba picked up a quick win at No. 4 when her...
by Bobby Knight | Jan 30, 2017 | Blog
It’s not uncommon for a No. 2 seed to knock out a host during the Kick-Off Weekend but when the No. 2 seed is Utah State and the No. 1 is TCU the idea of Utah State pulling it off was something that few outside of Logan could have ever imagined. TCU, which finished last year ranked 57 spots higher than Utah State, came into the match riding a 31-match home court winning streak while Utah State was only participating in a Kick-Off Weekend regional for the second time in school history. The Aggies, led by first-year head coach James Wilson, got off to a slow start in doubles after TCU jumped out to early break leads at No. 1 and No. 2. TCU’s Jerry...
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