by Bobby Knight | May 22, 2016 | Blog
The Cinderella team of this year’s NCAA Tournament kept its magic going on Saturday as the local team, Oklahoma State, stunned No. 4 Ohio State 4-2 in front of a large pro-Cowboys crowd in Tulsa. Oklahoma State won the doubles point for the for the 31st time in 32 matches by picking a 6-1 win at No. 3 and it clinched the point with a 7-5 win at No. 1. There was some controversy on match point because some fans yelled out prematurely so Ohio State was seeking to have the final point replayed. After a discussion it was determined the point would stand however a point penalty was assessed to that court so Oklahoma State’s No. 1 Katarina Adamovic...
by Bobby Knight | May 22, 2016 | Blog
One half of the women’s semifinals are set after both Vanderbilt and Stanford came through their respective quarterfinal matches against Virginia and Michigan.While the scores of the two matches look fairly similar in reality they didn’t have much in common. Vanderbilt absolutely crushed Virginia in doubles winning at both No. 2 and No. 3 by 6-0 scores. The match at No. 2 finished in 24 minutes while the match at No. 3 took 26 minutes.Vanderbilt won four opening sets in singles and was really in control of this match from start to finish. Virginia’s biggest highlight came from Danielle Collins at No. 1 as the ITA second-ranked player...
by Bobby Knight | May 21, 2016 | Blog
After a great first half of the day in Tulsa we were treated to a gem in the evening as Georgia and USC went toe-to-toe for the better part of three hours. USC came into the round of 16 with the worst doubles winning percentage (.409) out of the teams still left in the field but that didn’t stop them from getting off to a quick start against Georgia.USC’s No. 1 team of Nick Crystal and Laurens Verboven opened the match by holding on the deciding point to take a 1-0 lead and then they’d break Austin Smith to go up 2-0. Crystal held for 3-0 before Ben Wagland finally put Georgia on the board with a hold for 1-3. Verboven held on the deciding...
by Bobby Knight | May 21, 2016 | Blog
I think we now know that nothing is going to be easy for anyone in this year’s NCAA Tournament as evidenced by yesterday’s women’s matches and today’s first three men’s matches.Ohio State and Texas were supposed to start at 9 a.m. this morning but due to the wet courts outside they got put on hold and stayed on hold for a while. It seemed like the plan was to have them play indoors after the conclusion of the TCU/Cal match but the decision was made to move them outdoors so at 12:12 p.m. central time doubles finally begin under grey skies.Ohio State would take the all-important doubles point for the 31st time in 35 tries when...
by Bobby Knight | May 20, 2016 | Blog
Well that didn’t take long – we already have our first upset of the day as No. 13 California withstood a late rally by TCU to hold on for a 4-3 win. The match was supposed to be played outdoors but it had to be played indoors since the courts were still wet from yesterday’s rain plus there was still a light mist in the air up until about 10:30 a.m.Cal dropped the doubles point in the regular season meeting but then took over in singles and won 4-2; today Cal got off to the quick start in doubles by going up early breaks on a few courts but closing them out wouldn’t be easy.TCU’s Cameron Norrie and Alex Rybakov jumped out to a 4-2...
by Bobby Knight | May 19, 2016 | Blog
Projected LineupsRound of 16 Schedule – Tulsa, OK – Thursday[3] North Carolina vs. [14] Virginia – 10am ET/9am CT – UVA 4-2[6] Vanderbilt vs. [11] Auburn – 10am ET/9am CT – Vanderbilt 4-0[7] Miami vs. [10] Michigan – 1pm ET/Noon CT – Michigan 4-3[2] Florida vs. [15] Stanford – 1pm ET/Noon CT – Stanford 4-3[1] California vs. [16] Texas Tech – 5pm ET/4pm CT – Cal 4-0[8] Pepperdine vs. [17-32] Texas – 5pm ET/4pm CT – Pepperdine 4-0[5] Georgia vs. [12] Oklahoma State – 8pm ET/7pm CT – Oklahoma State 4-0[4] Ohio State vs. [17-32] Georgia Tech – 8pm ET/7pm CT...
by Bobby Knight | May 19, 2016 | Blog
[3] UCLA Bruins (24-2) vs. [17-32] Stanford Cardinal (15-10) – Friday 8pm ET – UCLA booked its spot in the Sweet 16 after shutting out both Weber State and San Diego while Stanford knocked off Notre Dame 4-1 and Northwestern 4-3. UCLA is the only team to make the Sweet 16 every year since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams in 1999 while Stanford is back in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2012. This will be the fourth meeting of the year with UCLA taking the previous three. Interesting notes: Stanford won the doubles point in each of those three previous matches yet UCLA came back and won each time. UCLA...
by Bobby Knight | May 18, 2016 | Blog
[1] Virginia Cavaliers (26-4) vs. [16] Oklahoma State Cowboys (20-7) – 1pm ET – Virginia advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 4-0 win over Monmouth and a 4-1 win over Penn State while Oklahoma State beat Bryant and Arkansas 4-0. Oklahoma State will only be playing 75 miles from its Stillwater campus so it should have a good amount of fan support but it’ll take a Herculean effort to get past Virginia. Doubles Records: Virginia 26-4, Oklahoma State 18-8UTR Starting 6 Power Rating: Virginia 86, Oklahoma State 82FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of May 16th....
by Bobby Knight | May 18, 2016 | Blog
This morning it was announced that FloSports and the ITA have entered into a five-year agreement where FloSports will provide live streaming for up to 15 ITA events per year including all ITA National Championships (Men’s and Women’s All-American, Men’s and Women’s D1 and D3 National Team Indoors) in a paid subscription model. This is going to be nice for all the events where streaming wasn’t available but it’ll be interesting to see what changes on the events where streaming was provided for free. Here is the full release from the ITA that you can read at your convenience.I looked at the weather last weekend and...
by Bobby Knight | May 17, 2016 | Blog
Yesterday I gave you all the men’s numbers now today let’s go through the women’s numbers.I have them broken down by team, player, winning percentage, Universal Tennis Rating, ITA Ranking, country, and then broken down by individual position. It’ll probably be easier to view them on the google doc at this link.Here are some highlights from what I found:# of girls with an ITA ranking: 47High UTR: 12.32 – Hayley Carter (North Carolina)Top Winning % (min 10 dual-matches): 1.00 – Karla Popovic (Cal), Sandy Niehaus (Ohio State)Most Wins: 27 – Hayley Carter (North Carolina)Countries With 3 Or More Players: USA 65, Australia...
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