by Bobby Knight | Feb 26, 2016 | Blog
North Carolina State returned to the top 25 this week and had four matches scheduled for the weekend with two of them ranked opponents. However the Pack may have been caught looking ahead to Friday’s showdown with #6 Texas Tech because this afternoon it was upset by unranked UNC Wilmington 4-3.Despite being an upset in terms of ranking, it wasn’t a surprise in terms of recent history because this was actually the third time in the last four meetings that the Seahawks have clipped the Wolfpack.UNCW won a tightly contested doubles point with both #1 and #3 going to tiebreaks. UNCW won 6-2 at #2 and when Xander Veys/Javier Restrepo and pulled it out...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 25, 2016 | Blog
I wanted to make a mention of a couple of events that are coming up over the next few months with one of them getting started tomorrow (Friday).Six men’s and six women’s teams will converge on Montgomery, Alabama for the Blue Gray National Tennis Classic. The Classic stated all the way back in 1949 and has evolved over the years from an individual event to a team event. One of the things that makes this such a unique event are the host families that take in the teams every year. The players and coaches love coming to Montgomery which is why several teams have been participating in this event for years and will likely keep coming back. There are a...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog
Catherine Isip graduated from Saint Mary’s College in 2013 with a degree in Sports Managementby Joey DillonCatherine Isip had a junior tennis career most would dream of. She was named a Top 10-blue chip recruit out of Southern California and was on the radar for a number of top schools. A twist of fatewould have her travel six hours north to play for Lisa Alipaz at Saint Mary’s College of California. On top of its small campus size, Isip never imagined herself up north. “Even though it was still in California, there’s always been that rivalry between Southern and Northern California it almost felt like a betrayal, she said on moving to...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog
Cal stays at #1 in the first computer rankings of the year while Ohio State came up three spots to #2 and Michigan came up five spots to #3.As a reminder these rankings are based off last week’s rankings, which were done by the rankings committee, so I’d expect to see a lot more shifting next week too. This week the computer used each team’s 4 best wins but for the next 3 weeks it’ll use each team’s 5 best wins.My projections were good up through #19 but started to trail off a little – I had a couple of spreadsheet errors that through my numbers off plus I made some educated guesses on teams ranked outside the top 75...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 24, 2016 | Blog
The first computer rankings of the year are out with the ACC occupying three of the top five spots. North Carolina is sitting pretty comfortably at #1 with a nine point lead over #2 Virginia though Virginia has an almost eleven point lead over Ohio State.As a reminder these rankings are based off last week’s rankings, which were done by the rankings committee, so I’d expect to see a lot more shifting next week too. This week the computer used each team’s 4 best wins but for the next 3 weeks it’ll use each team’s 5 best wins.My projections were good up top but were off a little towards the bottom – I had a couple of...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 22, 2016 | Blog
When the new ITA rankings come out tomorrow it’ll be the first computer poll of the season after the ranking committee voted on all the polls up until this point. Usually there are some pretty big changes after the computers take over because teams are now ranked on what they’ve actually done as opposed to being ranked on its reputation.Anyone with enough free time can calculate the rankings using the ITA’s formula though I don’t recommend it because it is highly timely consuming. There’s always a chance I made a calculation error somewhere but by and large they are usually pretty close. These 2/23 rankings utilize each...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 22, 2016 | Blog
Texas A&M had been on the road for the last week and a half, and had lost its last three, but it managed to come from behind today to beat Illinois 4-2 despite playing without one of its top starters. Texas A&M senior Shane Vinsant missed today’s match against Illinois due to a blister on his foot but the Aggies managed to stay focused in his absence and the team performed much better in singles than it did in doubles. The weather was right around 50 degrees outside but they played it indoors anyway. I was a little surprised at the lighter turnout of around 175 because I’ve been to Atkins in the past for some big matches and have seen well...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 21, 2016 | Blog
#7 Texas A&M (10-3) at #12 Illinois (6-3) – 1pm est/12pm cst – Texas A&M comes into this one having dropped three in a row after starting 10-0 while Illinois has split its last four though it dropped two of three during the National Indoors. As has been the case all season, Illinois has been relying on the top of its lineup to get it done with the bottom struggling to come through. The doubles point is going to be essential for the Illini because without it I really don’t see them winning.Doubles record: Illinois 5-4 (4-0 at home), Texas A&M 11-2 (1-1 away)Indoor record: Illinois 6-3 (4-0 at home), Texas A&M 2-3 (1-1...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 21, 2016 | Blog
It was Big Slam Saturday at The Farm and as expected Cal and Stanford gave us another 4-3 classic. Last season each team won at the other’s place and this year is starting off the same after Cal gutted out a 4-3 win in a match that took 3 hours and 59 minutes.The 52-minute doubles point was extremely tight with breaks hard to come by at both #1 and #3. Cal’s #2 team of Andre Goransson and Billy Griffith jumped out to a 5-2 lead but Stanford’s Nolan Paige and David Wilczynski would come back and take five straight to win it 7-5.The match at #1 stayed on serve until Stanford’s Maciek Romanowicz double faulted on match point at 30-40 to...
by Bobby Knight | Feb 20, 2016 | Blog
The big match of the day on Saturday takes place in Palo Alto as #22 Stanford hosts #18 Cal in the “Big Slam” Part 1. This will be a non-conference matchup with the official conference matchup taking place in Berkeley on April 16. Last season the teams met three times with Stanford taking two of the three by winning at Cal and in Ojai in the Pac-12 semis. The first meeting in Berkeley was a wild 4-3 win by Stanford that saw Maciek Romanowicz come back from 5-2 down in the third to beat JT Nishimura 7-5 in the deciding match. Cal took the second meeting 4-3 when Billy Griffith held off Nolan Paige 6-4 in the third in the deciding match. Stanford won...
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