Special from
College Tennis Today
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When the 2016 ITA Men's National Team Indoor Championships got underway last Friday in Charlottesville, Virginia it seemed like it the matches were a mere formality before the host Virginia Cavaliers were crowned as champions.
Virginia came into the event riding a 51-match home court winning streak with its last home loss coming back on
February 19, 2012 when it was upset by
Ohio State in the National Team Indoors semifinals. Virginia had won 94 straight at home prior to the Ohio State loss so that meant Virginia had won 145 of its last 146 home matches coming into the tournament.
Virginia was the only one in the 16-team field that didn't have to qualify, since it got an automatic berth as host, but it warmed up for the NTIs by convincingly beating #9 UCLA 6-1 just three days before the start of the tournament.
The higher seeds won seven of the eight matches on the opening day, with the #8 seed and defending NTI champion Oklahoma the only one to fall. The Sooners lost to the #9 seed Wake Forest 4-1, which was the second time in two weeks that Wake had beaten them. #1 Virginia cruised past #16 San Diego 4-0, #2 Texas A&M was pushed pretty hard by #15 Columbia but won 4-2, #3 North Carolina overcame the loss of the doubles point to beat #14 Texas Tech 4-1, #4 USC outlasted #13 South Florida 4-3, #5 TCU rolled over #12 Illinois 4-0, #6 Ohio State was too much for #11 Baylor 4-0, and #7 UCLA came from behind to beat #10 Georgia 4-3 which was the Bruins second win over Georgia in the last two weeks. All said and done the team that won the doubles point won six of the eight matches - with only Texas Tech and South Florida losing after taking the early 1-0 lead.
Quarterfinals
The quarterfinal round got underway at 9am on Saturday, and by the time it finished 13 hours later at 10pm, I along with many others were exhausted from all the drama and tension.
The opening match of the day between #3 North Carolina and the #6 Ohio State was the least tense of the four. The Buckeyes came into the match with a perfect 9-0 mark in doubles, but the Tar Heels were able to claim the point with wins at #1 and #2 (this would be the only time all week UNC would win the doubles point). North Carolina picked up four first sets and was able to close out three of them in straight sets with Ronnie Schneider providing the clincher at #2 singles. The 4-2 win pushed North Carolina into the semifinals for the first-time in program history.
The action really heated up in the second match of the day between #2 Texas A&M and #7 UCLA. All three doubles courts went to a tiebreak within seconds of each other with UCLA ultimately winning at #1 and #2. Each won three first sets in singles with Texas A&M closing out #5 and #6 in straight sets while UCLA closed out #4 in straights to tie it at 2-2. UCLA would get a three-set win at #3 to go ahead 3-2 but Texas A&M was leading on the two remaining courts. UCLA's Mackenzie McDonald managed to get a split at #1 by taking the second set in a tiebreak and then Gage Brymer made a huge comeback at #2 to seal the 4-2 win. Brymer had dropped 9 of 10 games to lose the second set 6-1 and would trail 3-0 in third before winning six straight to close it out.
#1 Virginia advanced to the semifinals with a 4-3 win over #9 Wake Forest, but it was anything but easy. Wake Forest grabbed the early lead by taking the doubles point with tiebreak wins at #1 and #3. Virginia took four opening sets in singles, while Wake Forest claimed the other two. Virginia would finish off three of those four in straight sets with wins at #1, #3, and #5 to take a 3-1 lead. Wake Forest countered with a straight set win at #4 and a three-set win at #2 to tie it at 3-3. The match came down to a third set at #6 between Virginia sophomore Henrik Wiersholm and Wake Forest sophomore Christian Seraphim. Wiersholm got a late break to go up 5-3 and then served it out by getting a net cord ace on the deciding 40-40 point to win it 6-3. (For those that weren't aware, D-I college tennis uses no-ad scoring and plays serves that hit the net cord.)
A good portion of the crowd cleared out after Virginia's win, but those that stuck were treated to another 4-3 thriller between #4 USC and #5 TCU. The Trojans took the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3, and then the teams split first sets in singles. TCU got straight set wins at #1 and #4 to go up 2-1, but USC answered with a straight set win at #5 to tie it at 2-2. Each of the three remaining matches went the distance with USC winning at #6 to go up 3-2 before TCU won at #3 to even it 3-3. The match would be decided in a third-set tiebreak at #2 between TCU freshman Alex Rybakov and USC senior Max de Vroome. Rybakov pulled out the tiebreak 7-3 to send TCU to the semifinals for the first time since 2001.
Semifinals
The semifinals weren't nearly as action packed as the quarterfinals, though North Carolina and UCLA put on a pretty good show in the opener. UCLA took the doubles point with wins at #1 and #3, and then the teams split first sets in singles. North Carolina got straight set wins at #2 and #3 while UCLA won in straights at #1. North Carolina's Robert Kelly and Anu Kodali would come back from a set down to win in three-sets at #5 and #6 to cap off the 4-2 win.
Virginia would make it an All-ACC final after it defeated TCU 4-1. The Cavaliers took the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3 and then put on a pretty dominating performance in singles. Virginia took five first sets and got straight sets wins at #3, #4, and #6 with Mac Styslinger clinching it at #4.
