Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Ohio State and Illinois Conclude Fine Seasons

It was a long complicated weekend of tennis at the NCAA championship, played in Athens, Georgia. Illinois lost in the round of 16, a fine outcome for a strong team, while Ohio State progressed to the semis by two 4-3 wins in the round of 16 and the quarters, both of which came down to late heroics. You can get all the news on these matches at the NCAA championship web site.

Sadly, Ohio State lost in the semis to that pesky Virginia team, which has won two straight team titles. They don't have a top-10 player, but they have a very deep team and a couple very strong leaders with a lot of top-level experience. They know how to win, it seems. I thought OSU could take them, but they lost to them twice this year.

The championship match on Tuesday will send Virginia up against surprise finalist North Carolina (the 9 seed), which had a huge win in the quarters over the team that had been ranked #1 throughout the season, Wake Forest.

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Ohio State and Illinois Move On

Two of the seven Big Ten tennis teams in the NCAA tournament made the Sweet 16 last weekend: Ohio State and Illinois. The tournament will crown a champion early next week. While OSU, the 3 seed, marched on with two relatively easy wins, unseeded ILL had a close 4-3 win in the second round over highly ranked Oklahoma State to advance.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

NCAA Singles

Six Big Ten players made the NCAA singles tournament, which is separate from the team tourney.

Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State earned the 2 seed, Aleks Vukic of Illinois the 3 seed. In the 9-16 seed category is Hugo Di Feo of Ohio State. Unseeded but earning a spot in the draw are Strong Kirchheimer of Northwestern, Aron Hiltzik of Illinois, and freshman JJ Wolf of Ohio State.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Seven Big Ten Teams Make the NCAAs

The NCAA Men's Tennis Tournament begins May 12. Ohio State was awarded the 3 seed. Michigan, Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Wisconsin, Minnesota got in and are unseeded.

The 1 seed is Wake Forest, even after losing to Virginia over the weekend. Virginia is the 2 seed and Southern Cal is 4. The bracket may be studied at:

http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/tennis-men/d1/

I think this is OSU's best chance to take the title since 2009, when they lost in the finals. Why? All the top teams have been defeating each other in very close matches. I was a bit surprised TCU only earned the #6 seed. They have won some huge matches lately.

Monday, May 1, 2017

Ohio State Wins Big Ten Tournament

#2 OSU defeated #16 Michigan in the final of the Big Ten Tournament Sunday, 4-1. Saturday, Michigan had taken down Illinois in one semifinal, while OSU beat Wisconsin 4-0 in the other.

On the national scene, in a very close match, #3 Virgina upset long-standing #1 Wake Forest in the ACC Tournament final. Wake had beaten VA during the regular season in another close one. In the Big 12 Tournament, #4 TCU claimed the title 4-0 over #41 Texas Tech. And in the Pac 12, in another very close match, #7 USC got revenge on #5 UCLA 4-3 to take the title. UCLA had beaten USC just last week to take the regular season title.

Judging from all this, the race to the national title is going to be very close right to the finish.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Big Ten Tourney Upcoming

Purdue, the host team, enters the tourney as the hot team (setting aside Ohio State, obviously). They made their first appearance this season in the national Top 50 after two big wins on the road last weekend. Here are the final standings (with national ranking):

1. #2 Ohio State 11-0
2. #16 Michigan 9-2
3. #25 Illinois 8-3
4. #31 Wisconsin 7-4
     (WI defeated NW)
4. #23 Northwestern 7-4
6. #35 Purdue 6-5
7. Penn State 5-6
     (PS defeated MN)
7. #38 Minnesota 5-6
9. Indiana 3-8
10. Iowa 2-9
11. Nebraska 1-10
12. Michigan State 0-11

***

On the national scene, Wake Forest University is cruising at #1 with Ohio State still at #2 and Virginia at #3 for some weeks. TCU jumped up to #4 after their strong win over Baylor. UCLA is now #5 after a huge win over USC.

In singles, Mikael Torpegaard fell to #2 in the nation after losing to Illinois's Aleks Vukic on Sunday. The nation's new #1 singles player is TCU's #1 Cameron Norrie, who's on quite a run, having beaten seven straight Big 12 players who are highly ranked in the nation. Led by Norrie, TCU won that league last week. Among Big Ten players, JJ Wolf of Ohio State made a big jump up the rankings to #41 this week:

#2   Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
#5   Aleks Vukic, Illinois
#9   Hugo Di Feo, Ohio State
#37  Strong Kirchheimer, Northwestern
#39  Aron Hiltzik, Illinois 
#41  JJ Wolf, Ohio State
#70  Matic Spec, Minnesota 
#71  Konrad Zieba, Northwestern
#80  Jathan Malik, Michigan

Monday, April 24, 2017

Ohio State Takes Yet Another Crown, Results from April 17-23

#2 Ohio State won the Big Ten regular season title, going undefeated (11-0). They won over Northwestern 6-1 on the road Friday. They followed that solid win with a big comeback win over Illinois Sunday on the road. OSU was down 0-3 when they mounted a rally that culminated at #2 singles, in which JJ Wolf beat Aron Hiltzik 7-1 in college tennis OT, a third set tiebreaker. Also, in a matchup of the highest ranked players in the conference, Aleks Vukic, #5 in the nation, had a strong win over Mikael Torpegaard, #1 in the nation, at #1 singles, 6-1, 6-3.

#16 Michigan had a strong finish to grab second place alone, 9-2 in conference. They defeated Iowa 5-2 and Nebraska 7-0 on the road.

#25 Illinois finished in third in conference with an 8-3 record. They had a solid win over Penn State 4-0 but lost to Ohio State 3-4 in a very close match at home.

#30 Wisconsin finished 7-4 in the Big Ten. They defeated Indiana 7-0 but lost to Purdue 3-4 at home.

#21 Northwestern also finished at 7-4 in the conference. They lost to Ohio State 1-6 but won an important match against Penn State 6-0 at home. They also played Chicago State at home.

Purdue finished 6-5 in conference with two important and close wins. They defeated Minnesota in a tight match 4-3 on the road. That match came down to #6 singles. Athell Bennett (PU) defeated Justyn Levin (MN) 6-1 in the third set of the deciding match. In another close match, PU defeated Wisconsin 4-3 on the road. That one was decided at #3 singles: Ben Ugarte defeated Chema Carranza 6-4 in a third set.

Penn State finished at 5-6 in the Big Ten. They lost to Illinois 0-4 and then Northwestern 0-6 on the road.

#33 Minnesota also finished 5-6 in conference. They lost to Purdue in a tight one 3-4, but defeated Indiana 4-3 at home in another close match. That match was decided at #1 singles: Felix Corwin defeated Raheel Manji 6-3 in the third set of the deciding match.

#49 Indiana finished 3-8 in the Big Ten. They lost to Wisconsin 0-7 and Minnesota in a close one 3-4 on the road.

Iowa wound up 2-9 in the conference. They lost to Michigan 2-5 but won over Michigan State 4-0 at home. They also played North Dakota at home.

Nebraska finished 1-10 in conference. They got their first win over Michigan State 4-3 in a close home match but lost to Michigan 0-7 at home. The match against MSU was decided at #1 singles, in which Dylan Bednarczyk defeated Brett Forman 6-2 in a third set.

Michigan State finished 0-11 in the Big Ten. They lost a close one to Nebraska 3-4 and Iowa 0-4 on the road.

***

At the top on the national scene, #8 UCLA had a solid, convincing home win over rival #6 Southern Cal 4-1 to win the Pac 12 and claim a significant win over a top-10 team. #5 Oklahoma State lost to rival #17 Oklahoma 0-4. #4 Baylor had two losses to highly ranked teams, 1-4 to #9 TCU and 3-4 to #45 Texas Tech.

Not much movement in the latest ITA singles rankings (4/18):

#1   Mikael Torpegaard, Ohio State
#5   Aleks Vukic, Illinois
#8   Hugo Di Feo, Ohio State
#32  Aron Hiltzik, Illinois 
#39  Strong Kirchheimer, Northwestern
#65  Konrad Zieba, Northwestern
#68  Matic Spec, Minnesota 
#75  JJ Wolf, Ohio State
#81  Jathan Malik, Michigan
#97  Gergely Madarasz, Purdue

Ohio State and Illinois Conclude Fine Seasons

It was a long complicated weekend of tennis at the NCAA championship, played in Athens, Georgia. Illinois lost in the round of 16, a fine ou...