Looking good...We've won four first sets in singles. A&M beat Pepperdine; Tennessee leading NC State. Texas leading Florida.
TCU Men's Tennis - 2020-2021
- Thread starter Jared7
- Start date
Frogs Win!! It's 5-0 now and I think they're playing it out. Going back to last year, this is our 11th straight W and we're 2-0 now this season. Except for the troublesome doubles, it's a solid W. Now, we've got to take down OU tomorrow. It's scheduled for 2:00, but like today, it'll follow the consolation match between Wake and Denver.
Tennessee upset NC State and punched their ticket to the Indoor Nationals in Champaign-Urbana. More results to follow later...
Tennessee upset NC State and punched their ticket to the Indoor Nationals in Champaign-Urbana. More results to follow later...
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So far the #4 (Mich), #5 (Oh St) & #6 (NC State) seeds have all lost. Michigan and NC State aren't huge surprises, but Ohio State hardly ever loses at home indoors. #3 seed UT is about to come out of a rain delay. They're up 3-2 but Florida is a game away from evening things on court 6 and court 2 is just starting a 3rd set. So we could easily go into national indoors as the #3 seed if we win tomorrow. I can't imagine either of the top 2 seeds (USC & UNC) losing, but I guess we'll see.
All of the Saturday results are now in. Texas got a 4-3 W over Florida and punched their ticket; joining Virginia and Tennessee. USC was rained out after UCLA beat Cal. The UNC Regional (UNC-Northwestern and South Carolina-Duke) starts tomorrow and wraps up Monday. Tomorrow's finals will be TCU-OU; Baylor-A&M; and UCLA v. USC-UNLV winner. The 7 Regional winners will go to Champaign on 2/12-2/14 where Illinois awaits with a bye.
We caught a break with OU beating Wake but not that much of one because OU is good, even though unranked. They're 2-1 on the year, with a 7-0 W over UIW, a 2-5 L to Tennessee and today's 4-0 W over Wake. They are coached by Nick Crowell and their line-up today was (1) Mark Mandlik; (2) #69 Mason Beiler; (3) Jake van Emburgh; (4) Alex Martinez; (5) Justin Schlageter; and (6) Nathan Han. They played great at doubles today and got W's from 3, 4 and 5 in singles. Tomorrow will be tougher than today and today wasn't as easy as the 5-0 result looks like. We'll be going for 12 straight W's and a ticket to the Indoor Nationals.
We caught a break with OU beating Wake but not that much of one because OU is good, even though unranked. They're 2-1 on the year, with a 7-0 W over UIW, a 2-5 L to Tennessee and today's 4-0 W over Wake. They are coached by Nick Crowell and their line-up today was (1) Mark Mandlik; (2) #69 Mason Beiler; (3) Jake van Emburgh; (4) Alex Martinez; (5) Justin Schlageter; and (6) Nathan Han. They played great at doubles today and got W's from 3, 4 and 5 in singles. Tomorrow will be tougher than today and today wasn't as easy as the 5-0 result looks like. We'll be going for 12 straight W's and a ticket to the Indoor Nationals.
Apparently, there is a huge COVID (new variant) outbreak at Michigan within the athletic department and they've suspended all activity for 2 weeks for all their teams and facilities. Which means that Baylor-A&M won't be played there and they'll have to arrange a different venue (but those schools get along so well that I'm sure there won't be a problem
).
All-time against OU, the Frogs are 15-9, with 6 straight W's. But it's streaky; before the 6 straight W's, there were 7 consecutive L's. We're 8-3 at home and we won the last one 4-3 in 2019 (away). We're probably a slight favorite; especially if we can somehow win the doubles point. But it's anyone's game. I'm going to be busy all afternoon, so hopefully, when I check in tonight, someone else will have provided the thrilling details. Go Frogs!
).All-time against OU, the Frogs are 15-9, with 6 straight W's. But it's streaky; before the 6 straight W's, there were 7 consecutive L's. We're 8-3 at home and we won the last one 4-3 in 2019 (away). We're probably a slight favorite; especially if we can somehow win the doubles point. But it's anyone's game. I'm going to be busy all afternoon, so hopefully, when I check in tonight, someone else will have provided the thrilling details. Go Frogs!
Frog win the doubles point.
#1 Doubles
Max Stewart/Jake Van Emburgh, Oklahoma 3
Luc Fomba/Alastair Gray, TCU 6
Order of finish 2
#2 Doubles
Nathan Han/Alex Martinez, Oklahoma 4
#24 Sander Jong/Tadeas Paroulek, TCU. 5
Not Finished
#3 Doubles
Welsh Hotard/Mark Mandlik, Oklahoma 2
Juan Martin/Bertus Kruger, TCU. 6
Order of finish 1
#1 Doubles
Max Stewart/Jake Van Emburgh, Oklahoma 3
Luc Fomba/Alastair Gray, TCU 6
Order of finish 2
#2 Doubles
Nathan Han/Alex Martinez, Oklahoma 4
#24 Sander Jong/Tadeas Paroulek, TCU. 5
Not Finished
#3 Doubles
Welsh Hotard/Mark Mandlik, Oklahoma 2
Juan Martin/Bertus Kruger, TCU. 6
Order of finish 1
Gray closes things out. Jirousek dropped his 2nd set, which was the only blemish. Seemed like today's win was at least as easy as yesterday's.
I believe for the finals they re-seed according to the pre-tournament rankings (maybe someone can correct me here... Jared?). If that's the case, we'll be no worse than the #4 seed in the 8-team final. Our 1st round opponent would depend on the outcome of Baylor/A&M. If A&M wins, we would get them. If Baylor wins, we would get Tennessee.
I'm not entirely sure, but I think seedings at the Indoor Nationals are based on the ITA rankings at the time of the tournament, which would mean that we won't know until after we've played at Baylor and at Mississippi State and Mississippi in the next two weeks. If we lose those, then our rankings and seeding will drop; if we win, they'll stay steady or move up. I wouldn't get too worked up about it in any event because all 8 teams in the Elite 8 will be top quality. I expect UNC and USC, assuming they advance, will be the top 2 seeds and we would probably meet one of them in the semis if we win our first round. Moreover, it's usually 16 teams, but this COVID year, there are only going to be 8. I usually wait until collegetennistoday and/or crackedracquets explains it.
Whatever. The good news is that we're 3-0, we've won 12 straight matches dating back to last year, we haven't lost a match in 345 days and we've made the Nationals for the 3rd straight year and the 18th time overall. We actually won the doubles point!! Twice!! Jirousek and Kruger are back (although apparently not Fearnley). Gray and Fomba are undefeated in singles! And with Ohio State and Michigan losing, I'm thinking we could be as high as 3rd in the nation in the next ITA poll. This is an outstanding start! Usually, we start slow; but not this year.
A&M-Baylor was postponed until they can reschedule at some time at some place. USC beat UNLV, but rain delays prevented the USC-UCLA final and it's been delayed until tomorrow. UNC will play South Carolina in a final as well. 5 teams have punched tickets so far: TCU, Texas, Virginia, Tennessee and Illinois. 3 are yet to be determined.
It looks like last year's seeding changed between kick-off and finals, so I guess I'm wrong. It didn't seem to line up with the ITA rankings at the time either, so I don't know what the formula is.
Agree we can feel good about making the top 8, and most years you're not likely to find anyone outside of the top teams that make it that far. I do think this year's a little different. Obviously the host school wouldn't normally get a pass into the final 8. No Ohio State, Florida, or Stanford. The main thing is you want to avoid USC and UNC in the first round, and we aren't in any danger of that happening. We'll get a matchup that can go either way, but I would still rather see us draw Tennessee than A&M.
Well, I would prefer playing teams that are not on our schedule (Illinois, Virginia, UNC and Tennessee (and conceivably South Carolina or UCLA)) rather than teams already on our schedule (Texas, A&M, Baylor, USC). We're playing Baylor Sunday and again in April and possibly again in the Big12 tourney, so if we play them in Champaign, that just seems like a little too much Baylor. Our warm-up match was against A&M and we're playing them again in March. We'll see Texas and USC at least once as well. So, if I had my choice, I'd want to be on UNC's side of the bracket and play Tennessee, Virginia or Illinois in the first round. (Of course, I also wouldn't mind USC and UNC losing tomorrow and TCU ending up the #1 seed).
But I'm just happy to have our team there and we'll just have to deal with whatever the draw is. We might just have an actual chance to win it; which we've never done (although SMU has).
).But I'm just happy to have our team there and we'll just have to deal with whatever the draw is. We might just have an actual chance to win it; which we've never done (although SMU has).
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As expected, both USC and UNC won their Regional finals today (both 4-1) and have advanced to Champaign where they will probably be the top 2 seeds. No word as yet as to when or where A&M and Baylor will play the last regional final for the 8th slot. In a way, this is advantageous for us in that Baylor (5-0) is scheduled to play Texas on Saturday in Austin and then host the Frogs on Sunday in "non-conference" matches - the Bears will almost certainly be more focused on the Longhorns and Aggies than they will be on us. I think Baylor should probably be favored over A&M - they essentially stole 1/3rd of Duke's team in getting two graduate transfers and should be better even though they lost Brooksby to the pros.
It looke like Rybo is going to stay in Antalya for awhile - he's on the acceptance list for 2 consecutive ITF tourneys there starting this week. Right now, he's just into the qualies, but he's right on the cusp of the main draw and might get in if there are any last-minute withdrawals. Cam Norrie is in Melbourne prepping for the Aussie. There's been some controversy there as they've delayed the tourney for two weeks for everyone to go through a 14-day COVID quarantine, and they've decided to house the top players separately, so that they can get practice and segregated accommodations. They haven't done this for players like Cam and it seems unfair. (And it hasn't stopped Joker (and others) from whining that the food is bad and the hotels are beneath where he would normally stay).
It looke like Rybo is going to stay in Antalya for awhile - he's on the acceptance list for 2 consecutive ITF tourneys there starting this week. Right now, he's just into the qualies, but he's right on the cusp of the main draw and might get in if there are any last-minute withdrawals. Cam Norrie is in Melbourne prepping for the Aussie. There's been some controversy there as they've delayed the tourney for two weeks for everyone to go through a 14-day COVID quarantine, and they've decided to house the top players separately, so that they can get practice and segregated accommodations. They haven't done this for players like Cam and it seems unfair. (And it hasn't stopped Joker (and others) from whining that the food is bad and the hotels are beneath where he would normally stay).