Catching up with College Tennis: Not All Duke Teams Disappoint Saturday
With No. 2 seed Duke losing today in college basketball, students on the Durham campus may need a little cheering up, so the women's tennis team's 4-3 win over second-ranked Georgia Tech, winners of the last three national team titles, is there to ease the pain.
Ninth-ranked Duke, not invited to the Team Indoor, has two of the best freshmen in the country in Reka Zsilinszka and Ellah Nze, and it was the latter, ranked 14th in the country, who clinched the win with a 7-6(6), 6-3 victory over No. 4 Amanda McDowell at the No. 2 position. Now 11-1, with their only loss to No. 1 Northwestern, Duke is certain to rise in the next rankings.
The USC men will also be moving up after taking down No. 4 Texas 4-3 in Austin Thursday and No. 8 Tulsa 6-1 today.
As several commenters noted, the 18th-ranked Florida men had a big 5-2 win at No. 5 Ole Miss Friday and No. 3 Georgia took out No. 26 LSU 4-2. It marked the return of senior Luis Flores, who had been sidelined since late January with a stress fracture. No. 13 North Carolina dropped No. 7 Florida State 4-3 in Tallahassee, in another result that will lead to ranking changes. All this is just an appetizer for the entree that is the NCAAs, of course, but it bodes well for a very exciting week in Tulsa.
And Florida Gator Julia Cohen, who helped her father win his second consecutive USTA gold ball last fall prior to her joining the Florida team in January, did it again last weekend at the Senior Father-Daughter Indoor in suburban Chicago.
7 comments:
College tennis is heating up on both sides. A lot of talent spread out across many teams, should make for a very exciting NCAA tournament indeed. Thanks for all the updates, Colette.
Texas Tech (21) defeated Texas A&M (19) 4-3. It was exciting coming down to the number 6 singles match, 7-5 in the 3rd.
Just logged on to put the Txas Tech score but I see that Billy beat me to it. Nice blog!
Arkansas women pulled off a 4-3 upset of #6 Georgia today. Arkansas is playing very well this season, surprising a lot of people. I'll get to see them in person next weekend when they play Florida. Looking forward to that matchup at #1 between Miseviciute and Cohen.
And wouldn't you know it, Duke women follow up their upset over Georgia Tech with a 6-1 loss to Clemson. Wild, wacky stuff.
I saw Julia play in Chicago at the father/daughter nat'l tournament. She was very aggressive, and had about 50 winners. Her father had about 3 unforced errors and only about 2 winners in the 3 set final. So to win, she had to serve and volley well. Her volley has really improved since she has been at Florida.
Have to give the Trojans credit for coming into Austin and beating UT. USC recovered nicely after losing the doubles point and jumped in front in five of the singles matches, four of which they won. Props to Kaes Van't Hof for his win over Damico. One bright spot for Texas was Dimitar Kutrovsky handling Farah in straight sets. He's the best 5'6" player in the NCAA....
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