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Thursday, February 4, 2010

North Carolina vs. Notre Dame Match Report; Draws Out for Team Indoor Championship

As I promised, here is my Tennis Recruiting Network account of the North Carolina women's 5-2 win over Notre Dame Sunday in South Bend. I had never been to a tennis match at Notre Dame, and it was a very positive experience. The viewing is very good, and thanks to some strategic glass blocks and a sunny day, it wasn't bad for photography either. An electronic scoreboard is the only improvement I would suggest. Because neither team has any international players, I knew quite a few of the women on both teams from the juniors, and it was great to see them competing on the next level.

The draws are out for the Team Indoor championships, and I think the top half of the men's draw is extremely tough. In addition to top seed USC, UCLA(4) and Tennessee(5) are in that half, and how about that Texas - Stanford first round match? It's unfortunate that Georgia and Ole Miss have to play in the opening round, but with six SEC teams in the draw, it probably was unavoidable, especially when the rankings are followed so strictly.

If you've checked my coverage calendar in the left sidebar, you know I'll be in Charlottesville for the tournament; it's one of the highlights of the year for me.

The women's draw has only 8 seeds, and perhaps because of that, there are no intraconference first rounders, and no 8 vs. 9 like Texas and Stanford on the men's side. The ACC has six teams in the field, so the flexibility certainly helped in that distribution, and I think it has led to a more balanced draw overall. Perhaps it's because I just saw them, but No. 4 Georgia needs to be wary of the Tar Heels in the first round. After several major injuries, North Carolina is healthy now, and extremely tough in the bottom part of their lineup, where Georgia is vulnerable. And I don't see No. 2 Northwestern, the defending champions, surviving their potential second round matchup against No. 7 Florida, especially if Maria Mosolova's slump persists.

The new rankings are out too, and it's interesting to see what Top 15 teams aren't in the Team Indoor championships. In Madison, No. 14 Stanford is not participating by choice, and No. 12 Notre Dame lost to North Carolina, which moved from 17 to 11. In Virginia, Pepperdine (13) and Wake Forest (15) are not competing, while No. 19 Alabama and No. 26 Fresno State won their regionals.

See the ITA Campbell rankings page for complete team rankings. There are no new individual rankings.

If you are interested in posting your thoughts and predictions on the Team Indoor Championships, please return to this post to do so.

And speaking of college, three former collegiate players have earned their spots in the ATP Delray Beach International Tennis Championships qualifying draw, with victories in wild card tournaments. Eric Hechtman, Julien Carsuzaa and Olivier Sajous will be joined by Jack Sock, who earned his qualifying wild card by winning the 18s Clay Court title last year. For more on the wild card winners, see this ustaflorida article.

12 comments:

Bobby said...

Mens Indoor Predictions:
USC over Fresno St 4-0
Texas over Stanford 4-2
UCLA over Kentucky 4-0
Tennessee over Illinois 4-0
Baylor over Florida 4-1
Ohio St over Louisville 4-0
Georgia over Ole Miss 4-2
Virginia over Alabama 4-1

USC over Texas 4-2
Tenn over UCLA 4-2
Ohio St over Baylor 4-3
UVA over UGA 4-3

Tenn over USC 4-2
UVA over Ohio St 4-1

Tenn over UVA 4-2

College tennis said...

TopDawg

I'm impressed you did not pick UGA to win the championship!! Your picks looks great as it will be interesting how this all plays out. College tennis is becoming deeper again with most top juniors going to college.

Texas vs. Stanford will be a fun match. Also fun to see if anyone can knock off Tennessee or Virginia bfore the finals because they are by far the two best teams in the country (on paper).

carlos said...

Tough draw but goodluck to all.Should be fun!

USC over Virginia 4-3

fight on said...

USC over Fresno 4-0
Stanford over Texas 4-3
UCLA over Kentucky 4-0
Tennessee over Illinois 4-1
Baylor over Florida 4-2
OSU over Louisville 4-0
Georgia over Ole Miss 4-1
Virginia over Bama 4-0

USC over Stanford 4-2
UCLA over Tennessee 4-3
OSU over Baylor 4-3
Virginia over Georgia 4-1

USC over UCLA 4-3
Virginia over OSU 4-1

USC over Virginia 4-3

Brent said...

I will go with...

USC over Fresno St 4-0
Stanford over Texas 4-3
UCLA over Kentucky 4-0
Tennessee over Illinois 4-2
Florida over Baylor 4-3
Ohio St. over Louisville 4-0
Georgia over Ole Miss 4-3
Virginia over Alabama 4-0

USC over Stanford 4-3
Tennessee over UCLA 4-1
Ohio St. over Florida 4-2
Virginia over Georgia 4-2

USC over Tennessee 4-3
Virginia over Ohio St. 4-1

USC over Virginia 4-2

Austin said...

USC over Fresno
Stanford over Texas
UCLA over Kentucky
Tennessee over Illinois
Baylor over Florida
Ohio State over Louisville
Georgia over Mississippi
Virginia over Alabama

USC over Stanford
Tennessee over UCLA
Ohio State over Baylor
Virginia over Georgia

USC over Tennessee
Virginia over Ohio State

Virginia over USC

*i am only picking UVA over USC because it is a)indoors and b)a home match for them. if it was outdoors at a different location i would pick the Trojans.

*interesting to see Baylor and Florida are having a rematch since they just played two weeks ago.

John said...

Collette - you are really going out on a limb with this statement :-)

"And I don't see No. 2 Northwestern, the defending champions, surviving their potential second round matchup against No. 7 Florida, especially if Maria Mosolova's slump persists."

Even if Maria wins her court, everyone knows Florida is the top or next to top team in women's tennis this year, despite the current rankings that are driving this event's seeding.

If Northwestern wins, that will be an upset, not the other way around

gocavs said...

Virginia 4-2 over USC

Austin said...

I wonder where Ole Miss would be if they had Devin Britton this season. He is currently ranked in the 1,200's right now on tour. Probably not the start he expected. The Rebs really need someone at the top of their lineup to help them be a legit contender this season.

Austin said...

Ohio State just threw a wrinkle into college tennis. They are playing Pepperdine right now and are starting some guy named Dino Marcan at #3. I've never even heard the name, but he is an 18yr old from Croatia. There is no info on him at their website either.

He has a terrible pro record on the Futures level, but if he winds up being a legit #3 guy that allows Novak, Uzawa and Allare to play at the bottom of the lineup then we might have to consider the Buckeyes as a legit contender.

I see he finished 33rd in the world last year in the juniors, just behind Evan King.

Any of the college fans on here know anything about him?

Legit said...

Marcan trained at Bollettierri's and is a very legit #3. Hits a very heavy and big ball.

gsm said...

So Stanford decided not to participate in the women's indoors? That just seems wrong for college tennis. Seems like the top teams should be required to play or face some sort of penalty, like say you can't host a regional in the NCAAs or it negatively affects your ranking to some degree