Blue Gray Final Recap; Florida Men Get by Ole Miss, Arizona St. Women Upset Cal
As promised, my detailed report on the Blue Gray Tennis Classic final between Texas Tech and Oklahoma is available today at The Tennis Recruiting Network. It was a fantastic match, despite the weather conditions forcing play indoors and despite less-than-ideal spectator viewing at the Auburn indoor courts. I also worked into the story the details of the big changes that are coming in 2011 for the event. I believe that adding women's teams to the mix will enhance the tournament. I don't know anyone who doesn't like the combined event that the NCAAs has become. Also, for those of you who are interested in reading about Marcelo Arevalo, the recent high-profile addition to the Tulsa team, the Montgomery Advertiser published this feature on the freshman from El Salvador.
Now that we are securely into the conference seasons, I had expected more big matches this past weekend, but there haven't been many yet. The sixth-ranked Florida men traveled to Oxford yesterday to take on the No. 14 Ole Miss Rebels and emerged with a 4-3 win. For more on the extremely close win by the Gators, who won the doubles point on a tiebreaker at No. 1, see the Florida athletic site. Florida, No. 7 Georgia and No. 2 Tennessee are still undefeated in the conference after weekend play, primarily because they haven't played each other yet--those matches are scheduled for next month. All three teams are in the SEC East. The only team with a winning record in the SEC West is Ole Miss, who is 4-2 in the conference, having lost to Kentucky and Florida.
The Arizona State women, ranked 23rd, beat No. 10 Cal 4-3 over the weekend, avenging a 6-1 loss to the Bears in February, and also recorded a victory over USC a couple of weeks ago in a match that didn't count in the conference standings. The Sun Devils lost to Stanford during their lengthy homestand, and it should be noted that Marina Cossou didn't play for the Bears, but the win puts Arizona in the middle of the Pac-10 title race. Cal hosts USC and UCLA this weekend, and goes to Stanford on the 17th, so it may go down to the wire, with the Sun Devils getting a crack at USC and UCLA in two weeks. For the recap of the win over Cal, see the Arizona State athletic site.
And a reminder to check Marcia Frost's Tennis Examiner site for stories and results from the Big Ten, and to bookmark d3tennis for in-depth coverage of men's Division III tennis.
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