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Sunday, April 20, 2014

Georgia Women, Texas A&M Men Win SEC Tournament Titles; Cal Women Claim First Pac-12 Championship; Major Conferences Complete Regular Season

The Georgia women and Texas A&M won SEC tournament titles today, claiming that conference's automatic bids to the NCAA tournament, which begins with regional action three weekends from now.

Georgia, the No. 3 seed, avenged last week's 4-3 loss to No. 1 seed Alabama in Athens, a loss that cost the Bulldogs a tie for the SEC regular season championship, which Alabama won. Today in Missouri, sixth-ranked Georgia won 4-0 over third-ranked Alabama, with Silvia Garcia, Maho Kowase and Lily Kimbell adding singles points, all with straight-set wins, after Georgia had taken the doubles point.

In the men's SEC tournament final today in Nashville, Texas A&M beat No. 4 seed Florida 4-2. A&M had also lost a chance to tie for the SEC regular season title with a surprising loss to Ole Miss last weekend, leaving Georgia alone at the top. But in the tournament, No. 2 seed Texas A&M regrouped, and after Georgia was upset by Vanderbilt in the quarterfinals, the Aggies were the favorites, and they beat South Carolina and Kentucky 4-1 en route to the final.  Against Florida, Texas A&M took the doubles point and got singles wins from Shane Vinsant, Jackson Withrow and Jordan Szabo earn the victory.

Cal coach Amanda Augustus was on the court in 1999,
 the last time the Bears won at Stanford
The women's Pac-12 bid was decided on Saturday, with Cal winning its first Pac-12 title, which is a bit hard to believe, since the Bears made the NCAA finals in both 2008 and 2009.  Cal defeated Stanford 6-1 in Palo Alto, and after the Bears win over UCLA in Berkeley the previous week, they finished the Pac-12 regular season with a perfect 10-0 mark.  The men play a team tournament next week in Ojai, but the Pac-12 women do not, opting for an individual tournament instead.

Things were not so neat in the ACC, where Clemson's wins over Duke and UNC over the weekend, and Miami's defeat of Virginia today left the women's regular season conference in a four-way tie between North Carolina, Miami, Clemson and Virginia, all with 12-2 records in conference play. Top-ranked Duke's 4-3 loss to Georgia Tech Saturday kept it from being a five-way tie at the top.

Virginia won the ACC men's regular season title, with the Cavaliers completing their eighth consecutive undefeated conference season with a 7-0 win over Virginia Tech.

In the Big Ten, the Michigan women won the regular season title, finishing undefeated in conference play with a 7-0 win at Purdue today, and will head into the conference tournament next week at Northwestern as the No. 1 seed.

The top-ranked Ohio State men completed their ninth straight undefeated conference regular season with a 6-1 win over Nebraska today in Columbus, and have extended their record for consecutive home wins in any NCAA sport to 189.  They will travel to East Lansing for the Big Ten tournament next weekend, and I will be covering that final for the Tennis Recruiting Network.

In the Big 12, the Baylor women claimed the regular season conference title, beating Texas 4-3 Friday night to finish 9-0. The men's regular season Big 12 title will be shared by Oklahoma, Texas and Baylor, who all went 4-1 in conference play, with all their losses to each other.

1 comments:

Matt Litsky said...

The 19th-ranked Columbia Lions won their 11th Ivy League title on Sunday, April 20 at the Dick Savitt Tennis Center. Columbia shut out No. 61 Princeton, 4-0, to finish undefeated in Ivy League play for the first time since 2000.

Columbia, which closed the regular season on an 18-match win streak, earns its first Ancient Eight title since 2010.
won the Ivy League Title yesterday beating Princeton 4-0 for their 18th straight victory.