Oklahoma State Women Survive to Reach Sweet 16; Black, Kypson Win ITF Grade 4 Titles in Delray Beach; Stewart Wins Indian Harbour Beach $50K

The final eight women's teams earned their places in the NCAA Division I Team Championships' Sweet 16 next week in Waco, Texas, some with ease, some with difficulty.  Five teams won by 4-0 scores: North Carolina, Texas A&M, Georgia, UCLA and Southern Cal, although not all those shutouts were routine, particularly No. 1 ranked USC, who struggled at the top of the lineup against Virginia Tech, but got wins from their bottom three and the doubles point to prevail.

No. 9 seed Virginia was pushed by South Carolina, but got a comeback win from NCAA singles champion Danielle Collins at No. 2 to claim the 4-2 victory. No. 8 seed and host Baylor lost the doubles point and three first sets to Rice, but Blair Shankle got the third-set win the Bears needed for a 4-2 victory.

The third close match could hardly have been tighter, with No. 12 seed Oklahoma State holding off Arizona State 4-3, with the trip to Waco coming down to a third set at No. 1 singles. Viktoriya Lushkova got the late break at 5-5 in the third and served it out over Arizona State's Desirae Krawczyk to put the Cowgirls in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1996.

Only one seeded team, No. 13 Alabama failed to advance to the final site, with the Crimson Tide falling Saturday to Clemson.

Women's regional finals Sunday, May 10 

[1] North Carolina def. [2] Dartmouth 4-0

[1] Texas A&M def. [2] TCU 4-0

[1] Georgia def. [2] Duke 4-0

[1] Virginia def. [2] South Carolina 4-2

[1] UCLA def. [2] Northwestern 4-0

[1] Southern Cal def. [2] Virginia Tech 4-0

[1] Oklahoma State def. [2] Arizona St 4-3

[1] Baylor def. [2] Rice 4-2

Women's regional finals Saturday, May 9

[1] Florida def. [2] Georgia Tech 4-0

[1] Michigan def. [3] DePaul 4-2

[1] Vanderbilt def. [3] Oklahoma 4-0

[1] Texas Tech def. [2] LSU 4-2

[1] Miami def. [2] Ole Miss 4-3

[1] Cal def. [3] Mississippi St 4-0

[2] Clemson def. Alabama [1] 4-2

[1] Stanford def. Pepperdine [2] 4-1

The women's draw is here.  

Women’s round of 16 matchups and times Friday (Central)

Miami(15) vs North Carolina(2) 9 am

UCLA(7) vs Texas A&M(10) 9 am

Georgia(6) vs Michigan(11) noon

Stanford(14) vs Cal(3) noon

Vanderbilt(4) vs Clemson 3 pm

Florida(5) vs Oklahoma St(12) 3 pm

Baylor(8) vs Virginia(9)  7 pm

Southern Cal(1) vs Texas Tech(16) 7 pm

See Saturday's post for the men's regional results and Sweet 16 matchups.

At the ITF Grade 4 in Delray Beach, the second of three Grade 4s on clay in Florida, Hurricane Tyra Black and Patrick Kypson won singles titles. The 15-year-old Kypson, seeded No. 5, defeated wild card Oliver Crawford  3-6, 7-5, 6-1 in the final to claim his first ITF singles title.  

The 14-year-old Black won her third ITF singles title, all since April, beating wild card Taylor Johnson 6-3, 6-2 in the final.  Black's sister, Tornado Alicia Black, won the Delray title in 2013.

The boys doubles championship went to Danny Thomas and Sebastian Arcila of Puerto Rico. The unseeded pair defeated Juan Martin Ramirez Mejia of Colombia and Marcelo Arturo Rodriguez Mojica of Panama, also unseeded, 0-6, 6-3, 10-4.  

Unseeded Caty McNally and Natasha Subhash won the girls doubles title, defeating No. 3 seeds Nandini Das of India and Anna Dollar 7-6(2), 6-2.  

The complete draws can be found at the tournament website.

The third and final ITF Grade 4 of the swing is this week in Plantation, with William Tutecky of Canada the top boys seed and Morgan Coppoc No. 1 in the girls draw. Draws and the order of play can be found at the tournament website.

I will have more on the Pro Circuit results in Monday's post, but a quick update on the singles final at the $50,000 Indian Harbour Beach women's tournament.  Katerina Stewart defeated Louisa Chirico 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in the final, but Chirico had already clinched the French Open wild card by virtue of a higher WTA ranking, regardless of today's result. Chirico beat Stewart in the Dothan final 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(1) three weeks ago, Stewart defeated Chirico 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 in the first round at Charlottesville, so Stewart took the rubber match today. The Har-Tru Wild Card Challenge does not take into account head-to-head record however, nor does the third result matter, with only the best two tournaments counting.  

In addition to the title, there was more good news for Stewart: she has been awarded the USTA's reciprocal wild card for the French Open women's qualifying, according to Patrick McEnroe's tweet today. Mitchell Krueger was given the men's qualifying wild card.