Ohio State Survives Oklahoma, Georgia Tops USC in Men's D-I Sweet Sixteen Action; Top Seeds Wake Forest and Virginia Roll; ESPNU to Televise Team Finals; Women Begin Friday

The NCAA Division I men's Sweet 16 kicked off today at the University of Georgia and the 13th-seeded Bulldogs proved to be poor hosts, defeating No. 4 seed Southern California 4-3.  After all the turmoil the past few days, with associate head coach Bo Hodge suspended and a police investigation underway, it was hard to know how the team would react, but they shrugged off the distraction to eliminate the Trojans in the round of 16 for the second straight year.

Wayne Montgomery reacts to clinching Georgia's 4-3 win over USC

Georgia lost the doubles point, but won four of six singles matches, with Jan Zielinski at line 5 and Wayne Montgomery at line 2 getting three-set wins within seconds of each other to put Georgia into the quarterfinals against UCLA.  The fifth-seeded Bruins, playing without their No. 1 player Gage Brymer, recorded an impressive 4-1 win over No. 12 seed Texas A&M.

Ohio State's JJ Wolf celebrates clinching victory over Oklahoma

As tense as the Georgia - USC match was, it paled in comparison to the ending of No. 3 seed Ohio State's 4-3 win over No. 14 seed Oklahoma. Like the Bulldogs, the Buckeyes lost the doubles point, and dramatically too, dropping a rollercoaster of a match at line 3. JJ Wolf and Hunter Tubert saved four match points with Oklahoma's Jochen Bertsch and Adrian Oetzbach serving at 5-6, then took a 6-4 lead in the tiebreaker, only to lose it 9-7.

Oklahoma, who had reached the team final the past three years, won three first sets and closed out two of them, but not the third with Ohio State's Mikael Torpegaard coming back to defeat Spencer Papa 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 at line 1 to even the match at 3-all. Ohio State's Wolf had dropped the second set to Andrew Harris at line 2, so when Torpegaard tied it, all the attention turned to their court, with Wolf serving at 4-4. The freshman held on a deuce point for 5-4 and had a match point on a deuce point with Harris serving at 4-5, but missed his return.  After two less dramatic holds of serve they went to a tiebreaker, and it was the freshman who made fewer nervous errors, winning the last five points of the match to seal the victory.

Ohio State will play No. 6 seed TCU on Saturday, after the Horned Frogs beat Illinois, the only unseeded team in the Sweet 16, 4-1.

The early matches saw No. 10 Texas top No. 7 Baylor 4-1 and No. 2 seed Virginia have little trouble with Florida, blanking the Gators in just over two hours.

The evening matches went to the ACC with No. 1 Wake Forest disposing of No. 16 seed Stanford 4-0 and No. 9 North Carolina taking out No. 8 Cal 4-1, although five of the six singles matches went to three sets.  It's the first quarterfinal appearance in school history for Wake.  The ACC has three teams remaining, the Big 12 two teams and one team each for the Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12.  The draw is here, and more on the matches and the links to the Playsight live streaming is at georgiadogs.com.

There was good news on the broadcast front from the NCAA today, when they announced Tuesday's team finals are airing on ESPNU. I have heard that Sam Gore will be doing the play-by-play and Patrick McEnroe will be providing color commentary.

The women begin their Sweet 16 matches on Friday.  Here is the schedule:

9 am:
No. 7 Stanford vs No. 10 Michigan
No. 2 North Carolina vs No. 15 Duke

Noon:
No. 3 Ohio State vs No. 14 South Carolina
No. 6 Texas Tech vs No. 11 Auburn

4 pm:
No. 4 Vanderbilt vs No. 13 Cal
No. 5 Georgia vs No. 12 Pepperdine

7 pm:
No. 1 Florida vs Texas A&M
No. 8 Georgia Tech vs No. 9 Oklahoma State

Below are the box scores for Thursday's men's matches. Click on the bold score for the winning team's recap, if available.

#2 VIRGINA (31-1) 4, #15 FLORIDA (19-10) 0

Doubles
1. #2 Alfredo Perez/Johannes Ingildsen (FLORIDA) vs. #17 Luca Corinteli/Carl Söderlund (VIRGINIA), 5-4, DNF
2. Thai-Son Kwiatkowski/Alexander Ritschard (VIRGINIA) def Maxx Lipman/Elliott Orkin (FLORIDA), 6-4
3. Collin Altamirano/J.C. Aragone (VIRGINIA) def. Joshua Wardell/Chace Perez-Blanco (FLORIDA), 6-2

Singles
1. #8 Alfredo Perez (FLORIDA) vs. #91 Alexander Ritschard (VIRGINIA), 6-3, 6-6, DNF
2. #14 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski (VIRGINIA) def. #85 Elliott Orkin (FLORIDA), 6-3, 6-2
3. Carl Söderlund (VIRGINIA) def. Chase Perez-Blanco (FLORIDA), 6-1, 6-4
4. #40 Collin Altamirano (VIRGINIA) vs. Maxx Lipman (FLORIDA), 6-3, 3-6, 1-1, DNF
5. #109 J.C. Aragone (VIRGINIA) def. #123 Johannes Ingildsen (FLORIDA), 6-4, 6-4
6. #102 Henrik Wiersholm (VIRGINIA) vs. McClain Kessler (FLORIDA), 6-2, 6-5, DNF
Doubles: (3,2) Singles (2,3,5)
===========================================

#11 TEXAS (22-8) 4, #7 BAYLOR (23-8) 1

Doubles
1. #22 Juan Benitez/Will Little (BAYLOR) def #76 George Goldhoff/Leonardo Telles(TEXAS), 6-4
2. Christian Sigsgaard/Colin Markes (TEXAS) def. #84 Johannes Schretter/Jimmy Bendeck (BAYLOR), 6-1
3. Max Tchoutakian/Bjoern Petersen (BAYLOR) def. Yuya Ito/Harrison Scott (TEXAS), 6-3

Singles
1. #25 Christian Sigsgaard (TEXAS) def. #15 Juan Benitez (BAYLOR), 7-6(4), 6-3
2. #36 Harrison Scott (TEXAS) def. #50 Max Tchoutakian (BAYLOR), 6-3, 7-5
3. #63 Johannes Schretter (BAYLOR) vs. #55 Yuya Ito (TEXAS), 6-3, 6-7, 1-1, DNF
4. George Goldhoff (TEXAS) def. Bjoern Petersen (BAYLOR), 6-0, 6-2
5. Leonardo Telles (TEXAS) def. Will Little (BAYLOR), 6-1, 6-4
6. Jimmy Bendeck (BAYLOR) vs. Rodrigo Banzer (TEXAS), 7-5, 5-5, DNF
Doubles: (2,3,1) Singles: (4,5,2,1)
==========================================

#3 OHIO STATE (32-3) 4, #14 OKLAHOMA (17-11) 3

Doubles
1. Mikael Torpegaard/Herkko Pollanen (OHIO STATE) def. #15 Spencer Papa/Andrew Harris (OKLAHOMA), 6-3
2 #63 Alex Ghilea/Florin Bragusi (OKLAHOMA) def. #30 Hugo Di Feo/Martin Joyce (OHIO STATE), 6-4
3. Jochen Bertsch/Adrian Oetzbach (OKLAHOMA) def. Hunter Tubert/JJ Wolf (OHIO STATE), 7-6(7)

Singles
1. #2 Mikael Torpegaard (OHIO STATE) def. #24 Spencer Papa (OKLAHOMA), 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3
2. #46 JJ Wolf (OHIO STATE) def. #32 Andrew Harris (OKLAHOMA), 7-5, 1-6, 7-6(2)
3. #47 Alex Ghilea (OKLAHOMA) def. #9 Hugo Di Feo (OHIO STATE), 6-3, 7-6(3)
4. #113 Florin Bragusi (OKLAHOMA) def. Martin Joyce (OHIO STATE), 6-3, 7-6(5)
5. Herkko Pollanen (OHIO STATE) def. Jochen Bertsch (OKLAHOMA), 6-4, 6-4
6. Kyle Seelig (OHIO STATE) def. Adrian Oetzbach (OKLAHOMA), 6-1, 6-2
Doubles (1,2,3) Singles (6,5,4,3,1,2)
===========================================

#6 TCU (22-4) 4, #25 ILLINOIS (18-12) 1

Doubles
1. #25 Jerry Lopez/Reese Stalder (TCU) vs. #71 Vuk Budic/Aleks Vukic (ILLINOIS), 5-4, DNF
2. #57 Alex Rybakov/Guillermo Nuñez (TCU) def. Zeke Clark/Aleks Kovacevic (ILLINOIS), 6-3
3. Cameron Norrie/Trevor Johnson (TCU) def. Gui Gomes/Aron Hiltzik (ILLINOIS), 6-4

Singles
1. #1 Cameron Norrie (TCU) def. #3 Aleks Vukic (ILLINOIS), 6-3, 6-4
2. #20 Alex Rybakov (TCU) def. #41 Aron Hiltzik (ILLINOIS), 6-2, 7-6(5)
3. Gui Gomes (ILLINOIS) vs. #83 Guillermo Nuñez (TCU), 6-4, 3-6, 3-2, DNF
4. #114 Jerry Lopez (TCU) def. Aleks Kovacevic (ILLINOIS), 6-0, 7-5
5. Reese Stalder (TCU) vs. Noe Khlif (ILLINOIS), 7-5, 2-6, 2-2, DNF
6. Zeke Clark (ILLINOIS) def. Trevor Johnson (TCU), 6-4, 6-4
Doubles (2,3) Singles (4,6,1,2)
==========================================

#12 GEORGIA (21-7) 4, #4 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (27-6) 3

Doubles
1. #14 Brandon Holt/Riley Smith (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) def. #1 Jan Zielinski/Robert Loeb (GEORGIA), 7-6(1)
2. Nick Crystal/Laurens Verboven (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) def. Emil Reinberg/Nathan Ponwith (GEORGIA), 6-3
3. Wayne Montgomery/Walker Duncan (GEORGIA) def. Rob Bellamy/Jack Jaede (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA), 6-4

Singles
1. #19 Brandon Holt (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) def. #56 Nathan Ponwith (GEORGIA), 6-4, 6-4
2. #33 Wayne Montgomery (GEORGIA) def. Nick Crystal (Southern California) 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-2
3. #59 Emil Reinberg (GEORGIA) def. #88 Logan Smith (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA), 6-2, 7-5
4. Jan Zielinski (GEORGIA) def. Jack Jaede (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA), 7-6(5), 3-6, 6-3
5. Walker Duncan (GEORGIA) def. Thibault Forget (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA), 6-4, 6-1
6. Riley Smith (SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA) def. Robert Loeb (GEORGIA), 3-6, 6-4, 7-5
Doubles (3,2,1) Singles (5,1,3,6,4,2)
===========================================

#5 UCLA (22-5) 4, #13 TEXAS A&M (21-7) 1

Doubles
1. #3 Martin Redlicki/Evan Zhu (UCLA) def. #9 AJ Catanzariti/Arthur Rinderknech (TEXAS A&M), 7-5
2. Austin Rapp/Joseph Di Giullo (UCLA) def. Hady Habib/Jordi Arconada (TEXAS A&M), 6-1
3. Aleksandre Bakshi/Maxim Lunkin (TEXAS A&M) def. Maxime Cressy/Ben Goldberg (UCLA), 6-4

Singles
1. #6 Arthur Rinderknech (TEXAS A&M) def. #60 Martin Redlicki (UCLA), 6-4, 6-2
2. Evan Zhu (UCLA) def. #48 Jordi Arconada (TEXAS A&M), 6-4, 6-3
3. AJ Catanzariti (TEXAS A&M) vs. Logan Staggs (UCLA), 6-2, 4-6, 2-3, DNF
4. Maxime Cressy (UCLA) def. Valentin Vacherot (TEXAS A&M), 6-4, 6-4
5. Austin Rapp (UCLA) vs. Hady Habib (TEXAS A&M) 6-3, 3-6, 4-4, DNF
6. Joseph DiGiulio (UCLA) def. Aleksandre Bakshi (TEXAS A&M), 7-5, 6-1
Doubles: (2,3,1) Singles (2,6,1,4)
============================================

#1 WAKE FOREST (30-2) 4, #16 STANFORD (18-8) 0

Doubles
1. #4 Skander Mansouri/Christian Seraphim (WAKE FOREST) def. #54 Tom Fawcett/Yale Goldberg (STANFORD), 7-5
2. Michael Genender/Sameer Kumar (STANFORD) def. Borna Gojo/Alan Gadjiev (WAKE FOREST), 6-4
3. Petros Chrysochos/Dennis Uspensky (WAKE FOREST) def. David Wilczynski/Brandon Sutter (STANFORD), 6-3

Singles
1. #5 Petros Chrysochos (WAKE FOREST) def. #11 Tom Fawcett (STANFORD), 6-2, 6-0
2. #45 Borna Gojo (WAKE FOREST) vs. Sameer Kumar (STANFORD), 6-4, 2-5, DNF
3. #13 Skander Mansouri (WAKE FOREST) def. David Wilczynski (STANFORD), 6-4, 6-2
4. #84 Christian Seraphim (WAKE FOREST) def. Michael Genender (STANFORD), 6-2, 6-2
5. Dennis Uspensky (WAKE FOREST) vs. Brandon Sutter (STANFORD), 3-6, 5-4, DNF
6. Alan Gadjiev (WAKE FOREST) vs. William Genesen (STANFORD), 6-4, 2-4, DNF
Doubles (2,3,1) Singles (1,4,3)
===========================================

#9 NORTH CAROLINA (27-4) 4, #8 CALIFORNIA (20-8) 1

Doubles
1. #12 William Blumberg/Robert Kelly (NORTH CAROLINA) def. #5 Filip Bergevi/Florian Lakat (CALIFORNIA), 7-6(2)
2. #74 Andre Goransson/Billy Griffith (CALIFORNIA) def. #82 Jack Murray/Simon Soendergaard (NORTH CAROLINA), 6-3
3. Anu Kodali/Ronnie Schneider (NORTH CAROLINA) def. Bjorn Hoffmann/J.T. Nishimura (CALIFORNIA), 6-1

Singles
1. #22 Ronnie Schneider (NORTH CAROLINA) def. #12 Florian Lakat (CALIFORNIA), 6-4, 3-6, 6-4
2. #16 William Blumberg (NORTH CAROLINA) def. #61 Andre Goransson (CALIFORNIA), 6-2, 3-6, 6-2
3. Filip Bergevi (CALIFORNIA) vs. #116 Robert Kelly (NORTH CAROLINA), 6-4, 2-6, 6-6, DNF
4. Simon Soendergaard (NORTH CAROLINA) vs. #81 Billy Griffith (CALIFORNIA), 6-3, 4-6, 5-3, DNF
5. Jack Murray (NORTH CAROLINA) def. J.T. Nishimura (CALIFORNIA), 6-4, 6-3
6. Bjorn Hoffmann (CALIFORNIA) def. Bo Boyden (NORTH CAROLINA), 3-6, 6-3, 6-0
Doubles (3,2,1) Singles (5,2,6,1)