Part 2 of NCAA Roundtable; Few Surprises in First Day of NCAA Team Championships; Qualifier Liu Among all-US Semifinalists at Naples $25K

The second edition of the NCAA Division I Roundtable was posted today at the Tennis Recruiting Network, with their 12 college tennis contributors, of which I am one, naming their candidates for taking out a regional host. The article ends as it always does, with our dark horses and our predictions of who will win the titles.  I diverged from the consensus, but found it surprising that no one picked No. 1 seed Wake Forest on the men's side. The first one is the most difficult, always, but that is a very talented team.

The men play first this year in Athens, so all their first round matches were today, and only one match of the 32 played didn't follow the seeding/grouping.  Louisville, in the 33-48 grouping, defeated Central Florida, in the 17-32 grouping 4-3, the only men's match all day that was decided by the last match on.  The men's results are below:

Wake Forest[1] def. UNC-Wilmington 4-0
Kentucky def. Georgia State 4-0
Michigan def. Valparaiso 4-0
Stanford[16] def. Idaho 4-0

North Carolina[9] def. VCU 4-0
South Carolina def. East Tennessee St 5-0
Northwestern def. Utah State 4-2
Cal[8] def. Tennessee Tech 4-0

UCLA[5] def. Army 4-0
Ole Miss def. UC-Santa Barbara 4-1
Oregon def. Memphis 4-2
Texas A&M[12] def. Buffalo 4-0

Georgia[13] def. Florida A&M 4-0
South Florida def. Duke 4-0
Wisconsin def. San Diego 4-1
USC[4] def. Denver 4-0

Ohio State[3] def. Butler 4-0
Louisville def. Central Florida 4-3
Mississippi State def. SMU 4-0
Oklahoma[14] def. Bryant 4-0

Oklahoma State[11] def. Missouri-KC 4-0
Illinois def. Drake 4-0
Florida State def. Arkansas 4-1
TCU[6] def. Jackson State 4-0

Baylor[7] def. Lamar 4-1
Cornell def. Rice 4-0
Tulane def. Washington 4-2
Texas[10] def. Presbyterian 4-0

Florida[15] def. Florida Gulf Coast 4-0
Georgia Tech def. Minnesota 4-1
Columbia def. Purdue 4-2
Virginia[2] def. Monmouth 4-0

The men's bracket is here.

Only 28 of the 64 women's team played today, with the rest starting their regionals on Saturday.  But even with only 14 matches played, there were three teams in the 33-48 grouping coming out on top over those in the 17-32, and all those losing were Pac-12 teams.

Florida State defeated Arizona State 4-2, Clemson defeated Washington 4-2 and Denver defeated Southern California 4-2.  The loss by Southern California marked the end of the coaching career there of Richard Gallien, who was today named Pac-12 Coach of the Year. Although USC didn't have a great year, the award demonstrates the regard his peers had for Gallien.

Women's results from Friday:

UCLA def. UC-Santa Barbara 4-0
Pepperdine[12] def. LIU-Brooklyn 4-0

Clemson def. Washington 4-2
Vanderbilt[4] def. Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 4-0

Texas def. Wake Forest 4-3
South Carolina[14] def. North Florida 4-0

Auburn[11] def. DePaul 4-0
Florida State def. Arizona State 4-2
Denver def. Southern Cal 4-2
Texas Tech[4] def. Quinnipiac 4-0

Kentucky def. Dartmouth 4-2
Michigan[10] def. Youngstown State 4-0

Duke[13] def. Boston University 4-0
Tennessee def. Winthrop 4-1

The women's draw is here.

The semifinals are set at the $25,000 USTA Pro Circuit event in Naples Florida, with two juniors among the four Americans left vying for the title. Sixteen-year-old qualifier Claire Liu, who reached the semifinals last week at the $60,000 tournament in Charleston, defeated No. 8 seed Usue Arconada 6-3, 6-0 to advance against No. 2 seed Kayla Day. The 17-year-old Day beat Elizaveta Ianchuk of Ukraine 6-0, 6-2 in today's quarterfinals.  Day and Liu played just over a year ago in the final of the ITF Grade 1 in Carson, with Day winning a tense three-setter.

The semifinal in the top half will feature last week's Charleston finalist Danielle Collins, the No. 7 seed, against unseeded Ellie Halbauer. Collins beat qualifier Carol Zhao of Canada 6-4, 6-3, while Halbauer took out top seed Taylor Townsend 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.  Halbauer and Collins have played twice recently on the Pro Circuit, with Collins winning last week in Charleston in three sets and last fall in two close sets in a $25K in Stillwater Oklahoma.