Easter Bowl Photo Gallery; Urhobo Ousts No. 2 Seed Rodionova at Bonita Springs W100; Dickerson Beats Top Seed Johns, Four US Juniors Advance at M15 in Orange Park FL; Big 12 Release Concludes Conference Awards Announcements
On the last day of April, just before the NCAA team championships begin (I'll have more on that Thursday), I can put a bow on last month's three major junior tournaments in Southern California with the USTA Level 1 Easter Bowl photo gallery published today at the Tennis Recruiting Network.
The ITF J300 San Diego photo gallery can be found here, and videos of all the singles finals at the Indian Wells J300, San Diego J300 and the Easter Bowl are available at the tenniskalamazoo YouTube channel.
Eighteen-year-old Akasha Urhobo completed her win over No. 2 seed Arina Rodionova of Australia today in a USTA Pro Circuit W100 Bonita Springs first round match postponed last night with Urhobo up 7-5, 1-0. Urhobo finished off her third WTA top 200 victory by the score of 7-5, 6-2; it's a career-best win by ranking for Urhobo, with Rodionova at 169. The Florida teen will face qualifier Martina Okalova(Tulsa) of Slovakia, who advanced when LSU freshman Kayla Cross of Canada retired after losing the first set 6-2. LSU begins play in the Baton Rouge NCAA regional Friday.
Iva Jovic moved closer to the USTA's Roland Garros main draw wild card when Caty McNally, third in the Wild Card Challenge standings, withdrew before their first round match today in Bonita Springs. Jovic defeated lucky loser Verena Meliss of Italy 6-1, 7-5 and will play qualifier Katarina Jokic(Georgia) of Serbia in Thursday's second round.
There was a big upset in the first round of the M15 in Orange Park Florida, with former Duke All-American Garrett Johns, the No. 1 seed, losing to another former Duke player, qualifier Ryan Dickerson. Dickerson, went on to play at Baylor and was not a teammate of Johns, posted a 6-2, 7-6(9) win today.
All three of the American boys who received entry via the ITF's junior reserved program won their first round matches today, as did Keaton Hance.
Hance defeated fellow wild card Matthew Segura 6-3, 6-3, while Noah Johnston beat qualifier Maxwell Benson(Presbyterian) 6-3, 6-2.
Jack Kennedy defeated Ryan Fishback(Virginia Tech) 6-3, 7-6(7), and will face Dickerson in Thursday's second round.
Australian Open boys finalist Benjamin Willwerth, the only one of the four to have reached a M15 semifinal, beat No. 5 seed Strong Kirchheimer 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will face former Michigan All-American Andrew Fenty in the second round. Willwerth and Johnston, who have won three ITF Junior Circuit doubles titles together, received a wild card into the doubles and defeated No. 2 seeds Benson and Keshav Chopra(Georgia Tech) 5-7, 6-4, 10-5 in the first round.
The Big 12 announced its conference awards, the last of the Power 4 plus Ivy League conferences to do so, and for the first time I can remember, they are all revealed before the NCAAs begin. I'm including all the major awards after the Big 12s, so they are all in one post. The links in the headings will take you to the announcement, which includes all-conference teams.
Big 12:MEN:
Player of the Year: Colton Smith, Arizona
Freshman of the Year: Cooper Woestendick, TCU
Newcomer of the Year: Alexandru Chirita, Baylor
Scholar Athlete of the Year: Jay Friend, Arizona
Coach of the Year: David Roditi, TCU
Player of the Year: Dasha Vidmanova, Georgia
Freshman of the Year: Cadence Brace, LSU
Newcomer of the Year: Sofia Rojas, Georgia
Co-Coaches of the Year: Drake Bernstein, Georgia and Mark Weaver, Texas A&M
Newcomer of the Year: Alex Kotzen, Tennessee
Freshman of the Year: Timo Legout, Texas
Coach of the Year: Bruce Berque, Texas
Big Ten:
Player of the Year: Julia Fliegner, Michigan
Freshman of the Year: Emily Sartz-Lunde, Michigan
Coach of the Year: Ronnie Bernstein, Michigan
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