Defending Champion Texas Wins Another 4-3 Thriller, Gets Top Seed Florida, Tennessee Faces Baylor in Division I Men's Semifinals; Barry Claims Second Straight Men's Division II Championship, Barry Women Play for Title Friday

One of the themes of this year's NCAA Team Championships Finals has been the correlation between winning the doubles point and going on to win the dual match. The Texas men were the only team of either gender to win a round of 16 match after losing the doubles point, but another team managed that today, with No. 3 seed Tennessee defeating No. 11 seed Georgia 4-1 after going into singles trailing.

Tennessee had gone 25-4 in doubles points this year(hat tip to Bobby Knight at College Tennis Today for that number), the best percentage in the men's field, so it had to be something of a shock to them when Georgia took No. 2 and No. 3 doubles without any drama whatsoever. 

The teams each won three first sets in singles, giving the Bulldogs a clear path to the upset, but while Tennessee was able to close out all three of the matches where they had the advantage in straight sets, Georgia couldn't get any of theirs.

Adam Walton brought the Volunteers even with 6-4, 6-4 win over Trent Bryde, and by that time, Luca Wiedenmann had earned a split over Georgia's Blake Croyder at line 4. Georgia looked to be on their way to a split at line 6, with Erik Grevelius leading Andrew Rogers 5-1 in the second set, but Tennessee's Giles Hussey had earned a third set against Billy Rowe at line 5. Johannes Monday earned the Volunteers' second point with a 7-6(3), 6-4 win over Tyler Zink at line 2 and Rogers completed an impressive comeback, winning the final six games of the match to make it 3-1. By then Wiedenmann was leading Croyder 5-3 in the third set, and the senior closed it out, sending Tennessee to the Final Four for the first time since 2010, when they reached the finals against USC.

Spencer Furman
photo credit:USTA/Manuela Davies

The Baylor Bears saved a match point in doubles to take a 1-0 lead over TCU and that helped them get their third win over the Horned Frogs in four tries this afternoon, this time by a 4-1 score. 

With Baylor taking line 2 in doubles and TCU line 1, a tiebreaker at line 3 would decide it, but not before Finn Bass had saved a match point on a deciding point 5-6 with a big serve. Baylor went on to win that tiebreaker, for the 1-0 lead, which quickly became 2-0 when Sven Lah beat Jacob Fearnley 6-1, 6-3 at line 3. Usually Sander Jong is at line 3 for TCU, but he was out of singles today, after not playing at all in the match Monday against Ohio State. 

Baylor took control in singles when both Nick Stachowiak at line 4 and Spencer Furman at line 6 won long tough first sets 7-5. TCU picked up a point from Tadeus Paroulek at line 5, but Matias Soto got a win at line 2 over Big 12 Player of the Year Luc Fomba to make it 3-1 and Spencer Furman won 11 of the last 12 games against Bertus Kruger at line 6 to take a 7-5, 6-1 decision and put the Bears in the semifinals for the first time since 2015.

With the power out at the Collegiate area of the National Campus for several hours while damage from an electric fire was repaired, head coach Michael Woodson said it was difficult to know what the score was on all six courts, so there was no chance his players would be distracted by an electronic scoreboard.

"We made it a point to focus on having great energy and looking like you’re winning, regardless of what was happening," Woodson said at his Zoom press conference. "And I felt like that made a real big difference for our guys today.”

With the men required to play three consecutive days this year from the quarterfinal on, and the semifinals set for 2 p.m. Friday, Woodson was happy to get the win in less than three hours.

“I think mentally and emotionally it’s a huge deal," Woodson said. "I feel like we got the pressure out of the way there with the doubles point and kind of felt that. To just have guys lock it down and get through in two sets is huge. That’s the name of the game right now. Our guys talk about it every night, try to win fast and lose slow and conserve your energy when you can.”

Cleeve Harper clinches another 4-3 win for Texas
photo credit: USTA/Manuela Davies

The defending champions are seeded fourth this year, despite having only one player on the court who played during Texas's 2019 run to the title. This year, the new cast has done it the hard way, but one that has gotten to be standard procedure for them, with the Longhorns winning yet another match by a 4-3 score tonight, this time over No. 12 Southern California.

After a slow start from Texas in doubles, they ended up taking line 3, while USC took the match at line 2. Longhorns Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab were down a break early against Reilly Smith and Daniel Cukierman at line 1, but ended up forcing a tiebreaker. The Texas pair played inspired tennis in that tiebreaker, going up 5-1 and closing it out 7-6(4).

In retrospect, that point was the difference, but it took a lot of tennis before it could be assessed as such.

Having come from 3-0 down against South Carolina in the round of 16, Texas was looking good in comparison, taking three first sets in singles, at line 2, line 5 and line 4. After Jake Sands had put USC on the board with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Evin McDonald at line 6, Texas's Micah Braswell made it 2-1 Texas with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Smith. That was the last match decided in straight sets, with the four remaining matches all going to a third. Cukierman was able to pull USC even with a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 win over Spizzirri at line 1, while Chih Chi Huang, who had lost badly to Lodewijk Weststrate at line 5 at the National Indoor, gave Texas a 3-2 lead with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 win at line 5.

Woldeab was up a break in the third on Stefan Dostanic at line 3, but lost a deciding point serving at 3-2, with Dostanic claiming the last five games of the match for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 decision that made it 3-3.

That left it up to line 4, where Cleeve Harper of Texas had lost his break to Bradley Frye, making it 3-3 in the third when Dostanic closed out Woldeab. Harper face a deciding point serving at 3-4, but won it with a good body serve. The Canadian, who redshirted his freshman year in 2019, earned two break points on Frye's serve, but Frye hit a great serve to save one and a perfect forehand approach to win the deciding point. Harper had no trouble holding for 5-5, and when Frye again fell behind 30-40 on his serve, this time Harper secured the break. Serving for the match at 6-5, Harper made sure he stayed away from second serves, and he closed it out at 40-15 with a good serve that Frye couldn't handle.

"Obviously when you're in a 3-all match, in the last stage, it's a little nerve-racking," Harper said. "My coach has also preached to me to trust myself and play aggressive and I just tried to play my game and it ended up working out for me. It's an unbelievable feeling and it's one I'll remember forever."

As for his team's incredible 10-1 record in 4-3 matches this year, Berque decided some time ago that it was more than just luck that led to that success.

"I think I'm going to have to spend some time this year figuring out what worked so I can bottle it and use it for future years," head coach Bruce Berque said. "If it happens once or twice, three times, you might chalk it up to luck, you win some you lose some. When it happens this many times, I've got to feel there's some special character on this team. I think that's got to have something to do with it. We have a lot of guys who love tennis, compete hard and have each other's backs in the big moments."

Texas will take on the winner of the night match between No. 1 seed Florida and No. 8 seed Texas A&M, which Texas A&M led 1-0 after the doubles point. A 35-minute rain delay before any of the first sets were completed means that, as with Wednesday night's Duke and North Carolina women's match, it's likely to be after midnight before a result is available.

Florida dropped the doubles point, in deflating fashion, with Johannes Ingildsen and Duarte Vale of Florida failing to convert three match points at 6-3 in the tiebreaker that decided the doubles point with Bjorn Thomson and Carlos Aguilar at line 1. Ingildsen caught the tape with his forehand putaway at the net and it bounced wide; two points later, Thomson and Aguilar had won five straight points and give Texas A&M a 1-0 lead.

The singles, which as I mentioned above, were disrupted by a brief rain shower in the middle of the first sets, were in most cases long and hard-fought, but Florida did win the four first sets that they would need to come back from that tough loss of the doubles point. The Gators drew even with Ben Shelton's 6-2, 7-5 win over Pierce Rollins at line 5, and they took the lead with Blaise Bicknell's 6-3, 6-4 victory over Noah Schachter. Sam Riffice made it 3-1 Florida, but the fourth point was not obvious, with the best chance for a pre-midnight finish centered on Andy Andrade at line 3, but Aguilar earned a split. Vale at line 1 and Josh Goodger at line 6 had lost their first sets, but Vale did get a split, as did Goodger.

Vale used the energy of the small crowd that remained and displayed nothing but positive energy against Vacherot, and he close out the match with a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2 victory at 12:30 a.m.

Florida and Texas met in the semifinals in 2019, with Texas winning that one 4-2.

Play on Friday begins at 11 a.m. with the women's semifinal between No. 2 Texas and No. 6 North Carolina State. The 2 p.m. match is the men's semifinal between No. 2 Baylor and No. 3 Tennessee, with the 5:30 women's match featuring No. 1 North Carolina  and No. 5 Pepperdine. The late semifinal will be between Texas and Florida. The early semifinals are streamed at TennisOne, the late semifinals will be broadcast on Tennis Channel. 

See the tournament site for information on tickets, links to live scoring, quotes and photos.

Tennessee 4,  Georgia 1

Doubles

1. #4 Adam Walton/Pat Harper (TENN) def. #7 Trent Bryde/Tyler Zink (GA) 6-3

2. #54 Billy Rowe/Blake Croyder (GA) def. Johannus Monday/Martim Prata (TENN) 6-3 

3. Philip Henning/Erik Grevelius (GA) def. Giles Hussey/Mark Wallner (TENN) 6-2

Singles 

1. #10 Adam Walton (TENN) def. #15 Trent Bryde (GA) 6-4, 6-4

2. #8 Johannus Monday (TENN) def. #27 Tyler Zink (GA) 7-6(3), 6-4

3. #41 Martim Prata (TENN) vs. #19 Philip Henning (GA) 3-6, 6-6 (3-3), unfinished 

4. Luca Wiedenmann (TENN) def. Blake Croyder (GA) 4-6, 6-2, 6-3

5. #92 Giles Hussey (TENN) vs. Billy Rowe (GA) 2-6, 6-2, 0-2, unfinished

6. Andrew Rogers (TENN) def. Erik Grevelius (GA) 6-3, 7-5

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (1,2,6,4)

Match Notes:

Georgia 17-7; National ranking #11

Tennessee 28-3; National ranking #3

Tennessee - #3 National Seed, Georgia - #11 National Seed 

T-2:21

Baylor 4,  TCU 1

Doubles

1. #2 Luc Fomba/Alastair Gray (TCU) def. #9 Constantin Frantzen/Sven Lah (BU) 6-2 

2. #75 Matias Soto/Nick Stachowiak (BU) def. Tadeas Paroulek/Sander Jong (TCU) 6-3

 3. Charlie Broom/Finn Bass (BU) def. Bertus Kruger/Jake Fearnley (TCU) 7-6(5)

Singles 

1. #21 Adrian Boitan (BU) vs. #12 Alastair Gray (TCU) 4-6, 6-5, unfinished

2. #11 Matias Soto (BU) def. #17 Luc Fomba (TCU) 6-4, 6-4

3. Sven Lah (BU) def. #110 Jake Fearnley (TCU) 6-3, 6-1

4. Nick Stachowiak (BU) vs. #94 Tomas Jirousek (TCU) 7-5, 2-3, unfinished 

5. Tadeas Paroulek (TCU) def. Charlie Broom (BU) 6-2, 6-4

6. Spencer Furman (BU) def. Bertus Kruger (TCU) 7-5, 6-1

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (3,5,2,6)

Match Notes:

TCU 19-8; National ranking #7

Baylor 33-4; National ranking #1

Baylor - #2 National Seed, TCU - #7 National Seed T-2:45

Texas 4, USC 3

Doubles 

1. #11 Siem Woldeab/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #10 Daniel Cukierman/Colter Smith (USC) 7-6(4) 

2. Bradley Frye/Stefan Dostanic (USC) def. #78 Cleeve Harper/Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-2

3. Micah Braswell/Payton Holden (UT) def. Jake Sands/Ryder Jackson (USC) 6-4

Singles 

1. #49 Daniel Cukierman (USC) def. #23 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 

2. #38 Micah Braswell (UT) def. #52 Riley Smith (USC) 6-4, 6-3

3. #116 Stefan Dostanic (USC) def. #75 Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 

4. #108 Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Bradley Frye (USC) 6-4, 3-6, 7-5

5. Chih Chi Huang (UT) def. Lodewijk Weststrate (USC) 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 

6. Jake Sands (USC) def. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-4, 6-4

Order of finish: Doubles (2,3,1); Singles (2,6,1,5,3,4) 

Match Notes:

USC 23-7; National ranking #12

Texas 24-5; National ranking #4

Texas - #4 National Seed, USC - #12 National Seed

Florida 4, Texas A&M 1

Doubles

1. Bjorn Thomson/Carlos Aguilar(TAMU) d. Johannes Ingildsen/Duarte Vale(UF) 7-6(6)

2. Valentin Vacherot/Pierce Rollins(TAMU) d. Sam Riffice/Ben Shelton(UF) 6-3

3. Brian Berdusco/Will Grant(UF) d. Hady Habib/Noah Schachter(TAMU) 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles (3,2,1); Singles (5,4,2,1)

Singles

1. Duarte Vale(UF) d. Valentin Vacherot(TAMU) 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-2

2. Sam Riffice(UF) d. Hady Habib(TAMU) 7-6(5), 6-4

3. Andy Andrade(UF) v. Carlos Aguilar(TAMU) 6-3, 4-6, 4-3 unfinished

4. Blaise Bicknell(UF) d. Noah Schachter(TAMU) 6-3, 6-4

5. Ben Shelton(UF) d. Pierce Rollins(TAMU) 6-2, 7-5

6. Josh Goodger(UF) v. Guido Marson(TAMU) 6-7(6), 6-3, 2-3 unfinished

Match Notes:
Texas A&M 19-9; National ranking #8
Florida Gators 24-2; National ranking #2
T-3:40

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The men's Division II championship was decided today in Surprise Arizona, with No. 2 seed Barry defending its 2019 title with a 4-1 win over top seed Columbus State. For more on Barry's title, see this recap from their website. A replay of the entire championship match is available at NCAA.com.

Barry will go for another title Friday in Surprise, with the No. 2 seed Barry women taking on No. 1 seed Indianapolis in the women's championship match. Video highlights of today's semifinals can be found at NCAA.com.