Feb. 15, 2008
SEATTLE, WASH. - Saturday's quarterfinals matches are set, and include defending champions Georgia, No. 1 seed Virginia, and seven of the top eight seeds at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Men's Team Indoor Championships. The University of Washington is hosting this year's championships in Seattle at the Nordstrom Tennis Center and the Seattle Tennis Club. Top-seeded Virgina beat No. 16 Penn State 4-0 in Friday's first round, and No. 8 UCLA edged No. 9 Notre Dame, 4-0. No. 13 seed Oklahoma State upset No. 4 seed Baylor in the biggest upset of the day, 4-2 to advance. Also advancing to Saturday's quarterfinals were No. 2 Georgia, No. 3 Ohio State, No. 5 Mississippi, No. 6 Southern California, and No. 7 Texas. In today's first round matches, Georgia beat host and No. 15 seed Washington 4-2, Ohio State beat No. 14 Boise State 4-0, Mississippi beat No. 12 North Carolina 4-1, USC beat No. 11 Illinois 4-1, and Texas beat No. 10 Alabama 4-0. Mississippi will face Oklahoma State in a 9 a.m. quarterfinal match, Virginia will take on UCLA at 11 a.m., and Ohio State will face off against USC at 2:30 p.m. Texas and defending champions Georgia will meet up in a 5:30 p.m. match. Oklahoma State (3-2) continued their tradition of huge upsets in the first round; the last time the Cowboys took part the ITA National Team Indoors was 2001. That year, Oklahoma State upset No. 2 seed Tennessee 4-2, for their only quarterfinals appearance in this tournament thus far. 2006 was the last time Baylor lost in the first round; they were ousted by Duke, 4-3, after winning the championship in 2005. The match came down to No. 5 singles, where Oklahoma State's Anton Bobytski beat Jordan Rux, 6-3, 7-5. Rux stayed in the match until the end, however, as he was down 5-1 in the second set, and broke Bobytski twice. Bobytski served for the match three separate times throughout the second set, but rallied when it was 5-5 to take the last two sets and clinch the 4-2 win. Ohio State (9-0) won the doubles point and never looked back, as they beat a Broncos squad that has never made it past the first round. Brothers Luke and Clancy Shields notched a win at No. 1 doubles for Boise State to start the match, but Ohio State won at No. 2 doubles 8-4, evening up the score. Bryan Koniecko and Steven Moneke put the Buckeyes up 1-0, with their win at No. 3. In singles, simultaneous finishes at Nos. 3, 6 and 5 singles gave Ohio State the win. Koniecko was the first; that win was followed by a win by Eberly. And the match was clinched just seconds later, as Allare beat Robertson, 6-3, 6-3 in the No. 5 spot. Ohio State advances to the quarterfinals for the second straight year; last year the Buckeyes made it all the way to the finals, where they lost to No. 1 seed Georgia, 4-0. In one of the longest matches of the day, No. 6 Southern California (8-0) beat No. 11 Illinois, 4-1. Illinois got the first point of the match as they won the doubles point. Ryan Rowe and Billy Heiser had a win at No. 2 doubles and that was followed by a close win at No. 3 doubles by Waylong Chin and Marc Spicijaric for Illinois. In singles, five of the six matches went to three sets before USC rallied to win four straight and claim the match. The only match that ended in two sets was No. 3 singles, where Poldma beat Heiers, 6-0, 7-6(2). At No. 1 singles, Robert Farah beat Ruben Gonzales, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2; At No. 2 singles, Kaes Van't Hof beat Ryan Rowe, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. And At No. 5 singles, Abdullah Magdas came back after losing the first set to beat Waylon Chin, 4-6, 6-2, 6-0. The Trojans, who have participated in this tournament 25 times, advance to face off against No. 3 seed Ohio State. Mississippi (5-1) took an early lead in the match, as they won the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 2 doubles. The No. 4 nationally-ranked doubles team of Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit had win, while Bram ten Berge and Matthias Wellerman had a win at No. 2. In singles, Kalle Norberg, ten Berge and Robbye Poole got wins for Ole Miss, while North Carolina's only point came at No. 2 singles, where Stefan Hardy upset No. 5 nationally-ranked singles player Matthias Wellerman, 6-1, 6-3. No. 1 seed Virginia (8-0) remained unbeaten this season with a 4-0 win over Penn State. Penn State, who was making its first-ever appearance at the event, held their own against the Cavaliers, but couldn't come up with a win in the end. Virginia got two quick wins in doubles from two of the top doubles teams in the country, Somdev Devvarman and Treat Huey at No. 1, and the No. 25 ranked pair of Houston Barrick and Dominic Inglot. Up 1-0, the Cavaliers never looked back. Huey had the first singles win for UVA; he was followed by Sanam Singh, and No. 5 singles Houston Barrick clinched the win for Virginia. The other three singles matches were abandoned when the match was clinched, including a possible upset at No. 1 singles; No. 51 Michael James had taken the first set from reigning NCAA singles champion and current No. 1 ranked player, Somdev Devvarman, 6-4. Devvarman was winning in the second set, 5-3 when the match was abandoned. UCLA (6-0) advanced to the quarterfinal round with their 4-0 win over Notre Dame. This is the second year in a row that the Fighting Irish have lost in the first round; last year, they fell to No. 9 seed Pepperdine, 4-2. But that didn't stop Notre Dame from coming out strong - the No. 1 doubles team of Sheeva Parbhu and Brett Helgeson had a dominating 8-2 win to start the match. But UCLA came back with two wins in the Nos. 2 and 3 spots to take the doubles point, and an early 1-0 lead. The Bruins also got singles wins from Jeremy Drean, Mike Look and Holden Seguso. With its win, UCLA advances to the quarterfinals, where they will face the No. 1 seed Virginia. It isn't the first time UCLA and UVA will face off in this event: in 2005, an unseeded Virginia team knocked off No. 2 seed UCLA in the quarterfinals, 4-2, on the way to their first finals appearance. UCLA is second all-time in total ITA National Indoor titles with seven. They will take on the Cavaliers Saturday at 11 a.m. Texas (7-0) beat No. 10 seed Alabama, 4-0. The Longhorns won the doubles point, and got singles wins from Kellen Damico, Luis Diaz Barriga and Milan Mihailovic. Texas last advanced to the quarterfinals in 1998, where they lost to Mississippi State. Host Washington gave the defending champion and No. 2 seeded Georgia a run for their money in the last match of the night. The Bulldogs captured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 3, and got singles wins from Travis Helgeson, Jamie Hunt and Javier Garrapiz. But Washington's Ryo Sekiguchi and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan both had singles wins to keep the Huskies in the match. The deciding match came at No. 3 singles, where Jamie Hunt beat Andy Kuharszky, 7-6(4), 7-6(7). Georgia has captured the last two ITA National Team Indoor titles and carries a 37-match win streak into the quarterfinals. Last year Georgia beat Ohio State 4-0 in the championship match in Chicago and went on to record a perfect season and capture the NCAA crown. Coach Manuel Diaz's Georgia squad will try to become just the second school to win three straight ITA National Team Indoor titles. Stanford won the first three tournaments in 1973, '75 and '76 (no tournament was held in '74). ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships Results First Round (Seeds in parenthesis) Virginia (1) 4, Penn State (16) 0 |
