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A tremendous weekend of college tennis action concluded on Monday afternoon with Columbia winning a thriller over Stanford, so we now know the 32 teams that will be participating in February at the 2016 ITA National Team Indoor Championships. The women's event will be held at the Nielsen Tennis Center in Madison, Wisc., starting February 5, while the men's event starts February 12 at the Boar's Head Sports Club in Charlottesville, Va.
There will be five first-time participants, which I would think has to be a new record for this event. The three men's teams making their first appearance are #11
Wake Forest, #13
South Florida and #19
San Diego, while the two newcomers on the women's side are #17
Texas Tech and #21
LSU.
Twelve of the fifteen women's hosts won their regionals with Fresno State (UCLA), LSU (Georgia Tech), and Ohio State (TCU) being the three that won on the road.
Thirteen of the fifteen men's hosts won their regionals with San Diego (Duke) and Texas Tech being the two exceptions.
There are six schools that will have representation from both its men's and women's programs as Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio State, Texas A&M, and Texas Tech each came through qualifying. The sixth school, Virginia, had its women's team qualify while the men's team got an automatic berth due to it being the host.
The SEC was the conference to put the most teams in the women's draw with five qualifying (Vanderbilt, Georgia, Texas A&M, Alabama, LSU) while the ACC was next with four (North Carolina, Virginia, Miami, and Duke). Fifteen of the sixteen spots went to teams from the Power Five Conferences (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) with the Mountain West's Fresno State being the party crasher.
The Big 12 has the most representation in the men's draw with four of its six teams qualifying (Oklahoma, TCU, Baylor, Texas Tech), while the ACC was next with three (Virginia, North Carolina, Wake Forest). 13 of the 16 spots went to teams from the Power Five with the WCC's San Diego, Ivy's Columbia, and American's South Florida being the other three.
Below are teams heading to the National Team Indoors with the number in parentheses being the year of its last NTI appearance.
Women's Teams
Men's Teams
So now that you've seen who qualified, let's talk about how some of them did it.
Durham Regional (Men)
I'll start out with what I personally thought was the best story of the weekend, the University of San Diego qualifying for its first-ever National Team Indoors.
First-year head coach Ryan Keckley was tasked with having to bring his team all the way across the country to Durham, N.C., for the
Duke-hosted regional. Since #19 San Diego doesn't play many matches indoors, Keckley decided to bring his team out a few days early to get accustomed to the indoor facility. The decision not only helped his team get better acclimated, but it also meant they beat the winter weather storm that blanketed much of the East Coast and subsequently closed down many airports - including the one in Raleigh-Durham. The
University of California, which didn't come in early, got caught by the storm and was unable to make it so the 4-team regional was reduced to a 3-team regional.
San Diego took care of business in its opening match by blanking Vanderbilt 4-0 while its second round opponent, #23 Duke, got a bye. I asked Keckley what he thought about the circumstances of San Diego playing a match while Duke sat, "Duke saw the energy and intensity that our boys brought to the Vanderbilt match and knew what to expect. You can look at this as an advantage or disadvantage for us, but this early in the season I believe we needed the extra match before taking on a high caliber team like Duke."
It looked like Duke was going to take the early lead when its #3 doubles team served for the match up 5-3 on the deciding court. However San Diego's Josh Page and Uros Petronijevic came back to take the next 4 games to win it 7-5 and give San Diego the 1-0 lead.
"We were fortunate to steal the doubles point," said Keckley. "With the point tied at 1-all, it came down to a deuce situation with Josh Page serving down 4-5. With a screaming 53 mph second serve, the ball clipped the net tape and popped up to Adrian Chamdani's forehand. With Chamdani stretching to reach the ball in time, Josh Page then threw up a lob which Duke was not prepared for. We went on to win the next 8 points to secure the 1-0 lead going into singles."
San Diego went on to get the 3 singles points it needed from Uros Petronijevic, Filip Vittek, and Josh Page at 1, 3, and 6 with Page providing the clincher.
"The past weekend at Duke was an incredible experience for this USD squad," said Keckley. "This was one of the teams goals at the beginning of September, and they went out and made it happen. It is not easy to pick up two wins on the road against well-established and coached programs like Duke and Vanderbilt. The boys showed resilience and heart throughout the entire weekend, and I couldn't be happier for this veteran group.
Austin Regional (Men)
San Diego's former coach, Brett Masi, in his first year at Texas Tech, was trying to get his Red Raiders through the Austin (TX) Regional. Texas Tech opened up with a 4-0 win over #17 Ole Miss then faced #21 Florida in the regional finals after the Gators knocked out #20 Texas 4-0. Texas Tech quickly fell behind 3-0 after dropping the doubles point and #3 and #4 singles, but Masi's crew wasn't ready to go away. Hugo Dojas cut Florida's lead to 3-1 with a win at #2, and then Bjorn Thomson made it 3-2 by taking a pair of close sets at #6. Connor Curry evened it at 3-3 with a come-from-behind win in 3-sets at #5, so it all came down to a third set at #1 between Tech's Felipe Soares and Florida's Diego Hidalgo. It looked bleak for Tech when Felipe Soares went down a break and was serving at 2-4, 0-40, but he fought back to hold and then broke to even it at 4-all. Soares would eventually break Hidalgo once more to win it 7-5 in the third - and send Tech back to the National Team Indoors for the first time since 2011.
Masi talked afterwards about the match and his team in general.
"Hugo (Dojas) had a solid weekend all the way around, and was our MVP of the weekend. Today's match was a dogfight. We were competing hard, and they were competing hard. We had to fight extremely hard to find that edge. Felipe (Soares) played clutch games in the third set and hit excellent backhand passing shots something that he's not known for. It was his moment, and he wasn't going to let our team lose. It's a huge win for us to come back and beat a program like Florida which has a lot of great tradition and history. The biggest thing that I see from our team is that if one guy can't do it that day someone else can step up and do it. A match like today - and the way we were able to win - shows our players how good this team can be. We have great senior leadership and a lot of depth. I'm proud of our guys for battling through adversity and finding a way to win."
Winston-Salem Regional (Men)
Despite having some good teams in the past including last year's Noah Rubin-led squad, #11 Wake Forest went into the Kick-Off Weekend trying to qualify for its first-ever National Team Indoors. Wake Forest, hosting its own regional for the first time, was ranked more than 30 spots higher than the three other regional participants, so Head Coach Tony Bresky had to like his chances going in.
In its opener against #59
Auburn, Wake dropped the doubles point before turning it around and winning in straight sets at #3, #4, #5, and #6 to come away with a tougher-than-expected 4-1 win. The following day Wake played #43
Tennessee in the finals and once again got off to a slow start in doubles. Tennessee won at #2 and led 5-2 at #1 and 5-3 at #3 but Wake fought back and took both courts in a tiebreak to grab the doubles point and 1-0 lead. Singles was all one-way traffic as Wake rolled on all 6 courts with Christian Seraphim, Dennis Uspensky, and Petros Chrysochos the first 3 to finish after only dropping 5 games collectively.
Bresky mentioned that while it wasn't optimal to lose the doubles point in the Auburn match, it actually helped against Tennessee.
"Looking back at it, I think that was a valuable experience for us. With this format, the doubles is always going to be closely contested, and it was important for us to learn how to win a team match after losing the doubles point. The next day versus Tennessee we played a lot better and looser in doubles - realizing that regardless of the outcome of that point we felt confident heading into singles."
Wake Forest has two freshmen that are expected to be heavy contributors this season with Petros Chrysochos (Larnaca, Cyprus) already playing at #1 while Dennis Uspensky (Atlantic Beach, NY) has started out the year at #5. Tony Bresky is definitely thrilled to have both of those guys onboard.
"We feel very fortunate to have Dennis and Petros join us this year. They have already fit very nicely into our team chemistry and their tennis speaks for itself. I'm obviously biased, but they are certainly two of the best freshman nationwide. Petros has never played indoor tennis before, and Dennis hasn't played indoors for over five years, so we are certainly looking forward to getting outdoors. Having said that, a little indoor tennis will be great for their development and I expect they will continue to improve as the season progresses."
Tampa Regional (Men)
Last season, #13 South Florida made its first-ever trip the NCAA Round of 16, and in two weeks it'll make its first-ever trip to the National Team Indoors after picking up a pair of ranked wins over the weekend.
South Florida hosted its first-ever Kick-Off Weekend Regional and used the home-court advantage to its fullest. The Bulls opened up the weekend hosting in-state rival #31
Florida State, and on a cool and windy day the Seminoles gave the Bulls all they wanted and more.
Florida State took the doubles point and three opening sets in singles but Florida State transfer Dominic Cotrone would give South Florida its first point with a quick win at #2. South Florida would also pick up wins from Roberto Cid and Vadym Kalyuzhnyy at #1 and #5 while Florida State answered with wins from Aziz Dougaz and Terrance Whitehurst at #4 and #6. The match came down to a third set at #3 and South Florida's Sasha Gozun rose to the occasion and pulled away from Michael Rinaldi to take it 6-7, 6-4, 6-1.
"The crowd helped a lot," Gozun said. "We had a huge crowd this match, and the team was pumping me up. I knew if I could've gotten to the third set, I would've won."
Fourth-year head coach Matt Hill was thrilled to come out on top and talked about the important of being the host.
"It takes a lot to beat Florida State in the first place, to drop the doubles against them and still get the win. It's a huge accomplishment for these guys. This is why you work your tail off - to get into the Top 15, so you can host these events, so you can be the No. 1 seed here and have your crowd enjoying and experiencing the level of this team."
South Florida would have a much easier time in the regional final when it cruised past #30 LSU 4-0. The Bulls won the doubles point and all 6 opening sets, with Roberto Cid ultimately providing the clincher at #1 singles.
New York Regional (Men)
One of the closest matches of the weekend actually took place on Monday due to the winter weather pushing the schedule back a day. The USTA National Tennis Center was the setting for the showdown between the hometown Columbia Lions and the Paul Goldstein coached Stanford. Columbia was trying to make its second straight trip to the NTIs, while Stanford was looking to get back for the first time since 2012.
Stanford won the doubles point and then went ahead 3-1, but Columbia fought its way back to even the match at 3-3. The last match on was at #2 singles, as Stanford sophomore David Wilczynski was trying to close out Columbia freshman Victor Pham after Wilczynski took the opening set 6-3. The second set went to a tiebreak and Wilczynski served up 5-4, but he lost the final three points to send the match to a third set. The third set was a wild, wild affair with Pham jumping out to a double-break 4-1 lead only to start cramping and consequently dropping the next three games to even it at 4-4. Pham would serve for the match up 5-4 - and again up 6-5 - but was broken both times to send it to a third set tiebreak. Pham got the early lead in the tiebreak and took it 7-3 to finish off a wild day of tennis.
"Leading 5-4, I was serving up 40-30 and had two match points, but I ended up losing that game," Pham said. "At five-all, the crowd helped me out so much with all the chants and gave me the energy and so much more belief. It was definitely a match to remember."
Columbia's Bid Goswami, in his 34th season as head coach of the Lions, had plenty to say about the dramatic match.
"If this match was on TV, it would have been an instant classic. It was a really unbelievable team effort. I thought after losing a doubles point it would be a tough one because they are so loaded and have no holes in their team. I was honored and privileged to be a part of it, and felt like I was on top of Mount Everest hoisting the Columbia flag."
Women's Highlights
There were just as many good storylines on the women's side with #21 LSU and #17 Texas Tech advancing for the first time along with #54 Fresno State upsetting #9 UCLA.
Atlanta Regional (Women)
LSU rolled into Atlanta for the Georgia Tech Regional as the #2 seed, but a few people - including myself - thought they were slight favorites. Fourth-year head coach Julia Sell has built up the roster over the last few years and had four upperclassmen in the starting six along with a highly routed freshman and a sophomore transfer from Texas.
LSU won its opener over #35 DePaul fairly comfortably, which set up the showdown with the host #24 Yellow Jackets in the regional finals
LSU won a close doubles point with a 7-6(5) win at #1 and a 7-5 win a #3 and then extended the lead to 3-0 with straight set wins from Joana Vale Costa and Abby Owens at #1 and #5. Georgia Tech's Rasheeda McAdoo and Alexis Prokpuik won in straight sets at #2 and #6 to close the gap to 3-2 plus - the Yellow Jackets were up a set on the two remaining courts. LSU's Jessica Golovin and Ryann Foster would fight back to take the second sets at #2 and #4, with Golovin coming back from 3-0 down in her match. Golovin, who was LSU's highest-rated American recruit in program history, would get a late break and close out Paige Hourigan 7-5 in the third to clinch the victory for LSU.
"It was a great atmosphere throughout the day, and the team really helped each other out," Golovin said. "It's a great feeling to be able to come back and clinch the match for the team. I am very excited and can't wait for indoor nationals."
Julia Sell also had praise for her talented freshman - and knew she wasn't done when she went down early in the second set.
"Jessica Golovin has impressed us all with how fearless she is and [how she] thrives in tough competition. She has that mindset of a champion where she absolutely loves the battle. She showed us that with her results this Fall. I did say something to her at a set and 0-3 down that I'm going to save for Tigers only, but I just thought she started focusing on the wrong things at the beginning of the second set. As soon as she focused back on herself, I knew she would win.
Sell took over the program in June 2012 and started off with a 9-16 season, but the journey over the last three years made this moment all the more sweet.
"This journey has been incredibly rewarding over the past three years because we have had the opportunity to completely rebuild a program. The first season was really tough from a win/loss standpoint, but we look back at that year as a success because we maximized the potential of that team, we recruited well and set the standard of our program moving forward. We work really hard to develop our players, and that's helping us attract the best players in the country and continue to grow this program. Winning against [Georgia Tech] this past weekend is a result of our players improving, believing in the process and putting in the hard work. Our goal is to maximize every day and staying focused on that allows us to be prepared and successful in any situation.
Lubbock Regional (Women)
The other women's team to book its first-ever spot in the National Team Indoors was the Todd Petty coached Texas Tech Red Raiders. Texas Tech was hosting a Kick-Off Weekend Regional for the first time ever and made sure it didn't waste the opportunity. Tech rolled over #60 Oregon 4-0 in the opening round and then beat #58 Illinois 4-1 in the regional finals with freshman Felicity Maltby providing the clincher at #6.
"I thought we grew throughout the tournament," Petty said. "This was a goal we set out to accomplish was to be the first team in program history to qualify for ITA National Indoors. These girls wanted to set that up and go do that. They were able to protect home court really well. I thought the freshmen (Felicity Maltby and Alex Valenstein) really grew up at the end. I mean Maltby being able to clinch a couple of matches in row. We've been having trouble closing matches in the fall and being able to do that this weekend was huge for our confidence."
Los Angeles Regional (Women)
The biggest upset of the Kick-Off Weekend came in Los Angeles as #54 Fresno State first beat #34 Arkansas 4-1 - and then in the regional final stunned #9 UCLA 4-3. Fresno State was just 1-11 all-time against UCLA, but last year's national runner-up had to replace a lot of firepower with four starters departing which accounted for 50% of its dual-match wins. The Bulldogs got off to a good start by taking the doubles point with wins at #2 and #3. Each team took three opening sets, and eventually the winner of the opening set won on each court with Fresno State's #4 Galina Bykova clinching the win 6-3 in the third.
"I'm extremely proud of my team and the fight they showed today," head coach Ryan Stotland said. "To defeat the defending national runner-up on their courts in front of a very loud home crowd shows the quality and resilience of our team under pressure. We're very excited to advance to Sweet 16 at indoor nationals in Madison [Wisconsin] and face another quality opponent, but we're still not satisfied, we're still hungry for more."
Fort Worth Regional (Women)
While the Ohio State men's team has been a staple at the National Team Indoors, the women's team hasn't had the same level of success. Going into the Kick-Off Weekend, it had been 15 years since Ohio State's last appearance in the National Team Indoors. But the Buckeyes are back in it after going to Fort Worth and winning the TCU Regional.
#18 Ohio State had a tough opener against #19
Pepperdine in a match that was moved indoors due to the weather. Pepperdine took the early 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point, and then each of the five singles matches on court would end up going the distance (only five indoor courts). Pepperdine would win at #1 and #2, but Ohio State took #3, #4, #5 so it all came down to #6. Ohio State sophomore Olivia Sneed closed out Pepperdine's Christine Maddox 7-5, 6-2 to put the Buckeyes into the regional finals against #22 TCU.
"This was just a really good college tennis match that came down to the wire," Melissa Schaub, head coach of the Buckeyes, said. "Pepperdine is a very good team and we are happy to come away with the win. It was a total team fight and for Olivia to step up at the end with the match on the line was really big."
After playing a 4-hour match against Pepperdine, Ohio State's match against TCU would be much shorter with the Buckeyes rolling to a 4-0 win in just 1 hour and 55 minutes. Ohio State took the doubles point with wins at #1 and #3 then picked up singles wins from Francesca Di Lorenzo, Anna Sanford, and Ferny Angeles Paz at #1, #3, and #5 with Angles Paz providing the clincher.
"It's a really good feeling to make it through," Melissa Schaub, head coach of the Buckeyes, said. "This is a very special team that fights so incredibly hard for each other. To me, they are what college tennis is all about. They have been through a lot but everyone has stepped up big. We have a really tough schedule ahead of us but we are going to enjoy this for a couple of days."
College Station Regional (Women)
The closest women's regional final of the weekend came in College Station as #10 Texas A&M hosted #37 Wichita State. Both teams won their opening matches rather easily, with Texas A&M beating #73 South Alabama 4-0 while Wichita State beat #61 Minnesota 4-1.
In the final, Wichita State took the early lead by coming from behind to win the doubles point with wins at #1 and #3. Texas A&M tied the match and then went ahead 2-1 with straight set wins from Saska Gavrilovska and Rutuja Bhosale at #2 and #3 but the lead would be short lived. The Shockers answered with a pair of straight set wins of their own from Gabriela Porubin and Giulia Guidetti at #1 and #6 and now Wichita State was just a point away from pulling the upset.
Texas A&M's Domenica Gonzalez looked poised to even the match at 3-3 after she jumped out to a 5-1 third set at #5 against Wichita State's Abby Stevens. However Stevens won the next 3 games to cut it to 5-4 and then went up 30-40 on the Gonzalez serve. Gonzalez managed to fight off both break points to win it 6-4 in the third.
With the match tied at 3-3, it all came down a third set at #4 between Texas A&M's Eva Paalma and WSU's Aleksandra Trifunovic. With the wind gusting Paalma broke to go up 4-3 but Trifunovic broke back then held to lead 5-4. Paalma started to cramp but she fought off a match point on the deciding 40-all point to even it at 5-5. Paalma would then break on the deciding point to go up 6-5 and would then close out the win on yet another deciding point to take it 7-5.
Eva Paalma was relieved to get the clinch, "I don't know what to say, I'm so excited. I'm glad it's over. I'm so glad it's over, but I am happy to come through that."
She also shared her thoughts on her cramps and the wind, "I got really tight in the second set, my thighs. And in the third set I felt a complete cramp, and then I kind of came back. My trainer came; we know what to do when I'm cramping. It's not something new. I've played through cramps. It wasn't something I was surprised about. You just have to keep going. The wind definitely played a huge role today. It was my first match this year with that kind of wind. I got frustrated in the beginning, but then you have to accept what it is and just try to play through it. It's the same wind for me and her. There's no advantage for either side."
First year Texas A&M head coach Mark Weaver knew going in that it'd likely be a close match.
"I knew we had a lot against us with this being our second match of the year - I think it's [Wichita State's] fifth match. You couldn't give enough credit to our girls. I am so proud of them. They came in and definitely weren't match tough, and today was just all about being match tough. It was just an incredible performance. Wichita State is a very good team. They're use to winning a lot of matches. I think they went 24-4 last year, so they know how to win. We had a lot against us today and just had an incredible, gutsy performance by Eva Paalma and also by Domenica Gonzalez. As a freshman, that's a pretty impressive performance to come out on her first match and win such a big match being a set down."
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About Bobby Knight
Author Bobby Knight is a tennis aficionado who loves watching,
reading, and writing about the great game of college tennis. He
attended the University of Georgia in the late 90s and has attended
numerous NCAA Championships along with 3 of the 4 Professional Grand
Slams. After writing for a few different websites over the last
several years he started his own college tennis blog,
College Tennis Today,
in January 2015 and continues to grow his audience through his active
Twitter account.
