Virginia came out ready to play today and absolutely rocked California posting a 4-0 shutout that would have finished 7-0 had they played it out.  After the Hoos picked up the doubles point, they came out strong and quickly won all 6 first sets.   UVA first year Thai-Son Kwiatowski would finish first with a 0 & 1 win at #5, then Alex Domijan would win 1 & 3 at #2, and moments later it was Ryan Shane providing the clincher at #3 with a routine 0 & 2 win. Both Mitchell Frank and Justin Shane were close to winning as well when play was halted. 

 

Ohio State moved on to the semifinals with a 4-2 win over Texas.  The Buckeyes executed very well in doubles and claimed the point and grabbed the early 1-0 lead.  Each team would grab 3 first sets in singles play and Texas’s #1 and #2 would finish their matches off first with Soren Hess Olesen knocking off Peter Kobelt 6-5, 6-3 at #1 and Lloyd Glasspool defeating Chris Diaz 6-2, 6-5 at #2.  In the Hess-Olesen/Kobelt match, Kobelt was up 5-4 in the 1st set tiebreak and had two points on his serve but Hess-Olsen took both points and then served out the set.  Ohio State’s Hunter Callahan would tie it at 2 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at #6 over Sudanwa Sitaram then Ohio State freshman Herkko Pollanen would give the Buckeyes the lead with a 6-4, 6-3 win over George Goldhoff at #3.  The focus then turned to courts 4 and 5 with each nearing the conclusion of a 3rd set.   Ohio State’s Kevin Metka served for the match at #5 up 5-1 in the 3rd but would get broke and drop another game before finally sealing the deal to take it 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.  OSU’s #4 Ralf Steinbach had 4 match points leading 5-4 in the 3rd and up 0-40 on the Berkowicz serve when the match was halted. 

 

UCLA recovered from dropping the doubles point by winning 4 singles matches to take a hard fought 4-2 win over Oklahoma.   The biggest rout came at #1 singles with UCLA’s Clay Thompson crushing OU’s Guillermo Alcorta 6-2, 6-0.  Mackenzie McDonald would give UCLA the lead with a 6-5, 6-5 win over OU’s Andrew Harris at #3 singles and shortly thereafter fellow freshman Joseph DiGiulio would extend the Bruin lead to 3-1 with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Peerakit Siributwong at #6 singles.  Oklahoma’s Dane Webb would narrow the UCLA lead to 3-2 with a 6-5, 6-3 win over Gage Brymer but Bruin #5 Dennis Mkrtchian would finish off the Sooners with a 6-2, 5-6, 6-3 win over Alex Ghilea.  The remaining match on court that was abandoned was on serve with UCLA’s Marcos Giron leading 3-2 in the 3rd. 

 

USC won the last main draw match of the day with a tougher than expected 4-2 win over Baylor.  The reason I say tougher than expected was because Baylor’s #1 Julian Lenz had to pull out of singles after injuring himself near the end of the doubles point.  With Lenz out everyone else had to shift up a spot and while Baylor was in most of the matches USC was just too strong.  With USC leading 1-0 after claiming the doubles point Trojan #2 Yannick Hanfmann would extend the lead to 2-0 with a bruising 6-2, 6-1 win over Diego Galeano.  Baylor #5 Tony Lupieri would get the Bears on the board with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Eric Johnson but USC’s #3 Roberto Quiroz would answer with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Mate Zsiga.  With its back against the wall, Baylor started to chip away at the 3-1 deficit with Michel Dornbusch coming back from 4-1 down in the 2nd set to knock off USC’s Connor Farren 6-5, 6-5.  At #1 singles BU’s Patrick Pradella would take the 2nd set tiebreak 7-0 to send that one to a 3rd set while at #6 singles Baylor’s Vince Schneider would lead 2-1 in the 3rd over USC’s Michael Grant.  With all the momentum on Baylor’s side, USC’s Michael Grant would dig deep and quiet the crowd by going up a break and following that with a hold to open a 4-2 lead.  Schneider had a chance to get it back on serve but Grant won the 40-40 point and would hold again to take it 6-3 in the 3rd.  The remaining match on court that was abandoned was on serve in the final set with Pradella leading USC’s Ray Sarmiento 3-2.     

Both of Sunday’s Semifinal matches will take place at the Downtown Club at the MET in Houston though there will also be several consolation matches taking place at both facilities.  You can follow along at the Live Scoring links below and also find out the schedule at the Draw link.