US College Signings and General College Chat 2023/24

Lambda · Challenger level

RE: US College Signings and General College Chat 2023/24

Lambda · Challenger level

Tonight Tennessee men welcome Florida State to Knoxville, which gives us the mouthwatering matchup of #1 Monday v #4 Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc. JoMo is 24-2 for the dual season and 18-1 against ranked opponents. Cornut-Chauvinc is 25-2 and 17-2 respectively. Should be a good one.

TCU's match against Duke has been brought forward a couple of hours due to the possibility of rain and will now start at 7pm BST.

Our women are heavy underdogs in today's Sweet Sixteen matchups.

Vanderbilt travel to Virginia. If the Commodores are to stand any chance against Virginia - which lets be realistic, they don't - they need to take the doubles. It's difficult, nay impossible, to see where 4 singles wins will come from. Holly is likely to play Elaine Chervinsky who is 14-4 at the 5 position.

Esther Adeshina's Tennessee travel to Oklahoma State. It would be a major upset (understatement of the year) if the Lady Vols could pull off a win against the unbeaten 29-0 Cowgirls. It's the first match between the 2 teams for 23 years.

Links to live streams and scoring can be found by following the links here. A reminder TCU's match is now 2 hours earlier than originally scheduled at 1pm CDT/ 7pm BST.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda, thanks so much for these incredibly detailed reports/ narratives.

Can I ask - do you watch all these matches and compile them, or find online reports and create your own story from those?

Whatever - really impressed each time I read them and it helps bring together a part of the game many of us wouldnt otherwise follow.

Lambda · Challenger level

Thanks Jon. I do prefer to give a bit of extra detail than just scores where I can, and glad its of interest.

To answer your question, it's a bit of both. I watch some, which as can probably be told from my posts have mostly been NC State women and Florida State women, but also dipping in to a few others when I can and then following others from their team reports and previews. I've also in the last few weeks started listening to some podcasts to get some independent views. Frustratingly some of the matches I have wanted to watch have not had live streaming as they have been broadcast on the conference networks which, as far as I can tell, the only way to access them is to be subscribed to a US cable service - not looking at anyone in particular, ACC. Do they not realise people outside the US want to watch? I didn't watch too much of last night's matches as I've been very ill over the last week without much sleep and couldn't stay awake.

I have to say I've really enjoyed following college tennis this year. I have found it much more enjoyable than following pro tennis. I only started doing this because no one had picked up the baton for college tennis and I didn't want our men and women across the pond to be forgotten or ignored. It would have been a travesty if having 5 men in the top 15 and a number 2 woman (thanks to Danny for the women's ranking updates) had not been documented and celebrated on here. But to follow college tennis much more closely has been the best decision I've made over the last year.

-- Edited by Lambda on Saturday 11th of May 2024 07:22:54 AM

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Lambda wrote:
Thanks Jon. I do prefer to give a bit of extra detail than just scores where I can, and glad its of interest.

To answer your question, it's a bit of both. I watch some, which as can probably be told from my posts have mostly been NC State women and Florida State women, but also dipping in to a few others when I can and then following others from their team reports and previews. I've also in the last few weeks started listening to some podcasts to get some independent views. Frustratingly some of the matches I have wanted to watch have not had live streaming as they have been broadcast on the conference networks which, as far as I can tell, the only way to access them is to be subscribed to a US cable service - not looking at anyone in particular, ACC. Do they not realise people outside the US want to watch? I didn't watch too much of last night's matches as I've been very ill over the last week without much sleep and couldn't stay awake.

I have to say I've really enjoyed following college tennis this year. I have found it much more enjoyable than following pro tennis. I only started doing this because no one had picked up the baton for college tennis and I didn't want our men and women across the pond to be forgotten or ignored. It would have been a travesty if having 5 men in the top 15 and a number 2 woman (thanks to Danny for the women's ranking updates) had not been documented and celebrated on here. But to follow college tennis much more closely has been the best decision I've made over the last year.

-- Edited by Lambda on Saturday 11th of May 2024 07:22:54 AM

The interest youve taken and grown shows through and it helps the rest of us also to grow in our interest.

i started following the wheelchair for similar reasons, feeling our players are as equally committed as our touring pros and deserved their profile to be raised. I dont have the time to write reports and so stay largely at updating what I see of their progress over the year and cheering their success a little.

get well soon, being ill isnt nice and hope you get some sleep over the weekend.

Dannythomas · Lower Club Player

Thank you Lambda for these in depth posts. I could never do it ! Im so sorry to read you have been unwell and wish you a speedy recovery.

I agree with you that college tennis is more interesting than most pro tennis events. Especially with so many British players doing so well. These days nearly every D1 college live streams all of its matches for free. So you can watch entire matches or jump from court to court.

I do think that on court coaching is too much , sometimes point to point and in most cases used to disrupt an opponent. Restrict it to changeovers ! And moving the NCAA individual championships to November and basing selection on regional performance and a handful of autumn events is a big mistake. The event is the climax of the year and follows straight on from the team event. It is what the top players work towards the whole year qualifying because of their ranking , To use an American phrase if it aint broke why fix it ?

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Very sorry to hear you've been unwell - wishing you better, Lambda

And thanks again - I love all the reports - I love reading about the players I saw as 17 or 18 year-olds, and how they're developing.

Lambda · Challenger level

Tennessee men escape in a 4-3 thriller against Florida State. Tennessee dropped the doubles point in 3 closely fought doubles sets. JoMo was 6-6 in the tie break when Florida State clinched the doubles point in another tie-break on court 3. JoMo was impressive at the opening of his singles match against the #4 Cornut-Chauvinc racing to a 4-0* lead. Cornut-Chauvinc got a break back when JoMo had a poor service game serving for the set to bring it back to 5-4*. He broke the next game to win the set 6-4. The second set was fairly even, going with serve then trading breaks. JoMo went up *5-4. He served for the match and went *40-0 ahead but squandered all 4 match points. He broke again in the next game and managed to hold serve to win 7-5. He maintains his unbeaten record against top 10 opponents with an 11-0 career record. They face Texas next in Stillwater.

TCU were back with a full strength line up for the first time in a couple of months and were in no mood to hang around, wrapping up the doubles and singles in less than 2 hours. Indeed the matches that had started an hour before TCU were still ongoing for some time after TCU finished. Jake and Vives defeated the #1 doubles team 6-2 in double quick time. Pinnington and Gorzny sealed the doubles point. Singles was over before you knew it with the British trio racking up the singles points. Jake was first to finish on court 2 with a 2&0 win over the #43, the JPJ was next with a 2&1 win over the #21 on court 1 and Lui clinching the match with a 2&1 win on court 5. Next up for TCU is Kentucky. TCU have announced they are ready to play for the title.

-- Edited by Lambda on Saturday 11th of May 2024 09:40:31 PM

Lambda · Challenger level

Oh my word... It seems I don't know what I'm talking about. What have I just witnessed? Tennessee Lady Vols do knock out the top seeds Oklahoma State in Stillwater 4-2. Adeshina and Wolfberg won their doubles set, but OSU won the other two doubles to take the doubles points. A distressing knee injury to OSU's 3 position at the start of singles gave Tennessee their first singles point by retirement. Another singles win each put the match score at 2-2. Adeshina played superbly to win 4&3 and put Tennessee within 1 win of taking the match. Matches on courts 1 & 5 went to a third set. On both courts Tennessee served for the match multiple times but was broken each time, OSU saving 4 match points on court 5. Court 1 went to a tie-break. OSU had 2 MPs but Tennessee won the next 4 points to take the match and inflict OSUs first defeat of the season. Adeshina joins Blake in the teams making the Elite 8. Tennessee play UCLA in the quarters.

Earlier in the day, Vanderbilt were beaten by Virginia 4-1. Holly Staff, team leader for Vanderbilt in wins (16-8 in dual, 30-12 overall) was defeated easily the scoreline suggests, although in the bits that I saw it wasn't that she played badly.

With 1 & 4 seeds knocked out in the same half of the draw, it has really opened things up.

Dannythomas · Lower Club Player

Indeed a huge shock #1 seed and previously unbeaten NCAA finals Host OSU losing to Tennessee in R16, following on from the defeat of holders UNC by Texas A&M.

So now the draw looks like : all matches on Friday 17th UK times

#2 Stanford v #7 Georgia 5 pm

#3 Michigan v #6 Pepperdine 7-30 pm

#5 Virginia v #13 Texas A&M 10 pm

#16 Tennessee v #8 UCLA 12-30 am Saturday

Very difficult to pick a favourite now. British interest remains with Angelica at #1 singles and #2 doubles for Stanford and Esther at #6 singles and #2 doubles for Tennessee..I think Texas A&M are looking ominously strong with the return of Branstine to support national #1 ranked Mary Stoiana. Could be the dark horses as their shock win over UNC. showed. With hosts OSU eliminated home crowd support is no longer a factor. Honestly any one of the 8 survivors could take it.

But not to forget the individual championships follow on Monday 20th with Millie, Victoria, Angelica and Grace all in the singles draw.

-- Edited by Dannythomas on Sunday 12th of May 2024 01:04:55 AM

Lambda · Challenger level

A couple of additional things to mention from Tennessee match reports.

Some additional context on Esther's win over Kristina Novak. Novak went into the match undefeated in 18 completed matches (mostly at 6) and Oklahoma State had lost only 1 completed match on court 6 all season. It is Tennessee's first quarter-final appearance for 14 years.

"It means everything, and we love fighting for each other," Adeshina said. "We all believe in each other. Last year I remember Alison (Ojeda) [Head coach] saying that whenever we played top teams, we thought we had a chance, but we didn't expect to win. I think today and all season we have expected to win these matches. That is what happened today."

Johannus' win was his top ranked win of the season and his career 2nd highest ranked win.

Lambda · Challenger level

In the men's the top 8 seeds progressed to the quarter-finals on Thursday.

(1) Ohio State v (8) Columbia - 6pm
(4) TCU v (5) Kentucky - 8.30pm

(3) Virginia v (6) Wake Forest - 11pm
(2) Texas v (7) Tennessee - 1.30am

I'm not yet sure if there will be a way to watch any of the team or individual action from Stillwater, OK as it is all being broadcast on ESPN+. I'm hoping that the free OSU stream will still be available.

Dannythomas · Lower Club Player

Going there to watch ..!!

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Dannythomas wrote:
Going there to watch ..!!

Enjoy the tennis and your trip, Danny!

Dannythomas · Lower Club Player

JonH comes home wrote:
Dannythomas wrote:
Going there to watch ..!!
Enjoy the tennis and your trip, Danny!

Thank you Jon ! Certainly a long trip from London and the nearest international airport is DFW which gives you the option of connecting with the 2 daily flights to Stillwater or doing that part by road., minimum 3-4 hours. Definitely easier when it was at the USTA National centre flying into Orlando !

Anyway tomorrow Ill go to OSU and soak up the atmosphere!

-- Edited by Dannythomas on Thursday 16th of May 2024 12:45:52 AM