DID VIRGINIA “KNOLL” LONGHORNS?
In what was another great collegiate tennis match, the top-ranked Virginia Cavaliers snuck out of Austin with a narrow 4-3 win over the Texas Men.
Texas started hot, winning five of the six first sets in singles, which started first due to the match being delayed by rain. UVA showed why they were undefeated and had rarely been challenged all season by storming right back and seizing control of several key matches.
I found completely alarming the fact that Virginia obviously felt they needed some help in the lineup and swapped the position of Michael Shabaz and Sanam Singh, moving Singh down to line three. Singh is 11-0 this spring at #2 and has not played lower than #2, save for two matches back in January. They had not changed their lineup against top competition all season.
My thought is Virginia wanted the Damico-Singh match-up at #3 and was willing to see how Shabaz did against Corrie, figuring he would overpower the diminutive Englishman. They were wrong, as Corrie grinded Shabaz until he was a bit weary. It could have all backfired had Damico could’ve stayed the course after winning the first set. But alas, that’s why they wanted the match-up, as Singh showed what a grinder and tactician he is, outlasted Damico in three.
I mean, seriously, these guys are undefeated and #1 in the country and they feel they have to change their lineup against UT? In my opinion, that is so WEAK.
Texas Coach Michael Center was nice enough to respond to my comments, “I did not have a problem with their lineup”, stated Center in an e-mail to me. “My concern is that we are not sustaining our level long enough. We lost three 3 setters. We cramped in one, went down 5-1 and 5-0 in the third in the others. That is not good enough for us to be the best team. I guess I am looking at our team more than their lineup. If we don’t improve in that area then we will continue to have issues.”
I think Center is right and that’s why he such a great coach. He could care less what happens across the court. He is focused on what his team needs to do to get better. This team sincerely believes they are capable of getting back to the title match again this season, but will never do this if they continue to struggle in longer matches.
One thing Center is referring to is the fact that both Miguel Reyes Varela and Josh Zavala appeared to be in control of their matches before absolute collapses. Zavala won the first set and immediately lost the next 11 games, before scrambling back to 5-3 in the third. In the second set, Zavala missed a few volleys and half volleys that he was making easily in the previous set and got rattled. To me, it appeared he lost control of his emotions and let that one slip away. I also heard he had been sick this past week, so that may have shortened his fuse.
I hope Josh just forgets that match quickly. He needs to get back to the basics of what got him that first set – attacking whenever given the chance. He is a very good player and too much of an asset for the Longhorn at the bottom of the lineup.
AGGIES PULL OFF “MIRACLE” WIN
After what can only be explained as an emotional and exhausting day, the Texas A&M men’s team pulled off what some within the program are calling a miracle 4-3 come from behind win over #7-ranked Illinois.
It all started with the news late Saturday night that Aggie men’s player, Wil Spencer, had lost his father unexpectedly.
The team had just suffered an emotional 4-3 loss to #5 Ohio State and was already drained, so by the time they took the courts without Spencer in the lineup at #3, the Aggies were spent. Add that to the fact they were playing short-handed and you figure this was an easy win for the Illini.
But the Aggies rallied around their missing teammate. They won the doubles point, but then lost three of the first four singles matches off the court to trail 3-2. But Conor Pollock captured the first line, leaving Victoria’s own Colin Hoover out on the court. Hoover trailed 5-1, love-40 on his serve in the final set, but kept battling to prevail for the win at 7-5 over Illinois’ Meedo El Tabakh. Along the way Hoover faced a total of seven match points.
This match reminds me of the film my high school coach would show about once a year on a rainy day. It was the story of Manuel Orantes’ incredible comeback in the 1975 U.S. Open. If you are not familiar with it, I suggest finding some video (if it is even out there anymore) Orantes came back against second-seeded Guillermo Vilas in the semifinals, down two sets to one, 5-0, 40-love. He then beat the top-seed, Connors, in straight sets the next day.
Essentially the lesson is never give up. You never know what is going to happen.
Well, congratulations to the Aggies and Colin Hoover. Also, our thoughts and prayers are with the Spencer and TAMU Tennis families at this time.
Wow, those are some brutal comments and I must laugh at what you say. I saw the mach and it was great, to me Texas seemed like the better team but ran out of gas. I went and checked it out since you mentioned it and did you know that Shabaz is ranked 12 in the country, 26-7 on the year and 12-1 in dual matches. Singh is also a great player, ranked 17 in the country, 26-4 on the year and 14-1 in dual matches, Singh actually lost his last dual match he played. Too me it looks completely fair to switch these players around esepcially since Shabaz is actually ranked ahead of Singh and Singh had just lost his last match. The difference really was that Corrie played great and is really an excellent player. Damico is very good too but right now is not as good as Corrie and needs to work on his conditioning. I am a Texas fan but we didn’t lose that one because of the lineup Virginia put in, simply came down to a great doubs point which we couldnt pull out.
Thanks for the comment. The rankings you quote are the new rankings from this week. Last week, when they played, Shabaz was 16 and Singh was 12. You also mention Singh lost his last match, but you fail to notice he was playing at #1 in that match, Shabaz at #3. They played two matches that day and he won at #2 and lost at #1. I agree that Texas lost that due to conditioning. I was just pointing out how peculiar it was that UVA felt they needed to swap their lineup around to beat UT. Some coaches to it, some don’t. It is a strange part of gamesmanship that trickles down all the way to high school tennis.
OK, I am going to amend my post in the sense that the rankings may have been really confusing last week. Apparently most sources did not update their files. The SIDs even had them in the wrong place. I will still stand by the fact they changed their lineup to get the match-ups they wanted. In the end they just outplayed and outlasted Texas.
[...] 5. I am guessing Philippe Oudshoorn at 6. Anything too far from that is a stack and we can revisit my thoughts on that from last year, if you’d [...]