In an NCAA Division I Regional weekend short on surprises, one upset was recorded today, with the Stanford men taking out No. 11 seed Texas A&M 4-2 in College Station. The Cardinal, No. 18 in the most recent ITA rankings, lost the doubles point, but got a quick 6-1, 6-1 win from Samir Banerjee, who is down to No. 2 in the lineup after a series of injuries this season, to pull even. Two more straight-sets wins, from Hudson Rivera at line 4 and Nico Godsick at line 3 were sandwiched around the Aggies victory at line 5, for a 3-2 Stanford lead.
By that time Stanford’s Alex Razeghi, who started the year at the No. 5 position but has moved up to the No. 1 spot, was serving with a 6-4, 5-2 lead over Theo Papamalamis, as Alex Chang of Stanford had forced a third set at line 6. Razeghi didn’t get to match point on his first attempt to serve it out, with a flurry of errors, and on his second attempt at 5-4, he also fell behind in that game with more errors. He did get to a deciding point/match point however, only to net a passing shot after a long rally featuring several net cords. Chang, who had played in the 1-5 positions during in the year, had lost his 4-2 lead in the third set, but Razeghi broke Papamalamis to give himself a third chance to serve it out, and this time he played a much more solid game to close out Stanford’s win.
It’s the fifth straight year that Stanford has advanced to the Super Regionals and in four of those, they have won their second round match on the road over the seeded host. Last year, as the No. 4 seed, Stanford hosted all three regional matches and went on to reach the semifinals at the final site in Waco. This year they will travel to TCU for the Super Regional.
Men’s Regional Finals
(Sunday’s result in italics)
*Wake Forest[1] d. Old Dominion[2] 4-0
Oklahoma[1] d. Southern Cal[2] 4-0
Georgia[1] d. NC State[2] 4-0
South Carolina[1] d. Michigan State[2] 4-1
*Virginia[1] d. Columbia[2] 4-2
*Ohio State[1] d. Cal[3] 4-0
Illinois[1] d. Vanderbilt[3] 4-0
Stanford[2] d. Texas A&M[1] 4-2
*TCU[1] d. Cornell[2] 4-0
Pepperdine[2] d. LSU[1] 4-3
Baylor[1] d. Auburn[2] 4-1
San Diego[1] d. UCLA[2] 4-0
*Texas[1] d. SMU[2] 4-0
*Super Regional Host
Men’s Super Regionals (all times Eastern)
Wake Forest[1] v UCF[16]
Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Winston-Salem NC
Oklahoma[9] v Arizona[8]
Saturday May 9th, 4 p.m. Tucson AZ
Mississippi State[5] v Georgia[12]
Saturday May 9th, 1 p.m. Starkville MS
South Carolina[13] v Virginia[4]
Friday, May 8th, 5 p.m. Charlottesville VA
Ohio State[3] v Illinois[14]
Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Columbus OH
Stanford v TCU[6]
Saturday May 9th, 2 p.m. Fort Worth TX
Pepperdine v Baylor[10]
Friday May 8th, 7 p.m. Waco TX
San Diego[15] v Texas[2]
Friday May 8th, 7 p.m. Austin TX
The women’s eight regional finals all went to the No. 1 seeds, although there were several close matches, with Michigan, Oklahoma and Texas earning 4-2 wins over Florida, SMU and Texas Tech respectively.
Women’s Regional Finals
(Sunday’s results in italics)
*Georgia[1] d. Charlotte[2] 4-0
UCLA[2] d. Arizona State[1] 4-3
Texas[1] d. Texas Tech[2] 4-2
*NC State[1] d. UCF[2] 4-0
*North Carolina[1] d. South Carolina 4-0
Michigan[1] d. Florida[2] 4-2
Southern Cal[1] d. Cal[2] 4-1
*Texas A&M[1] d. Baylor[3] 4-1
Vanderbilt[1] d. Clemson[2] 4-1
*Ohio State[1] d. Notre Dame[3] 4-0
Pepperdine[1] d. Stanford[2] 4-0
*Oklahoma[1] d. SMU[2] 4-2
*Virginia[1] d. Washington[2] 4-0
LSU[1] d. Rice[3] 4-1
*Auburn[1] d. Miami[2] 4-0
Duke[1] d. Tennessee[2] 4-1
*Host Super Regional
Women’s Super Regionals (all times Eastern)
Georgia[1] v UCLA
Friday, May 8th, 4 p.m. Athens GA
Texas[9] v NC State[8]
Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Raleigh NC
North Carolina[5] v Michigan[12]
Friday May 8th, 5 p.m. Chapel Hill NC
Southern California[3] v Texas A&M[4]
Friday May 8th, 3 p.m. College Station TX
Ohio State[3] v Vanderbilt[14]
Saturday May 9th, 1 p.m. Columbus OH
Pepperdine[11] v Oklahoma[6]
Friday May 8th, 6 p.m. Norman OK
Virginia[7] v LSU[10]
Saturday May 9th, 1 p.m. Charlottesville VA
Auburn[2] v Duke[15]
Friday May 8th, 6 p.m. Auburn AL
In the Bonita Springs doubles final today, former Georgia teammates Dasha Vidmanova of Czechia and Mell Reasco of Ecuador won their first pro doubles title together. The unseeded pair defeated No. 2 seeds Anna Rogers(NC State) and Lia Karatancheva of Bulgaria 7-5, 6-3 in the final.