A Little Bracket Analysis

The top seeds are as follows:

1. Virginia

2. USC

3. UCLA

4. Ohio State

5. Pepperdine

As always an elite field has shown up to the ITA National Indoors Touranment. The one surprise is not seeing Stanford in the mix. The top half of the draw features lots of talent in Virginia and Ohio State.

Virginia is always a tough team and have added firepower by adding Freshman Styslinger into the lineup. I’m looking for them to come out strong against Washington and for them to try and better their Semi-finalist appearance that they had at this tournament last year.

Oklahoma and Duke is probably the tightest match on paper and seeding wise. I cannot say I have seen much of the Sooners (5-1) play but they did have a tough match recently where they lost to Kentucky 4-3. Duke is definitely also a tough team and is the only school other than USC to have beaten the Bruins last year. In my book this is probably the match to watch.

Ohio State is coming off a recent upset at the hands of Texas A&M so they might not be as confident a team but the talent is definitely there in the big serving Kobelt and the always solid Blaz Rola. The Buckeyes take on a Cal team that is possibly missing a key singles player in Riki McLachlan due to injury.

Pepperdine versus Florida is a tough and close contest. With new coach Bryan Shelton they are currently 6-0 and ranked 11 nationally. They come into the indoors tournament with a win over in-state rival Florida State. Pepperdine has a very unchanged lineup from last year with the addition of Francis Alcantara and the loss of Llompart. Pepperdine is always dangerous and is another team in the field that is undefeated this season.

Ole Miss and Georgia is a battle of two great southern schools. Ole Miss is coming off a loss of the “Mississippi Cup” to rival school Mississippi State. The bulldogs are 4-1 with a loss to Ohio State this year. The Bruins will be playing for a spot against this line of the bracket.
Update: KU Singh will not be playing in this year’s indoors tournament. This a very big loss in the lineup for the dogs.

UCLA and Tennessee! Well, I have already done somewhat of a match preview for this match and I think it will be a good test for the Bruins. The Vols will be one of the higher ranked teams that we have played. The Vols have played a lot of indoor tennis this season whereas this will be our first match indoors. Good to note that last year in the consolation match we defeated the Vols 4-0.

Mississippi State and Kentucky is a great matchup. These two teams are coming off great dual match wins over Ole Miss and Oklahoma respectively.

Good old USC and Texas A&M round out the draw. The Aggies are coming off a surprise upset over 4th seeded Ohio State and definitely riding with some confidence coming into this match. USC being the defending champions at this tournament will surely be riding with plenty of confidence as well.

Bruins Will take on Tennessee Volunteers in the the Round of 16

UCLA was given the third seed coming into the National Indoors Tournament in Seattle, WA. 

We are set to play the Tennessee Volunteers on Friday at 8 AM at the Nordstrom Tennis Center on the campus of UW.

Quick Scout Report: 

The Vols are currently ranked 14th in the nation and are 11-1 on the year with their only loss coming by way of the Duke Blue Devils.

In their last match before indoors they won a decisive match 4-3 against #36 Wake Forest.

Their highest ranked player is Mikelis Libietis who is currently ranked 9 in the nation and has played at the one position for the Vols since his freshman year.

At the two position is Hunter Reese who is currently ranked 40 nationally. 

In the only loss of the year to Duke the only Volunteer to win his match was Brandon Fickey who took down Duke’s #14 Michael Redlicki. Fickey was also responsible for the decision match against Wake Forest. Fickey’s court will definitely be an interesting match to watch.

Stay tuned for updates as the Bruins fly up to Seattle tommorrow! 

GO BRUINS!    

Fall Tournament Wrap Up Post

Two bruins just came back after wrapping up play in the prestigious ITA National Indoors tournament.

Dennis Mkrtchian was defeated by Ole Miss Rebel Nik Scholtz in a tough battle 6-3 5-7 6-3

Fellow sophomore Marcos Giron played Cameron Silverman (ELON) and had a tough three set match in which he eventually prevailed 7-5 3-6 7-6 (3)

In Marcos’ next match he saves two match points over Toledo of Minnesota 2-6 7-5 6-3.

Unfortunately, Giron lost a well fought battle to Henrique Cunha of Duke after taking the first set. 6-7 7-5 6-3

Several bruins competed in the SoCal Intercollegiate Tournament here at UCLA as well.

RS Freshmen Karue Sell, who is also celebrating his birthday today fell int he Round of 16 against eventual champion Andre Dome of Cal Poly

Senior Warren Hardie also fell in the round of 16 to Ben Recknagel of UCSB

Dennis Novikov was seeded 2 in the tournament but was upset by Michael Grant of USC in the quarterfinals

In doubles action Novikov teamed with Sell but lost in the Semi’s to Kalaydjian and Pugliese of USD.