By Steve Pratt
Where: Claremont Mudd Scripps in Claremont, Calif.
Tournament Director: Kathy Settles
Men’s Singles Final: Arturo Kam (Mexico) def. Karapet Vardanyan (Granada Hills, Calif.), 5-7, 7-6 (4), 10-7
Women’s Singles Final: Sophie Whittle (Nipomo, Calif.) def. Emma Higuchi (Los Angeles, Calif.), 6-2, 5-7, 10-8
Getting to know the finalists: Mexico City’s Kam played his freshman year at Williams College in Massachusetts.
Vardanyan will play for Cal Poly this year. Whittle will be a senior at Gonzaga University and was a first-team All-WCC player in singles and doubles last year.
Higuchi helped lead Stanford to an NCAA team title as the No. 15 seeds.
Where: Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Ga.
Tournament Director: Sander Koning
Men’s Singles Final: Murphy McCullough (Johns Creek, Ga.) def. Beau Pelletier (Hilton Head Island, S.C.), 6-4, 6-1
Women’s Singles Final: Elizabeth Norman (Marietta, Ga.) def. Sarah Swiderski (Wesley Chapel, Fla.), 6-1, 6-3
Getting to know the finalists: A marketing major, McCullough is a junior at Georgia Southern. Pelletier, who formerly played at the Van Der Meer Academy in South Carolina, plays for Clemson University. Norman currently plays for James Madison University. She led Walton High School to the 2015 6A state championship and also was named the Atlanta Journal-Constitution High School Athlete of the Year. In high school she trained at the Robby Ginepri High Performance Tennis Academy. Swiderski plays for Ball State University and went to high school at Saddlebrook Academy.
Where: Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Ore.
Tournament Director: Jimmy Chau
Men’s Singles Final: Ben Kirsh (Vancouver, B.C.) def. Daniel Li (Alpharetta, Ga.), 6-1, 6-7,11-9
Women’s Singles Final: Cassidy Binder (Boise, Idaho) def. Katie Day (Lake Oswego, Ore.), 6-1, 2-6,10-8
Getting to know the finalists: Kirsh is a sophomore at Whitman College. Li plays for Washington University-St. Louis. Binder is a high school junior and Day plays for Gonzaga.
Where: Middle Tennessee State
Tournament Director: Jimmy Borendame
Men’s Singles Final: Vincent Rettke (Madison, Ala) def. Preston Touliatos (Birmingham, Ala.) 3-6, 7-6, 10-1
Women’s Singles Final: Chelsea Sawyer (Clemmons, N.C.) def. Alee Clayton (Huntsville, Ala.) 2-6, 6-4, 10-7
Getting to know the finalists: Rettke is a junior at Gonzaga and was named the USTA Junior Player of the Year for Alabama in both 2015 and 2016. Touliatos returns to the University of Tennessee after a year off for shoulder surgery. He played his freshman year at Eastern Illinois before transferring. Sawyer when 12-4 in singles during her freshman year at Tennessee. Clayton was the USTA Alabama Female Junior of the Year.
Where: University of Nebraska
Tournament Director: German Dalmagro
Men’s Singles Final: Alexandru Grigorescu (Romania) def. Kaleb Dobbs (Sioux Falls, S.D.), 6-1, 2-0, ret.
Women’s Singles Final: Claire Reifeis (Indianapolis, Ind.) def. Emily Strande (Centennial, Colo.), 7-5, 6-2
Getting to know the finalists: Grigorescu plays for Nebraska at Omaha. Dobbs recently finished his freshman year as a walk-on for the University of Minnesota. Reifeis plays her college tennis for the host Huskers in Lincoln while Strande was a top junior recruit from Colorado now playing at Boise State in Idaho.
Where: University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Ind.
Tournament Director: Ryan Sachire
Men’s Singles Final: Tristan McCormick (Berwyn, Pa.) def. William Howells (Boca Raton, Fla.), 1-6, 7-6, 10-8
Women’s Singles Final: Natalie Whalen (Chicago, Ill.) def. Isabella Lorenzini (Clarendon Hills, Ill.), 6-4, 6-1
Getting to know the finalists: McCormick had an impactful freshman year for the Fighting Irish playing in the middle of the singles lineup, as did Howells, who did his high school online education at Laurel Springs. Whalen played for Indiana University and Lorenzini had a 4-1 Big Ten Conference record in singles playing her freshman year at the University of Michigan.
Where: University of Texas at Arlington, Texas
Tournament Director: Diego Benitez
Men’s Singles Final: Austin Abbrat (Spring, Texas) def. Pranav Kumar (Plano, Texas), 6-4, 6-4
Women’s Singles Final: Olivia Peet (Great Britain) def. Nell Miller (Great Britain), 6-4, 4-6, 10-8
Getting to know the finalists: Abbrat trained at the Giammalva Elite Academy under coach Sammy Giamalva Jr. and plays for Texas A&M. Kumar is Abbrat’s Texas A&M teammate and played his junior tennis at Lakes Tennis Academy in Frisco, Texas. Peet plays for Texas Tech while her fellow British teammate does the same.
Where: Wellesley College in Wellesley, Mass.
Tournament Director: Brian Kuscher
Men’s Singles Final: Ryan Mueller (Boston, Mass.) def. Benjamin Collier (Darien, Conn.), 3-6, 6-4,12-10
Women’s Singles Final: Natasha Gonzalez (Houston, Texas) def. Lilian Poling (West Point, N.Y.), 7-6 (4), 6-3
Getting to know the finalists: Mueller plays for Wake Forest and Collier for Brown. Gonzalez plays for Harvard while Poling plays for Boise State.
