It’s April which means it’s almost time for May Madness (way better than basketball’s March Madness am I right?)

Anyways, the Big 12 featured some great matches over the weekend and the USC and UCLA rivalry did not disappoint as usual. There were also some other big matches across the other power 5 conferences as teams hope to solidify themselves at the top of their conference standings.

#13 USC def. #9 USC 4-3

The UCLA Bruins took down the USC Trojans in an epic 4-3 battle on Friday night in Westwood.

The Bruins won the doubles point which was led by Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith (6th ranked) clinching the point over Riley Smith and Brandon Holt (14th ranked) 6-4 on court 1.

The Trojans came out firing in singles with Mor Bullis posting a 6-1, 7-5 win over Matthew Tsolakyan on 6 and Laurens Verboven (23rd ranked) notching a big win over Govind Nanda (46th ranked) 6-3, 6-4. Holt (11th ranked) then flipped the switch in singles and got a huge win over Cressy (21st ranked) 6-2, 7-6(2) to make it 3-1 Trojans.

Keegan Smith (49th ranked) was firing aces as usual and took down Daniel Cukierman (13th ranked) 7-6, 6-3 on court 2 to give UCLA their first singles win of the day. Junior Ben Goldberg continued his stellar year for the Bruins on court 5 by upsetting Logan Smith (74th ranked) 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to even the score.

In classic rivalry fashion, all eyes were on court 4 with UCLA’s Patrick Zahraj battling USC’s Riley Smith. A back-and-forth tiebreaker saw both players have match points, with Zahraj ultimately coming out on top 7-6(4), 5-7, 7-6(7).

Utah def. #12 Stanford 4-2

Playing at altitude in Utah continues to be tough and the Utes got a huge 4-2 win on Sunday.

The Utes got the doubles point but the Card responded in singles with Timmy Sah downing Gavelin on court 5 and Sridhar defeating Woolley on court 6. However, Utah earned some wins on the top courts with Dan Little defeating Alex Rotsaert and Micevski defeating Genender on court 2.

The final point was a bit harder to get and Russell Benkaim took down Michael Genender 6-2 in the third to clinch the match.

#7 Baylor def. #17 Oklahoma 6-1

The Baylor Bears defeated the visiting Sooners rather easily on Friday night.

The Bears kept up their stellar doubles play with Sven Lah and Jimmy Bendeck (1st ranked) topping Spencer Papa and Alex Bakshi (60th ranked) 6-2 to clinch the doubles point. Matias Soto (45th ranked) got a quick win over Bakshi (59th ranked) in singles 6-2, 6-2 on court 2. Johannes Schretter (28th ranked) kept it rolling for Baylor by knocking down Papa (33rd ranked) 6-3, 6-1 to make it 3-0.

Constantin Frantzen stepped into the 6 spot for the Bears and took down Stefanos Tsorotiotis 6-3, 6-2 to clinch the win.

With the remaining matches played out Baylor’s Adrian Boitan scored an upset win over Jake Van Emburgh (57th ranked) 6-2, 6-4 and OU’s Mason Beiler got a solid victory over Lah (105th ranked) 4-6, 6-1, 10-8.

#49 Georgia Tech def. #21 NC State 4-0

The Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets earned a convincing 4-0 ACC win over NC State on Friday.

Tech won a very close doubles point clinched by Carlos Divar and Phillip Gresk over Alexis Galarneau and Michael Ogden (47th ranked) 7-6(5). Cole Gromely then earned a straight-set 6-1, 6-4 win over Georgiy Malyshev and Divar (62nd ranked) upset Galarneau (22nd ranked) in singles 7-6(5), 7-5 to make it 3-0.

The final point was a little harder to come by but Pablo Schelcher sealed the win 6-4, 7-6(4) over Robert Turzak.

Duke def. #22 Notre Dame 4-1

The Fighting Irish are still dearly missing their top 2 singles players as they dropped to 3-6 in the ACC on Friday night.

Nick Stachowiak and Jason Lapidus clinched a quick doubles point over Matt Gamble and Axel Nefve 6-2 on court 1. Duke’s Catalin Mateas then took down Gamble 6-3, 6-1 on court 3 and Vincent Lin topped Nathan Griffin 6-2, 6-2 on court 6 to make it 3-0.

Nefve then defeated Stachowiak 6-3, 6-3 on the top court but Sean Sculley clinched the win 6-3, 6-3 over Grayson Broadus on court 4.

#2 Florida def. #26 Alabama 7-0

The Gators kept up their dominant SEC play and took down the hosting Tide 7-0.

Sam Riffice and Duarte Vale clinched the doubles point 6-3 over Edson Ortiz Riccardo Roberto on court 3 and Vale (109th ranked) wasted no time in defeating Roberto 6-1, 6-0 on court 4.

Johannes Ingildsen then topped Ortiz 6-2, 6-2 on court 2 and Alfredo Perez slide into court 6 and clinched the match 6-3 6-3 over Jeremy Gschwendtner.

#34 Oklahoma State def. #23 Texas Tech 5-2

The Cowboys of Oklahoma State got a solid victory over Texas Tech on Friday.

Emilie Hudd and Matej Vocel got things rolling by clinching the doubles point 6-3 on court 2 over Jackson Cobb Tommy Mylnikov. OSU’s Maxim Tybar and Mathieu Scaglia (38th ranked) also got a solid win in the doubles point over Parker Wynn and Bjorn Thomson (4th ranked) 6-3.

Artur Dubinski (122nd ranked) put Oklahoma State up 2-0 via a 6-3, 6-0 beat down of Ilgiz Valiev on court 3. The Red Raiders responded as Mylinkov took down Tybar 6-4, 6-3 on court 2 but Luke Hammond dug deep for the Cowboys to defeat Artem Kapshuk 2-6, 7-6(11), 6-3 on court 6.

The remaining matches were full-out battles but Vocel (84th ranked) downed Wynn (94th ranked) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) to clinch the Big-12 win.

#23 Texas Tech def. #17 Oklahoma 4-3

The Red Raiders rebounded Sunday to take down Oklahoma 4-3.

Tech won the doubles point and went up 2-0 after Ribero took down Bersch 6-2, 6-0 on court 5. Papa (33rd ranked) then defeated Wynn (94th ranked) 6-4, 7-6 to make it 2-1.

Ilgiz Valiev then put the Raiders within 1 point via a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat of Calvo on court 3. Jake Van Emburgh and Max Stewart then kept the Sooners hopes alive with wins on courts 2 and 6, respectively.

Bjorn Thomson played clutch down the stretch to down Mason Beiler 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 on court 5.

#4 Texas def. #10 TCU 6-1

The Texas Longhorns shook off the doubles point and a rambunctious TCU crowd to take down the Frogs 6-1.

Alastair Gray and Alex Rybakov (45th ranked) scored a huge win over Christian Sigsgaard and Harrison Scott (3rd ranked) 6-4 to put give the Frogs the doubles point. Yuya Ito (5th ranked) improved his spring dual match record to 22-1 with a routine 6-4, 6-2 win over Alastair Gray (20th ranked).

Leo Telles (90th ranked) earned a straight-set win 6-3, 7-5 over Reese Stalder on court 3 to make it 2-1 Horns. Senior Colin Markes extended the deficit to 3-1 with a solid 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 triumph over Luc Fomba on 5.

Sigsgaard (7th ranked) then got revenge on Rybakov (4th ranked) to clinch the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.

#5 Virginia def. #24 Miami

UVA delivered a more routine win on Sunday in Miami.

Brandon Nakashima and Henrik Wiersholm clinched the doubles point 6-4 on court 2 and Carl Soderlund (10th ranked) downed Soriano Barrera (36th ranked) 6-0, 6-0 to make it 2-0.

Aswin Lizen earned the 3rd point on court 6 and then Nakashima (59th ranked) clinched 6-4 in the third over Bastias on court 2.

#15 Illinois def. #20 Michigan

Illinois scored a solid 4-2 win on Sunday.

Gui Gomes and Vuk Budic got things going by clinching the point over Andrew Fenty and Myles Schalet. Michigan’s Patrick Maloney evened the score by downing Noe Khlif 6-3, 6-2 but Budic came back on 5 to defeat Gabe Tishman 1-6, 6-3, 6-2. Aleks Kovacevic stayed hot and put Illini up 3-1 after defeating Siimar 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 on court 1.

Myles Schalet kept Michigan alive by downing Zeke Clark in a gritty 7-5, 7-6 battle but Keenan Mayo clinched the win 7-5 in the third over Connor Johnston on court 4.

That wraps it up for this week. Be sure to check back next week as North Carolina (11th ranked) will travel to UVA (5th ranked) and Mississippi State (6th ranked) makes the trek to Texas A&M (8th ranked).


To read more updates from Cracked Racquets, head over to www.crackedracquets.com.

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