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No. 18 Men’s Tennis Preview: No. 5 Ohio State (NCAA Round of 16)
05.17.2016 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns meet the Buckeyes for the third time in the NCAA Championships in the last 10 years.
WHAT: No. 18 Texas (19-11) joins 15 teams at The University of Tulsa for the final rounds of the NCAA Championships.
For a second straight tournament round, the Longhorns will take on a higher-seeded foe whom it met during the regular season. Texas is set to play No. 5 national seed Ohio State in its third straight NCAA round of 16 appearance.
NCAA Championships Third Round (Round of 16)
No. 18 Texas (19-11) vs. No. 5 Ohio State (32-2)
Friday, May 20 – 9 a.m. CT
Michael D. Case Tennis Center – Tulsa, Oklahoma (host: University of Tulsa)
LIVE SCORING/VIDEO:
http://tulsahurricane.com/sports/2016/3/24/2016-ncaa-division-i-mens-and-womens-tennis-championships.aspx
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS BRACKET
http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-bracket/tennis-men/d1
LAST MEETINGS AGAINST OHIO STATE
Ohio State dealt Texas a 4-0 defeat on Jan. 31 in Columbus. The Horns and Buckeyes most recently met during an NCAA Championship back in 2008, the last time the tournament was held at Tulsa. No. 7 seed Texas knocked off No. 2 seed Ohio State 4-2 in the quarterfinals and made its first appearance in a national title match after defeating UCLA in the semifinals.
Texas and Ohio State met in another classic NCAA Championships contest back in 2006. The NCAA quarterfinal match began at Stanford's Taube Tennis Center before relocating to an indoor facility in San Francisco due to rain. Texas' Miguel Reyes Varela rallied from a 5-2 deficit and won five straight points in a third-set tiebreaker against Ohio State's Dennis Mertens to give the Longhorns a 4-3 win.
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS AT A GLANCE
Texas holds a 4-6 mark this season against teams that reached the round of 16. UT defeated No. 6 national seed Wake Forest on its home courts in February and knocked off No. 16 national seed Oklahoma State last month in Austin. UT also posted wins over NCAA round of 16 qualifiers Stanford and SMU in Austin.
- Nineteen of Texas' 28 regular season and conference tournament matches were played against 2016 NCAA Championships qualifiers.
The Big 12 regularly placed five of its six men's tennis schools in the top-20 of the ITA team rankings throughout the season. True to form, the Big 12 is well represented in the round of 16 with four schools (Texas, TCU, Oklahoma & Oklahoma State) making the trip to Tulsa.
Texas is one of nine schools to send both its men's and women's tennis programs to the round of 16 this week. The others are Virginia, Oklahoma State, Florida, Ohio State, Georgia, North Carolina, California and Stanford
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS HISTORY
Texas has earned its 34th selection to the NCAA Championships since the bracketed team tournament was introduced in 1977. Texas has qualified for the NCAA Championships for a 25th straight year.
UT holds a 52-33 record at the NCAA Championships. Texas posted its best NCAA Championships team finish in 2008 when it finished as the national runner-up.
TEXAS TWO-STEPS TO TULSA
Texas earned its third straight appearance in the NCAA Championships round of 16 by winning a pair of matches against in-state foes at the College Station first- and second-round site. The Longhorns made short work of Lamar in the first round (May 13) and shut out the Cardinals, 4-0.
Texas and former Southwest Conference and Big 12 Conference rival Texas A&M began their second-round contest on Saturday, May 14 at the Aggies' Mitchell Tennis Center. With A&M leading 1-0 and singles underway, the match was postponed until the following day due to inclement weather.
The first three singles decisions went to Texas after the match resumed Sunday in College Station. Senior Michael Riechmann knocked off Jackson Withrow in straight sets at No. 5 singles, and sophomore Adrian Ortiz upset A&M's 52nd-ranked Shane Vinsant to give Texas a 2-1 cushion.
Freshman Harrison Scott hung on for a 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 win over the Aggies' Jordi Arconada at third singles for a 3-1 Texas lead before A&M answered with wins at the fourth and sixth positions to even the match at three.
The contest at first singles between UT junior George Goldhoff and A&M's 18th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech progressed to a third-set tiebreaker that decided the match.
Rinderknech took a 4-1 lead only to see Goldhoff win the next five points to set up a pair of match points at 6-4. Goldhoff netted a forehand on the first match point but smacked a backhand winner down the left sideline on the second match point to send the Longhorns to Tulsa.
CENTER NAMED ITA TEXAS REGION COACH OF THE YEAR
The ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association) selected Texas head men's tennis coach Michael Center as the ITA Texas Region Men's Tennis Coach of the Year, the governing body announced Monday (May 9).
Center, now in his 16th season at the helm of the Texas men's tennis program, earned his third such regional honor at Texas, his first since 2010 and the sixth in his 25 years as a college head coach. Center led the Longhorns to a 17-11 overall record and a No. 18 ITA national team ranking prior to the NCAA Championships.
UT boasts top-25 wins over No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 16 Oklahoma State and No. 23 Tulsa in addition to victories over No. 26 Rice, No. 28 San Diego, No. 29 Stanford and No. 30 SMU.
With only one senior and one junior in the regular singles and doubles lineups, Center's Longhorns have remained in the ITA top-25 for most of the 2016 dual-match season.
TEXAS TACKLES TOUGH SCHEDULE, ENTERS TOP-20
As is the norm, Center assembled a challenging schedule that gave the Longhorns chances to prepare for the NCAA Championships and accumulate a high national ranking. In fact, 19 of the Longhorns' 28 matches were played against NCAA Championships qualifiers.
Texas totaled a 9-10 record against NCAA tournament teams. UT took on six of the nation's top-10 teams (No. 4 TCU, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 6 Wake Forest, No. 8 Texas Tech, No. 9 Florida and No. 10 Oklahoma) and eight of the 16 teams who hosted NCAA Championships first- and second-round matches last weekend.
Texas went 4-5 in the early going but closed the season by winning 13 of its last 19 matches, including two against top-16 foes.
Back on Feb. 7, the Horns wiped out a 3-1 deficit against Stanford and put away a 4-3 win over the Cardinal. Texas sophomore Adrian Ortiz saved a match point against him and won a tiebreaker against the Cardinal's Nolan Paige to cap the Texas rally.
Two weeks later, Texas made short work of eventual Conference USA champion Rice and shut out the Owls by a 4-0 count in Houston. The following weekend, Texas rallied from a 3-1 deficit to post a thrilling 4-3 win at No. 5 Wake Forest behind three third-set tiebreak wins.
Texas stretched its winning streak to six matches with its victories over UTSA, Louisiana and Southern Mississippi at the H-E-B Tournament of Champions in Corpus Christi. The Horns notched another key road win on March 13 with the victory at eventual NCAA qualifier San Diego, which ended the Toreros' 23-match home winning streak.
Texas swept a doubleheader against No. 24 Tulsa and Incarnate Word on March 26 before adding another doubleheader sweep on Saturday (April 2) against UTSA. The Longhorns posted their second victory over a top-16 opponent when it knocked off No. 16 Oklahoma State, 4-0.
MORE ON THE LONGHORNS
Texas returned five veterans from the 2015 squad that posted a 21-7 record and finished the season ranked ninth nationally.
George Goldhoff posted a 17-10 singles mark, including an 8-6 record in dual matches last season as a sophomore, and he scored his first ranked win of the season in late February at Wake Forest.
He added his second top-40 win in a month-long span when he knocked off Arkansas' 32nd-ranked Mike Redlicki. Goldhoff knocked off Oklahoma State's 59th-ranked Julian Cash in straight sets and vaulted 31 spots to No. 56 in the following week's ITA singles rankings. The Californian registered his third top-40 win over the season with his three-set triumph over Texas A&M's 18th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech last weekend.
Sophomore Adrian Ortiz went 3-2 in dual-match play last season, and redshirt sophomore William Jou added three singles wins as a freshman. Ortiz takes a 14-6 dual-match record to the NCAA Championships matches in Tulsa.
Senior Michael Riechmann is poised to finish his Texas career with a flourish. The Houston native holds a 28-10 overall singles record, a 17-7 mark in dual matches and a 3-1 record in league play. The Brown University transfer notched a crucial singles win at fifth singles in the victory at Texas A&M.
Sophomore John Mee notched a 16-8 overall singles record last season as a freshman and holds a 5-3 mark in dual matches this season.
UT also welcomes redshirt freshman Julian Zlobinsky and freshmen Rodrigo Banzer, Johnny Goodwin, Colin Markes, the aforementioned Harrison Scott and Leonardo Telles.
Banzer made his collegiate debut during the ITA Kick-Off Weekend event against Florida and clinched the win at No. 5 Wake Forest. Zlobinsky put together an impressive 13-5 mark in dual matches, including a 2-0 record in league matches. Scott boasts 14 dual-match wins at Nos. 1, 2 and 3 singles.
Center led the Longhorns to their second-straight top-10 final ranking last season as Texas reached the round of 16 at the 2015 NCAA Championships.
A pair of Center's pupils reached the pinnacle of their sport last May when Soren Hess-Olesen and Lloyd Glasspool won the first NCAA doubles title for Texas since 1944.
Center turned to a pair of familiar faces to fill the vacancies on his coaching staff. Bruce Berque, who served as a volunteer coach at Texas last season, is in his first season as an associate head coach under Center.
Berque filled the position previously held by longtime associate head coach Ricardo Rubio, who accepted his first head coaching position last summer with The University of Denver men's tennis program.
Berque served 10 seasons (2004-14) as the head men's tennis coach at Michigan and led the Wolverines to the NCAA Championships in his final nine seasons in Ann Arbor. He helped the Illinois men to the 2003 NCAA title during his six-season stint (1999-2004) as an associate head coach for the Fighting Illini.
Chris Camillone, a former ITA doubles All-American at Texas, is in his first season with the Longhorns as a volunteer assistant coach.
Players Mentioned
