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Wake avenges one of their 3 losses this year, beating UVA 6-1. The only loss was Petros - he has earned an off day though given what he has done for Wake the past 3.5 years.
After this past weekends results some shuffling of the order seems needed. ACC play about to start full force and after Georgia Techs wins + Notre Dame loses should be a very interested conference season. I think on a given day any team 3-10 could beat each other.ACC by tiers
1. Wake Forest
2. Notre Dame
3. Virginia
4. North Carolina
5. NC State
6. Florida State
7. Duke
8. Miami
9. Georgia Tech
10. Louisville
11. Clemson
12. Virginia Tech
13. Boston College
might be giving Duke too much and UNC too little credit, putting them in a shared tierI think on a given day any team 3-10 could beat each other.
3. North Carolina
4. NC State
5. Florida State
6. Notre Dame
7. Georgia Tech
8. Miami
9. Duke
10. Virginia Tech
Last year Notre Dame did overconfidently sit their top players vs Boston College and barely avoided the upset with a 4-3 win. But this year they must be injured because they also sat vs Florida State. Actually kinda impressive from ND to be missing their top 2 players and still take Miami and FSU down to the last court on the road.Why didnt ND play their two ITA ranked singles players Lebedev and Ciamarra vs Miami? Are they injured or did ND think they could beat Miami sitting out their top 2 and letting a few guys from the bench play? If the latter, ND was overconfident. The GT win was a great one because UNC did play their top of the lineup and still lost. Not sure why UNC did not have Mac Kiger in at 6. I bet ND will have a different lineup vs FL State on Sunday...
What are GT's chances vs Duke on Sunday? Duke's been on a decline but did beat Clemson, but with GT on an upswing could mean another ACC win for the Jackets.
They seem to be playing better outside, especially at home. Big wins this weekend. Divar has consistently played well-keeping it close or winning vs much higher ranked #1s. They changed their lineup some this past weekend. The freshmen Schelcher clinched both matches at #5 in 3 sets. At the start of the season, the team was inexperienced as even some of the older players had not played much in past years. Gresk who is a sr didnt play much in the lineup until last year; he had a big win vs Sigouin at 2. Gresk is tall 6'7 with a lot of power but had made a lot of UEs in past-will be competitive at 2 in ACC if he controls power and hits his serves. Some weeks the team has had 3 freshmen in lineup and/or a soph who didnt play much last year. Maybe this past weekend the team finally gelled. Upset wins will be harder on the road, but GT is now ranked 45 so has a chance of making the NCAAs this year. I attended the GT/UGA indoor match which was much closer than the score implied-GT won 3 of 4 1st sets played (5 and 6 didnt finish 1st sets) and had close dubs loss at 1 (6-7) and 2 (5-7) and 3 was tied 6-all. If Tech is playing its best tennis, it can be competitive with teams ranked 20-25 and up but not the higher teams. However, the Tech team is smaller than most ACC teams-only 9 on roster with one player only playing dubs so everyone has to stay healthy to make the trip to NCAAs a possibility. It will be tight for team to keep the .5 win ratio. They should be able to beat Boston College, Louisville, and hopefully VA Tech tho that is an away match. Will be very hard for GT to beat the other 4 remaining ACC teams-maybe NC State is a possibility since Tech plays them at home.I haven't seen many postings about this, but what are y'all's thoughts on how GT has been playing? I wasn't super impressed when I watched them play Georgia State this year but heck what do I know lol
Fully agree. I think for GT is that team this year that if you are off and they are one, then it will be a rough day at the office (as we saw with UNC). When Gresk gets into the mood, i saw him unload on some serves and groundies. They can push some teams in this later half of the season and be very competitive.They seem to be playing better outside, especially at home. Big wins this weekend. Divar has consistently played well-keeping it close or winning vs much higher ranked #1s. They changed their lineup some this past weekend. The freshmen Schelcher clinched both matches at #5 in 3 sets. At the start of the season, the team was inexperienced as even some of the older players had not played much in past years. Gresk who is a sr didnt play much in the lineup until last year; he had a big win vs Sigouin at 2. Gresk is tall 6'7 with a lot of power but had made a lot of UEs in past-will be competitive at 2 in ACC if he controls power and hits his serves. Some weeks the team has had 3 freshmen in lineup and/or a soph who didnt play much last year. Maybe this past weekend the team finally gelled. Upset wins will be harder on the road, but GT is now ranked 45 so has a chance of making the NCAAs this year. I attended the GT/UGA indoor match which was much closer than the score implied-GT won 3 of 4 1st sets played (5 and 6 didnt finish 1st sets) and had close dubs loss at 1 (6-7) and 2 (5-7) and 3 was tied 6-all. If Tech is playing its best tennis, it can be competitive with teams ranked 20-25 and up but not the higher teams. However, the Tech team is smaller than most ACC teams-only 9 on roster with one player only playing dubs so everyone has to stay healthy to make the trip to NCAAs a possibility. It will be tight for team to keep the .5 win ratio. They should be able to beat Boston College, Louisville, and hopefully VA Tech tho that is an away match. Will be very hard for GT to beat the other 4 remaining ACC teams-maybe NC State is a possibility since Tech plays them at home.
The match was played indoors - I guess NC State only has 4 indoor courts? - so two of the matches were delayed. Melios from Wake was up 7-5, 2-0 when his match was stopped. I agree that NC State seems to have a lot of fight, as several of the matches were pretty close.NC State is a really tough team, Coach Spencer has them competing hard. Very tight losses to two of the best teams in the country in Virginia and Wake Forest, both matches included a 3rd set tiebreaker loss for Igor Saveljic (to Nakashima and Chrysochos). Even though NC State did very well to make those matches that close you have to wonder what it will do for their psyche. Sometimes close losses can snowball.
Hokies coming on a little bit. 6-1 win over Clemson then a very tight win over Georgia Tech today.Go Hokies! As long as we don't finish dead last in the ACC, I'll call it a successful season.
Anyone know how long Lebedev and Ciamarra are out? Really hard to lose both your 1 and 2. ND has a deep bench and probably could have survived some injuries if they had not been at the top spots. Are McCormick hurt and/or Howells hurt too? Are they 4 guys down?Virginia Tech beat Notre Dame 5-2. Talk a bout a season falling apart thanks to injury. ND was once a fringe top 10 team and now will probably not even host in the NCAAs.
Louisville got a big upset win over Miami to keep their tournament hopes alive but couldn't follow it up and lost to Duke on Sunday.
Fire Ra...NC State beat Duke today 4-1. According to Pack twitter this was NC State's first win over Duke since 1980! And their 7th win in the ACC this year is the most in program history.
Dougaz is playing a future in Tunesia this week...is he out of college?Like Notre Dame, Florida State has been hurt pretty badly by injury. They have been missing Dougaz basically the entire season and lately Thongoana and Bhullar have also been out. They are having to go 8-9 deep late in the season. Very important clutch win for FSU yesterday over Virginia Tech to stem the free fall.
No. He's a senior this year on the roster.Dougaz is playing a future in Tunesia this week...is he out of college?
The injury part I can't answer. But he's able to play futures the same way Lucas Poullain was able to play two futures in Tucson, AZ and one in Claremont, CA and he's still enrolled. Dougaz is from Tunisia so maybe that's part of it.That i knew, but how he can Play futures in northern africa and is listet at FSU as injured?
Doubtful. Depends on how their best wins perform this week. On the bubble and losing early in the conf. tourney at the end of the season is usually the end. If they get it they will back in for sure due to their best wins outperforming this week.Louisville squeaked by GT in the ACC tourney. GT was one of the last teams projected in for NCAAs. Does this loss mean they are out or do they still have a chance to play?
They are pulling for UNC to win the ACC tourney. Would boost their best win a good bit.Doubtful. Depends on how their best wins perform this week. On the bubble and losing early in the conf. tourney at the end of the season is usually the end. If they get it they will back in for sure due to their best wins outperforming this week.
A new strategy from RS? Limit the number of chances you have to compete with the best teams in the country and try to mostly play teams like Elon and NC Central in coming years?So, Virginia Tech and Duke passed during the National Team Indoor draft and won't play in that event.
Something had to be going on there for the good players in the lineup like Wynn, Lock, etc to transfer out. Also Lville would bring in 4-5 freshmen a year and 2-3 were gone the next. Rather Darwinian survival of the fittest. 2018-19 roster of 12 included 6 freshmen and no sophs. It was one of those schools where academy coaches told players not to go there-they'd sent guys who ended up leaving. Yet local Xavier HS USTA tournament 4 and 5 star players still signed for Louisville so it could not be all bad-the locals should know better or they still attended for cheap in state $. Lville made recruits just feel like a number-heard stories of Emails sent that were supposed to be blind copies listing 150 recruits, mass official visits of 7-8 recruits with guys getting schedules that included the other recruits' UTRs, GPAs, and SAT scores. Definitely not the personal touch...
Honestly as far as the men's side I see it going with UNC at the top far at the top with Wake and Virginia close at 2 and 3. I think overall the ACC isn't as strong as it was in years past with the Big 12 being the strongest conference currently. UNC though will be dangerous.How are you guys seeing the ACC this year?
The Taiwanese JUCO transfer Tin Chen who played 1 for Louisville has one of the best D1 records for 19-20: 19-3. After losing to an unranked West Mich player at his first D1 tourney in Sept, he didnt lose again until Oracle fall championships where he lost to ranked Keegan Smith and Cody Pearson. Per his bio at Louisville-he is also a trained ballet dancer-guess he should have some of the best footwork in D1... For some reason Tin Chen is not listed on Louisville's roster on UTR. Louisville won at 1-3 and 6. Will be interesting when Louisville and Miami play since Miami's former coach Mario Rincon is the new asst coach at Louisville.Louisville takes down Virginia 4-3
Duke beat Illinois 6-1 so Duke possibly could be a contender for 4th or 5th place. Duke and GT had great recruiting classes but some of GT's returning players did not play in the fall due to injury and are just getting back in singles and/or dubs lineup. Agree that UNC has a killer level of talent. UNC could win indoors.Unc will finally get the top spot. Down year for UVA and wake. NC state for 2 or 3, Florida state 4/5
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Duke usually falls apart as the year goes on. UNC has a ton of talent, but Wake is looking good too. Baadi and Squire were great additions, and Nava has played really well so far this year.Duke beat Illinois 6-1 so Duke possibly could be a contender for 4th or 5th place. Duke and GT had great recruiting classes but some of GT's returning players did not play in the fall due to injury and are just getting back in singles and/or dubs lineup. Agree that UNC has a killer level of talent. UNC could win indoors.
This Duke team is looking better than years past though. They could be a solid top 20 team this uearDuke usually falls apart as the year goes on. UNC has a ton of talent, but Wake is looking good too. Baadi and Squire were great additions, and Nava has played really well so far this year.