2013-14 Hurricane Tennis

Kirijax

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The ITA put out their college tennis rankings for the 2014 season. The Canes men are at No. 55 and the Canes women are at No. 9. The women will be going for their second consecutive ACC title as well as their seventh consecutive NCAA Elite Eight. They have a real chance to move up, make it to the Final Four and should be challenging for a national title in the next couple of years. The men have missed 3 of the last four NCAA tournaments and it will be a struggle to get in this year. You need to be at least No. 40 to have a chance so they will need to pull off some upsets. With three seniors on the team, it's not impossible but it's going to be an uphill battle.

ITA Men's Rankings (No Canes in the team, singles or doubles)

ITA Women's Rankings (2 women are in the singles rankings and 2 doubles teams are ranked.)
 
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For the very few Canes tennis fans out there, I did up a preview for the upcoming Men's tennis dual season.

2014 Hurricanes’ Men’s Team Tennis Preview

The long fall break is finally over and the Hurricanes tennis team season finally gets underway this month. The men start their dual season on January 12th, while the women’s team starts their season at the Miami Spring Invite on January 17th. I thought I’d take a look at the men’s season and make some predictions for the season.

The men’s team finished the 2013 team season with a record of 13-13 (ACC 2-9), a first round defeat in the ACC Championships and a final national ranking at No. 55. The team missed qualifying for the NCAA tournament for the second consecutive year and for the third time in the last four years. For a team that has made the tournament 45 times in the past, it’s been a disappointing few years. None of the singles players or doubles teams were ranked in the national rankings or invited to the NCAA championships as well.
The year 2013 was a bit of an improvement over 2012 and this year could see a bit more of an improvement as the team has three seniors on its roster.

Omar Aly (Sr.)
Gabriel Flores (Sr.)
Diego Soto (Sr.)
Wilfredo Gonzalez (Jr.)
Henrique Tsukamoto (Jr.)
William Albanese (So.)
Jack Murphy (So.)
Bernard Tefel (Fr.)

While they were not in the national rankings, three Canes were ranked in the Southeast Region rankings:

Wilfredo Gonzalez No. 15
Diego Soto No. 19
Henrique Tsukamoto No. 20

The second biggest team tournament of the year is the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championship held in February. The first two rounds are called the ITA Kick Off Weekend which is held in the end of January, but for some unexplained reason, the Canes were the only team to forfeit their spot in the tournament. This was greatly disappointing as the Canes have always taken part in this tournament. Missing out on consecutive NCAA tournaments and now bypassing on a chance to play in the ITA tournament is a very disturbing trend that I hope will turn around in the near future.

Here is the schedule for the year. I also have predicted the games as a win, loss or toss-up. The ranking of the teams is from the ITA rankings on January 2nd.

Sun, Jan 12 Florida Atlantic Win
Sun, Jan 19 at UCF Win
Fri, Jan 31 Bethune-Cookman Win
Sun, Feb 02 Florida A&M Win
Fri, Feb 07 Texas Tech(#50) Win
Sun, Feb 09 South Florida (#70) Win
Sat, Feb 22 North Florida(#71) Win
Tue, Mar 04 Presbyterian Win
Tue, Mar 04 Xavier Win
Fri, Mar 07 at Clemson (#23) Loss
Sun, Mar 09 at Georgia Tech Win
Wed, Mar 12 Troy University Win
Sat, Mar 15 Boston University Win
Mon, Mar 17 Wisconsin (#65) Win
Fri, Mar 21 Wake Forest (#19) Loss
Sun, Mar 23 North Carolina State (#35) Loss
Fri, Mar 28 at Virginia (#1) Loss
Sun, Mar 30 at Virginia Tech (#38) Loss
Fri, Apr 04 Duke (#7) Loss
Sun, Apr 06 North Carolina (#43) Toss-Up
Fri, Apr 11 at Notre Dame (#29) Loss
Sun, Apr 13 at Boston College Win
Sat, Apr 19 Florida State(#36) Loss
Apr 24 - Apr 27 ACC Championships (Cary, NC)
May 09 - May 10 NCAA Regionals (TBA)
May 15 - May 18 NCAA Championships (TBA)
May 21 - May 26 NCAA Individual Championships (TBA)

So that leaves the Canes with a 13-8 record with one toss-up. College tennis rankings are determined by your opponent’s ranking and results so the Canes really need a couple of wins against opponents higher than them. The ACC is one of the top tennis conferences in the country, with defending national champion Virginia, Duke and North Carolina in the top 10 as well as Clemson and Wake Forest in the Top 20. Florida State and North Carolina State will be played in Coral Gables, so these two conference dual matches may be the Canes best bet for an upset. Without some upsets, the Canes might be left out of the NCAA tournament this year. And they must avoid getting upset against the unranked opponents.
With no clear No. 1 singles player or doubles team, it will be a dogfight throughout the whole season with a lot of 4-3 records. It will be interesting to see how Coach Rincon will have the players ready to meet the challenge and get back up a bit in the rankings and tournament this year.

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The men's team take on Florida Atlantic tomorrow at 2pm. The all-time head-to-head record is 19-1 Miami. This one should not be a problem for the Canes to get the season started on a winning note.
 
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The Canes Men’s tennis team started off their season with a 7-0 win over Florida Atlantic. The new rules were in place and there were a couple of 5-all tie breakers but the Canes split those. These are the matches the Canes must absolutely take if they hope to go to the NCAA this year so it was a good start. Nice to see freshman Bernard Tefel get his first team win as well. The Canes go up to face UCF next Sunday.

Hurricane Aces


Doubles (In order of finish)

No. 3 Gabriel Flores/Diego Soto, Miami def. Heysek Harrison/Sean Bacha FAU 6-1

No. 2 Henrique Tsukamoto/William Albanese, Miami def. Richard Meade/ Robert Dubuque FAU 6-3

No. 1 Omar Aly/Wilfredo Gonzalez, Miami def. Will Neuner/ A.M.-Kougoucheff FAU 6-5

Singles (In order of finish)

No. 6 Bernard Tefel, Miami def. Heysek Harrison, FAU 6-2, 6-0

No. 2 Diego Soto, Miami def. Richard Meade, FAU 6-3, 6-0

No. 4 William Albanese, Miami def. Gerald Nickerson, FAU 6-2, 6-3

No. 3 Omar Aly, Miami def. Will Neuner, FAU 6-5, 6-3

No. 1 Gabriel Flores, Miami def. A. M.-Kougoucheff, FAU 6-0, 3-6. 6-2

No. 5. Henrique Tsukamoto, Miami def. Robert Dubuque, FAU 6-3, 5-6, 6-3
 
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The men's team just started off their season with a win on Sunday and the women's team is getting ready to start their season on Friday against Texas, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt.

The Miami Hurricanes women’s tennis team had a banner year in 2013. The Canes won their first Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championship, upsetting top seeded North Carolina in the semifinals and defeating Florida State in the final. In the NCAA tournament, they advanced to the Elite Eight for the fifth consecutive year. Stephanie Wagner was selected to play in the NCAA Championships and advanced to the second round. This was despite the fact that there were no seniors and four freshmen on the team. This team has a lot of potential and exciting times are ahead for the women’s team.

2014 Predictions

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Gave up on college tennis when they made doubles irrelevant. Back in my day, we played six singles matches, then three doubles, 2-3 sets each.

They really pussified the sport, mostly to accommodate the massive number of foreigners who now make up most college teams.. (what else is new?)
 
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Gave up on college tennis when they made doubles irrelevant. Back in my day, we played six singles matches, then three doubles, 2-3 sets each.

They really pussified the sport, mostly to accommodate the massive number of foreigners who now make up most college teams.. (what else is new?)

Always making changes, I don't agree with all of the changes either, but something has to be done to get it more college-fan friendly. No one has found the answer yet. Right now they start with three doubles matches followed by six singles matches. The team tournaments have had their share of break matches. A good example is last year's NCAA championship with Virginia miraculously escaping a match point and defeating UCLA for their first title.
 
Trust me, when it was 4-4 and the deciding number one doubles was the deciding match, it was exciting for the fans.
 
Trust me, when it was 4-4 and the deciding number one doubles was the deciding match, it was exciting for the fans.

Yeah, I've seen all the different formats. They're even experimenting through the month of February with different rules. Gotta make it exciting for the fans or it's pointless.
 
The first day of Miami Spring Invite was a very good day for the Canes, as the ladies took on Texas in four doubles matches and won all four. In the singles, they won four and lost four. Tomorrow they take on Texas in singles. The Invite continues through Sunday. The men's team also travel up to Orlando to take on the UCF Knights on Sunday.

Canes Tennis
 
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The men's team go up against the Central Knights on Sunday in Orlando. The two teams have met 15 times in the past and the Canes have won every time. They should be able to make it 16-0 tomorrow.

As far as men's college tennis goes, Miami rules the roost in Florida. They are the only team to have advanced as far as NCAA runner-up (twice) and have almost twice as many NCAA tournament appearances than the Gators or Noles. The head-to-head records against the Florida teams are dominant:

Florida Gators 48-17-1
Florida State Seminoles 46-17
Central Florida 15-0
North Florida 3-1
South Florida 45-8
Florida A&M 5-0
Florida Atlantic 20-1

Canes Tennis
 
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The ladies finish up great in the Miami Spring Invite. They now head to the ITA Indoors Regionals, the second biggest team tournament of the year.
The guys, who passed on taking part in the ITA Indoors this year, was 15-0 against UCF but went to Orlando and lost to the Knights for the first time ever. The guys made be in for an even rougher season than I imagined.

Canes Tennis

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The ITA Kick-Off Weekend starts Friday. This is basically the first two rounds of the national indoors team championships, one of two national team tournaments during the college tennis season. A draft is held every summer and four teams are in 15 regional tournaments with the winner going to the 16-team tournament in February (the host does not have to qualify). The women's team is one of the top 16 teams in the country so they will host. The men's team was the only team of the top 45 teams to take a pass and not play in the tournament. I can understand Coach Rincon's thinking but this was very disappointing for me.

ITA Kick-Off Weekend
 
The Canes ladies took on the Buckeyes today in Miami. The Canes are ranked #9 while the Buckeyes are #72 so it shouldn't been close but it was. Way too close. After the Canes took the doubles point, the six singles matches, five of them went to third set tiebreaks. I was about to have an epileptic fit but they pulled out a 4-2 win to advance to tomorrow's round.

Results
 
After a close call yesterday, the Canes came out swinging today. They walloped the LSU Tigers 4-0 to advance to join the Top 16 teams in the ITA National Indoor Championship next month.

Meanwhile the men stay home and prepare to play Bethune-Cookman. Just sayin'.

Results
 
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