Yeah, no way UK was going to win that. Virginia was on fire. Like stated above, Florida was the only team to put up a point against them in the tournament. They lost 5 in a row back in Feb and then have won the last 23 matches. There 5 loses were to the eventual #1, #2, #3, & #4 seeds in the tournament.
Not that it mattered in the end, but I don't know why they were the #7 seed.
As we were getting scorched by Virginia, I started asking myself why, because it's not like they have a bunch of overpowering players. They don't--and we have a bunch of good players. In fact, i think they had only one really big hitter, at the 1 spot, and ironically, our Walton was 1-1 in sets with him as they played, unfinished in the 3rd. What I think I saw was virginia players with more diversified games than our players. For example, I noticed two or three Uva players who hit occasional drop shots, and won the points. I rarely see a Vol hit a drop shot. They virginia players were also pretty smart about getting to the net whereas our guys, with the exception of Mitsui, don't try to get to the net too often. Walton, Hudd and Monday will come to the net at times--but perhaps could do so a bit more often. Hudd and Monday are tall players, and while they move decently, I'm not sure I'd say that their court coverage is great--and that might be another thing that Uva's players do well--cover the court. That is a BIG thing in tennis and a big reason why Mitsui has been so successful--he quick enough and athletic enough to track down balls all over the court. I'm no tennis coach, duh, but I'd be curious to hear Woodruff's view on how Uva was able to just steamroll four straight GOOD SEC teams--losing 1 point in 4 matches. That is crazy and, to me, would be worth analyzing if I'm Woodruff.
Other assorted UT Tennis tidbits:
Both Walton and Monday won their NCAA singles matches today. Walton won comfortably over a big hitter from VCU while Monday struggled through 2 sets before defeating a player from Cornell in 3 sets. Walton won 6-4, 6-0. Monday should have won comfortably in straights but made a ton of unforced errors in the first two sets. He's been good this year--but not as consistently good as he was last year when he was superb and the National Freshman of the Year. Maybe the foot injury that kept him from playing for 6 weeks threw him off, but he's scuffled a lot more this season than last. I'm not sure who he plays tomorrow but he'll have to play a lot better than he did today. He can beat anybody when he's on his game, but a lot of players can say the same thing.
I think Walton plays TCU's Fomba, who has a big game and I think is the nation's 11th-ranked player. They played each other in the ITA indoors earlier this year and I think Fomba won it in three tough sets. That match is on YouTube, fyi. Walton is very good at neutralizing big hitters and raising his level as a match goes on. Indeed, when he plays a strong opponent, he not infrequently gets beat in the first set but almost always comes back to win the second and then, typically, we see a tight 3rd set. He did exactly this against Baylor's very good Boitan in the NCAA Quarters: Lost the first, roared back to comfortably win the 2nd set, won match with a tight 7-5 triumph in the 3rd.
1. #3
Adam Walton (UT) def. #5 Adrian Boitan (BU) 3-6, 6-1, 7-5
Would love to see Walton make a strong run in this tourney. We've also got 2 doubles teams that will be competing.
NEXT YEAR:
Unsurprisingly, the Vols are going to look different next year. How different is not quite clear. Walton--who's been an absolute stud and a stalwart
for 4/5 years--will be gone. The guy has had a monster career--one of our best players ever. His national-champion doubles partner, Pat Harper, will also be gone. Doubles specialist and big-serving Mark Wallner is also out of eligibility.
The two big questions are, first, will Monday return or turn pro? I could see him going either way, and have no inkling of what he plans to do. If he returns,
he'll play at the 1 spot for the Vols, for sure. To say we need him back would be a major understatement!
And then the other equally big question is whether Blaise Bicknell, the very talented Florida transfer who was deemed ineligible to play for the Vols this year, returns to college or goes pro. He's been playing professional satellite tourneys the last few months, and I think doing reasonably well. I don't think that precludes him from returning to college--not sure of the rules (maybe you can return if you don't accept any tournament money?). If he and Monday play for the Vols, then we should have a strong team next year, because Hudd has another year of eligiblity and I presume will use it--though I'm not certain of that. And Mitsui will surely be back. That's four good/very good players. If either or both Monday and Bicknell go pro, it obviously won't be so good.
Whatever happens, Woodruff has 5 new players coming in, including four transfers. See the list below. It was reported today that two grad transfers from LSU have committed to UT for next year--see below. I think they both have only 1 year of eligibility. One of them, Hunter, seems to be a very good player capable of playing the 2/3 spot for us and being quite valuable. The other played either the 5 or 6 for LSU and will compete with Diaz and Conor Gannon for one of those spots with the Vols, I assume. I thought Gannon acquitted himself quite well this year for a freshman, though he didn't see the court late in the season as Prata finally started to regain his form. Diaz started the season very well--clinched our win over an excellent TCU team, then faded somewhat in the last half of the year and seemed to lose some confidence. In the second half of the season, he often split the first two sets and then would lose the 3rd. He's got a strong ground game but is a guy who perhaps would benefit from diversifying his game a bit; he's quite one-dimensional. He's might need a bit more mental toughness as well--and tennis is a game that puts a premium on that, especially in 3-set matches. He had a chance to win the 2nd set in his match against his Uva opponent--was up a break--but, again, faded in the latter stages of the set.
There is another transfer, Brancatelli, coming in from Purdue, where as a freshman he played the 2 spot this year--and played pretty well on a not very good team. He looks to have quite a bit of potential.
The final transfer is an Argentine who's played the last three/four years for Tennessee Chattanooga. He's been a very good Southern Conference player--but I have no idea how his game will transfer to big-time Div. 1 tennis. Woodruff likes him, so there is that.
The one freshman coming in as a kid from England who's been one of the country's best junior players for a few years. I think he's supposed to be a good doubles players.
We will need to replace our No. 1 doubles team next year. I presume that our very good No. 2 team this year, Hudd and Mitsui, will take over the top spot. With Wallner gone, Monday will need a new partner on what I presume would be the No. 2 doubles teams--and then we'll need another good pairing from all the newcomers for the last doubles team. I expect Hunter (LSU transfer) to be take one doubles position. Much hinges on the return of Monday and Bicknell. Fingers crossed!
Vols Announce Signing of Men’s Tennis Transfer Tomas Rodriguez - University of Tennessee Athletics
Billy Blaydes Signs with Vol Tennis - University of Tennessee Athletics