Zootennis


Schedule a training visit to the prestigious Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD by clicking on the banner above

Friday, February 14, 2014

My ITA Women's Team Indoor Recap and All-Tournament Team Slideshow; Texas Tops Georgia in Only Opening Day Upset at Men's Team Indoor

My recap of Duke's title at the Women's Team Indoor was published today on the Tennis Recruiting Network, and the ITA announced the All-Tournament team today, with Duke's Hanna Mar named Most Outstanding Player. Below is a slideshow of the All-Tournament team.



The Men's Team Indoor got underway today in Houston, with fully half of the matches coming down to the last match on court. No. 13 Texas defeated No. 4 Georgia in the only upset of the day, and it ended when Ben Wagland was overruled on his own match point, which was the deciding point in the no-ad format they are using in the men's tournament this year. Because he was overruled three times previously, this was a game penalty, and because that game was the tiebreaker at 5-all, another format change for this tournament, he lost the match to George Goldhoff , giving Texas a 4-3 win. In addition to the match, Wagland apparently lost his composure too, having words with the umpire. He was suspended by coach Manny Diaz for the remainder of the tournament. I know all this, not because I was there, which I am not, but because it is in the recap on the Georgia website. I continue to be impressed by the commitment and professionalism (in the best sense of the word) of the sports information staff at Georgia, who reported what happened and provided a quote from Diaz on the suspension. Many a school's athletic department could learn from Georgia's handling of an incident like this.

An earlier 4-3 match saw No. 7 seed Oklahoma defeat No. 10 seed Illinois 4-3, with Sooner Guillermo Alcorta beating Jared Hiltzik 6-3, 5-6(2), 6-4 at line 1 to tie it at 3-3, and Dane Webb topping Brian Page 5-6(7), 6-4, 6-2 at line 4 to clinch it. The evening matches were both decided by 4-3 scores, with Baylor's Mate Zsiga clinching a win for the Bears at line 4 over host Texas A&M's Junior Ore.  The other Bears, from Cal, won when Gregory Bayane defeated Rishhab Agarwal of Mississippi State at line 5 to secure the 4-3 win.

Complete results can be found here.

(1) Virginia def. (16) Notre Dame, 4-2
(2) UCLA def. (15) Pepperdine, 4-0
(3) USC def (14) Tennessee, 4-1
(13) Texas def. (4) Georgia, 4-3
(5) Ohio State def. (12) Florida, 4-1
(6) Baylor def. (11) Texas A&M 4-3
(7) Oklahoma def. (10) Illinois, 4-3
(8) Cal def. (9) Mississippi State 4-3

7 comments:

An upstanding move said...

You are right Colette, what a good write-up by Georgia. Bravo to Diaz for holding the player accountable, and putting the facts out there, he represented the university well when a team member did not. Making young people take responsibility for their actions is a good lesson for them to take forward. I don't know the coach or team personally, but have great respect for the organization now because of the way Diaz handled an ugly event that had unfortunate consequences for his team.

DaveKB said...

I really do not like this rule, even though I am a not UGA fan. I have no problem with the overrule itself, as it likely was in or out by a fraction of a inch. We all know that when they have TV replay and the challenge system in the pros that some calls are missed by linesmen and chair umpires and by the players.

As I understand the facts he was
over ruled four times in a long 3 setter and thus he got a game penalty in the deciding TB with the match tied at 3-3. The point occurred on the deuce 'no ad' point with it being championship point for UGA and game point for TX.

Because of this rule players are forced to play close, but clearly out, balls for fear they will be over ruled.

Now if the umpire had the authority to call balls 'out' when the player played the ball, especially on serves where it is so difficult to tell if it clipped the line, then it would be fairer.

In any event four over rules and then a game penalty is way too harsh in this particular situation. It punished the entire UGA team, not just the player.

Now I have heard of and even seen players 'intentionally' make a bad call often as a retaliation for a previous bad call by the other guy, especially on the far side line away from the chair where it is unlikely the umpire will over rule, but this penalty was too severe.

I am not sure what the rule should be, but the loss of an entire game or TB should not occur on a very close call, assuming that is what it was. I would go with a point penalty after on the 4th and 5th over rules IF they are in the 3rd set and a game penalty on the 6th over rules. I would also allow the chair umpire to make out calls on serves when the ball is played.

College Fan said...

Isn't it ironic, that these new "fan friendly" scoring changes were implemented in a year where there is no video option for watching the second biggest college event of the season.

Wi tennis said...

Getting over ruled 4 times is embarrassing and hard to do unless you're cheating. Should be suspended for that. Looks like he tried to stea the match and it really backfired. Tie breaker is considered a game no matter the scoring system. Please don't blame this on. No ad. Seems karma won.

A L said...

@DaveKB, It's a questionable assumption that the calls were all very close... a line judge knows not to overrule a ball that isn't very definitively in. The shots you're talking about that may or may not touch the line by an eighth of an inch aren't usually overruled.

Given that, to be overruled 4 times in a match almost always corresponds with at least some intentionally bad calls. Having played hundreds of tennis matches including a few dozen with chairs, I've never been overruled more than once in a match and have very rarely felt inclined to play close balls for fear of overrule.

work-hard-tennis said...

A L, no disrespect intended but you have got to be kidding. I just came from the National Indoors as well as watching years of college tennis matches. Frequently the chair overrules the kids' calls that are close. Frequently they overrule when they are not even on that line, whether the chair is right or wrong. I almost can't believe you say that. My child in fact just told me that in the last match, my child & the opponent knew each other well and respected each other's line calls from early junior days to now. Yet both of them got overruled; once against mine and twice for mine. My child told me that she knew the opponent wasn't calling a bad call & that the opponent knew she wasn't & the ref was just not right.

Sorry, but you gotta be kidding. After watching all these college matches, I can't believe that the chair does overrule sometimes when they are not on the line. I get that an occasional kid is a cheater but not for as much as the chair overrules.

imperfection said...

I have got to go with work-hard-tennis on this. I have seen Chairs overrule calls when the balls were extremely close to the line. I have also seen, all too frequently, Chairs overrule balls that were clearly called correctly by the player by several inches. And I'm only considering the matches where I have no invested interest in the outcome/no fan bias. The Chairs are far far from perfect.

There area also some players that cheat, and some players that attempt to take advantage of the Chairs' less than keen vision.

It's an imperfect system.