Monday, May 12, 2014

Cal men win NCAA shocker; NorCal takes Maze Cup

   The 17th-ranked Cal men stunned Texas A&M, seeded eighth and ranked 10th, 4-3 on the Aggies' home courts on Sunday to reach the round of 16 in the NCAA Championships.
   Campbell Johnson won the deciding match at No. 2 singles in high humidity and temperatures in the upper 80s in College Station, Texas. The unranked senior from Rancho Santa Fe, a suburb of San Diego, defeated 22nd-ranked Shane Vinsent 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 to hand Texas A&M its first home loss in 16 matches this season.
   The Bears (17-7) will face Texas (22-5), seeded and ranked ninth, on Friday at 6 a.m. (PDT) in Athens, Ga. The Longhorns will be Cal's third straight opponent from the Lone Star State. The Bears whipped No. 41 Texas Tech 4-0 in the first round on Saturday in College Station.
   Stanford, which has won 17 NCAA men's team titles but none since 2000, lost in the first round of the NCAAs for the second consecutive year. The Cardinal fell to No. 43 Tulsa 4-2 on Saturday in Waco, Texas, to end its season at 14-6.
   NCAA Women's Championships -- Sixth-ranked Cal will meet archrival and defending champion Stanford, ranked 11th, on Thursday at 9 a.m. (PDT) in the round of 16 in Athens.
   The Bears (20-4) extended their winning streak to 14 matches with a 4-0 victory over Pepperdine in the second round on Saturday in Berkeley. The Cardinal (18-2) pounded No. 53 Long Beach State 4-0 at Stanford to reach the last 16 for the 29th consecutive year.
   Stanford and Cal have split their two meetings this season, with each team winning on the other's courts. The Cardinal handed the Bears their last loss, 5-2 in Berkeley on March 8, and Cal rolled to a 6-1 victory at Stanford on April 19.
   Stanford seeks its 18th women's team title and Cal its first. Florida ranks second behind the Cardinal with six crowns.
   ITF Women's Circuit -- Modesto product Maria Sanchez, seeded eighth, lost to fifth-seeded Heidi El Tabakh of Canada 6-3, 6-4 on clay in the final of a $25,000 Challenger in Raleigh, N.C.
   Sanchez, the 2011 Pacific-12 Conference Women's Player of the Year as a senior at USC, tumbled from a career-high No. 107 in the world last July to No. 244 entering the Raleigh tournament.  
   Maze Cup -- Northern California juniors defeated Southern California 13-7 at the Berkeley Tennis Club to win the title for only the third time in the tournament's 41-year history but second in a row.
   Andrew Gu of El Cerrito won the clinching match, routing Jacob Brumm of Rancho Santa Fe 6-1, 6-1 in the boys 16s.
   NorCal ended a 28-year drought in the tournament last year. Past participants include Pete Sampras, Michael Chang and Lindsay Davenport.

No comments:

Post a Comment