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TCU Headed Back to NCAA Championship! - TCU Athletics
WACO, Texas – TCU earned the right to defend its NCAA Championship.
TCU Headed Back to NCAA Championship!
Horned Frogs take out Texas 4-2 in semifinals
WACO, Texas – TCU earned the right to defend its NCAA Championship.
The Horned Frogs stormed past Texas 4-2 in the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday at the Hurd Tennis Center.
TCU (27-3) now faces No. 1 Wake Forest at 7 p.m. on Sunday in the championship match. The dual with the Demon Deacons (39-1) is a rematch from February's ITA Indoor National Championships final. The Frogs fell 4-3 in their bid for a third national title.
Sunday's title bout marks the second time in as many years TCU will have the opportunity to avenge its loss in the Indoor Nationals final to the nation's top-ranked team. The Horned Frogs downed No. 1 Ohio State in last season's semifinals on their way to claiming the program's first NCAA crown.
But to meet Wake Forest, TCU had to first get past its greatest rival. The Horned Frogs and Longhorns (29-5) converged on the hardcourts for the 11th time in the last three seasons. TCU's victory swung the recent series between the national powers 6-5 in its favor. The teams alternated a pair of 4-1 decisions during the regular season. TCU has now ousted Texas from each of the past two NCAA Tournaments.
TCU used an identical formula as its 4-3 quarterfinal triumph over No. 4 Virginia on Friday to clinch. The Frogs snared the doubles point, then secured singles victories on courts three, five and six. TCU earned the match-clincher once more on the 6-line. Lui Maxted and Albert Pedrico did the honors in the third and fifth flights. This time around, it was Roger Pascual who scored the final point. The freshman won six straight games to close out a 6-4, 0-6, 6-3 victory vs. Lucas Brown.
The Horned Frogs enter Sunday's championship 4-1 in rematches this season.
TCU improved its all-time NCAA Tournament record to 61-33 while head coach David Roditi improved his postseason record to 35-9.
Doubles Rundown
All three of Texas' tandems bear an ITA ranking, but the action figured to favor the Horned Frogs, now winners of 12 consecutive doubles points.
That was indeed the case.
TCU secured the 1-0 head start with a pair of 6-3 victories on courts one and three. Pedrico and Duncan Chan struck first at the expense of No. 81 Pierre-Yves Bailly and Sebastian Eriksson. Maxted and Vives, the nation's No. 2 ranked pair, did the clinching honors seconds later, taking out the 10th-ranked tandem of Brown and Timo Legout.
Both Horned Frog pairs secured early breaks and assumed 4-2 leads. Neither team surrendered a service game.
Jack Pinnington and Cooper Woestendick left their match vs. No. 66 Jonah Braswell and Sebastian Gorzny unfinished at 4-5.
Maxted and Vives won all four of their matches vs. Brown and Legout this season. They first defeated the Longhorns' top team in the semifinals of the NCAA Doubles Championships on their way to the title. The victory moved their season record vs. ranked pairs to 17-1. They are an equally robust 9-1 vs. top-10 tandems.
Chan and Pedrico boosted their shared record to 12-6.
TCU is now 26-4 in doubles play this season. The Horned Frogs are 25-1 when winning the doubles point.
Doubles Results
- #2 Lui Maxted / Pedro Vives (TCU) def. #10 Lucas Brown / Timo Legout (UT): 6-3
- #32 Jack Pinnington / Cooper Woestendick (TCU) vs. #66 Jonah Braswell / Sebastian Gorzny (UT): 4-5, unfinished
- Duncan Chan / Albert Pedrico (TCU) def. #81 Pierre-Yves Bailly / Sebastian Eriksson (UT): 6-3
Singles Rundown
TCU split the opening set of singles play to keep its pathway intact.
Maxted made the score 2-0 in favor of the Frogs via a 6-3, 6-0 walloping of the 54th-ranked Bailly on court three.
The victory – Maxted's 30th of the season – took the wind out of the Longhorns' sails. Bailly was 2-0 vs. Maxted this season and entered the dual having won 12 of his last 13 matches.
Texas halved the deficit after Woestendick fell 6-4, 6-0 to Eriksson in the fourth flight.
Pedrico, though, put TCU within a point of the clinch shortly thereafter. The freshman earned the signature win in his season, taking out the 72nd-ranked Braswell 7-5, 6-2 on court five. He broke tied at five games all in set one and rattled off four straight games to conclude matters.
Maxted and Pascual have each won four matches in the NCAA Tournament.
Gorzny scored Texas' second and final point, defeating a compromised Vives, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0, on the 2-line. Vives played just his third match since March 11.
The second set victory from Vives, though, spurred a momentum shift. Overlapping with Maxted's win, Pinnington rallied to even his match vs. Legout, the nation's No. 1 overall player at 4-6, 6-3.
He scored a double break en route commanding 4-1 lead in set three.
Pascual beat Pinnington to the punch. After dropping nine consecutive games to Brown, Pascual won six straight to close the show.
Pinnington, No. 8 nationally, left his third set unfinished leading 4-3 and up 40-love.
Singles Results
- #8 Jack Pinnington (TCU) vs. #1 Timo Legout (UT): 4-6, 6-3, 4-3, unfinished
- #26 Sebastian Gorzny (UT) def. #10 Pedro Vives (TCU): 6-2, 3-6, 6-0
- #37 Lui Maxted (TCU) def. #54 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT): 6-3, 6-0
- Sebastian Eriksson (UT) def. #95 Cooper Woestendick (TCU): 6-4, 6-0
- Albert Pedrico (TCU) def. #72 Jonah Braswell (UT): 7-5, 6-2
- Roger Pascual (TCU) def. Lucas Brown (UT): 6-4, 0-6, 6-3
