Men’s tennis doubles pair to play for NCAA title

[AlaskanFAN 1,665]

https://247sports.com/college/auburn/Article/Tiger-tennis-duo-playing-for-national-championship-on-Friday-165859358/
 

The doubles pair of Tad Maclean and Finn Murgett have advanced to the championship round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Tournament and will play SEC rivals from Tennessee for the title on Friday afternoon in Orlando, Florida.

If Murgett and Maclean win the match they will become Auburn’s second-ever national doubles champions joining Mark Kovacs and Andy Columbo, who did it in 2002. Murgett and Maclean are the first Tigers to reach the championship finals since Andreas Mies and Alex Stamchev did it to cap the 2012 season.

Murgett and Maclean will take on the No. 3 seeded pair of Adam Walton and Pat Harper. The teams played a tight match in March with the Auburn duo prevailing 7-6 with a 7-5 win in the tiebreaker in a dual match between the Tigers and Vols.

Auburn’s pair has out-performed its seed considerably in the NCAA Tournament after coming into the event ranked No. 26 nationally. In their last outing they defeated the No. 71 ranked pair of Guy Den Ouden and Adrian Oetzbach from Pepperdine.

“It’s crazy,” said Murgett, who is a sophomore. “We have just been taking it match by match and I wasn’t expecting this, but I’m so glad we’re here right now.”

Maclean, who is a sophomore, said, “It’s been a lot of hard work. The SEC is so tough and we have had it tough the past few years, but I think we’re really starting to get into our stride as a team. This just shows what we’re capable of at Auburn.”

The duo has a 16-13 record playing No. 1 doubles this season and has faced 11 ranked doubles teams.

Match time Friday will be no earlier than 12:30 p.m. CDT after the conclusion of the men’s singles final. Live scoring of the NCAA championships is available via TennisTicker; fans can also watch the match by downloading the TennisOne app for free on mobile devices.

“These guys are clicking on all cylinders and it’s really fun to be part of the ride,” Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “The areas of their game we have been working on all year are shaping up at the most important tournament of the year.
 

”Tennessee is a very good doubles pair, which plays traditional aggressive doubles so Finn and Tad will need to match their movement. We had success in the spring versus this tandem, but we will look to game plan off their past meetings along with what we have seen this week.”

The Auburn duo defeated No. 25 Ryan Fishback and Jordan Chrysostom of Virginia Tech in the opening round match 6-2, 6-4 on Monday. Next they defeated  No. 22 Tristan McCormick and Axel Nefve of Notre Dame in a match that went down to a third-set tiebreaker. The Tigers took the first set, winning 6-4, but the Irish rebounded with a 6-1 win in the second set with the Auburn team winning the tiebreaker 10-7.

In the quarter-finals the Auburn players defeated No. 10 ranked Riley Smith and Daniel Cuikerman of Southern California 7-6, 3-6 before taking the tiebreaker 10-3.

 

 

 

[AlaskanFAN 1,665]

Lost Friday, finishing #2 in NCAA

[AUBwins 10,074]

Crap.  Great job getting the runner up

[AuburnNTexas 7,140]

These guys did a great job they finished #2 in the country and they went down fighting they split the 1st two sets and lost a tie breaker in the third set 13-11. There was no quit in these young men. We should all be proud of them.

[daniel98 1]

What do you you say about US Open round of 16 Dabrowski-Purcell vs. Fernandez-Sock
I'm a bit surprised to see Leylah playing all three events. I guess she felt she needed matches after her injury and some early losses. I continue to think that she lacks the upper body strength to be a great doubles player, but she and Saville did beat the number 2 seeds. There are some details that Dabrowski played and won earlier today. I think I would rather see Leylah win. It would give her a little confidence boost and allow Dabrowski to focus on women's doubles.