Men’s Tennis: Frogs advance to Elite Eight with 4-1 Super Regional win over Mississippi State

While the threat of severe weather caused a schedule change to bring the NCAA Men’s Tennis Super Regional contest in Fort Worth earlier into the afternoon, the Horned Frogs were ready and brought the storm to Mississippi State, emerging with a 4-1 victory over the Bulldogs. TCU has now advanced to its fourth consecutive national Quarterfinal and has reached the Elite Eight for the sixth time in the last eight NCAA Tournaments; it’s the 13th Quarterfinal in program history.

The Doubles point was a tightly contested affair early, as #22 pair Sander Jong and Lui Maxted fell into an 0-3 hole vs. the Martinez/Ramskogler combo on Court 3. However, the pair was able to climb out of that hole to earn 6-4 set win to clinch the Doubles point for TCU. The Frogs got its opening Doubles set from Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives, taking a 6-3 set win. TCU’s top-ranked doubles pair returned to full strength as Luc Fomba was back on the court, re-joining Jake Fearnley after missing the Regional round last week; the #2-ranked combo was leading and at set point before Jong/Maxted clinched the point.

Singles play opened with a dominant turn from #21 Jake Fearnley at Court 1, quickly dispatching #78 Nemanja Malesevic 6-3, 6-3 to remain undefeated throughout the NCAA Tournament. Next match to go final had Maxted once again getting the best of Mississippi State’s Gregor Ramskogler with a straight set 6-2, 7-5 win to put the Frogs up 3-0. The Bulldogs were not going down without a fight, as #62 Sander Jong suffered a rare straight set defeat at the hands of #120 Carlos Hernandez 3-6, 5-7. Although TCU still held a 3-1 lead, needing just one more match to go the Frogs’ way, the remaining matches had all entered third sets ad the Bulldogs had life. #72 Sebastian Gorzny put all that to rest, after dropping the opening set to #95 Ewen Lumsden, Gorzny rolled off consecutive 6-3 sets to silence the doubters and any clanging cowbells in attendance to clinch the match for the Frogs and book a trip to Orlando for the NCAA Tournament.

The Horned Frogs will next head to Florida and the USTA National Campus in Orlando where the NCAA Championship will be crowned after three straight days of competition, beginning Thursday May 18. TCU’s Quarterfinal opponent will be the #7 overall seed Michigan Wolverines, which advanced thanks to a 4-3 Super Regional win over USC after 4-0 sweeps of Toledo & Cal in the Regional.