May 24, 2011
Live scoring and video of all matches
USC downs Virginia for NCAA team title
Stanford, Calif. – Guillermo Gomez is one of the top 16 seeds and will face Kyle McMorrow of Washington in the first round of the NCAA Singles Championship, while Georgia Tech’s doubles tandem of Kevin King and Juan Spir will face a Washington duo in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championship.
The draws were announced Tuesday afternoon for both events, which are being held at the Taube Family Tennis Center on the campus of Stanford University. The singles championship begins Wednesday, with the first round of the doubles championship to start Thursday.
Gomez, ranked 14th in the nation, drew the Huskies’ McMorrow, ranked 49th, for a first-round match that will begin at 1 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday. Gomez, 32-7 this season in singles, is playing in the NCAA Singles Championship for the fourth consecutive year, advancing one round farther each year. The senior from Alicante, Spain, who has a Tech-record 117 career wins, reached the round of 16 of last year’s championship before he was eliminated by Stanford’s Bradley Klahn.
The winner of that match advances to a second-round contest against the winner of Matt Allare of Ohio State (ranked 50th) and Costin Paval of Oklahoma (ranked 41st) on Thursday.
“I’m pleased with how Guillermo is playing. He finished the season playing very well and is looking forward to competing,” said Tech coach Kenny Thorne. “He has been in this tournament four years straight so that experience should help him here.”
King and Spir, also ranked 14th in the nation, were matched against the Huskies McMorrow and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, the nation’s No. 28 doubles team, for their first-round contest Thursday. That winner will face either Boris Conkic and John-Patrick Smith of Tennessee, the top-seeded team in the field, or Ohio State’s Allare and Peter Kobelt in the second round. Times for the first round of doubles will be announced later Wednesday night or Thursday.
King, a junior from Peachtree City, Ga., and Spir, a sophomore from Medellin, Colombia, have a record of 31-10 this year, setting a Tech record for doubles wins in a season. They won the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional and the Southern Intercollegiate in the fall, and reached the semifinals of the USTA/ITA Collegiate Indoor Championship.
“Kevin and Juan also finished the year strong. They played well at #1 doubles throughout the team portion of the NCAAs and they are practicing well out here,” said Thorne. “They had a good National Indoors in doubles in the fall and are looking to have a great NCAA tournament. We haven’t played University of Washington so we aren’t as familiar with their players but I know Matt Anger has done a great job with their team. Our main focus is to do what we do well and fight hard like Yellow Jackets.”
