Quest for #109: Tennis NCAA Final Four Open Thread

Survive and advance. That is the mantra of any team in any sport when it comes down to NCAA tournament time, and it's worked out so far for both of UCLA's tennis teams. This past weekend saw both teams continue their strong runs in the NCAA tournament, and now both will be playing in the NCAA semifinal today in Illinois, beginning with the men's team vs. #5-seeded Ohio State at 11 a.m. PST, followed by the women's team vs. #3-seeded Texas A&M at 2 p.m. PST.

Beginning with the #1-seeded men's squad, they continued their perfect run, dropping #9-seeded Duke 4-0 in the Elite Eight round on Saturday. The Bruins picked up the doubles point in a pair of hard-fought games (8-6, 9-8(5)) to grab the opening point of the match. Three straight singles wins in a row by Dennis Novikov (6-4, 6-4), Adrien Puget (1-6, 6-2, 6-1), and Karue Sell (6-0, 6-2) was all UCLA needed to get the first four points and book their place in the national semi-final game against Ohio State.

As for the #7-seeded women's team, they took on #2-seeded North Carolina on Sunday, picking up a closer-than-the-score indicates 4-1 victory over the Tar Heels to move on to the NCAA semi-final. The Lady Bruins got started on the back foot, dropping the doubles point to North Carolina (4-8, 8-1, 1-8), but they picked it up on the singles end, with four Bruins winning to pull out the come-from-behind victory, with Robin Anderson (7-5, 6-1), Kyle McPhillips (6-4, 6-1), Pamela Montez (6-4, 6-4) and Catherine Harrison (5-7, 7-5, 6-3) giving UCLA the four points.

Once again, all of the tournament action is available, both live statistics and live video feed, through the University of Illinois here. If all goes according to plan, by the end of the day, two Bruin squads will be on their way to the national title match, and hopefully, #109 (and maybe, just maybe #110).

Fire away with your thoughts, updates, and reactions in the thread for both the men's and women's tennis Final Four matches.

GO BRUINS