Men's Tennis 2016-2017

[vu72]

LOL!  Actually just a glass of wine but apparently that was sufficient for my fingers to  add a couple of letters!

http://www.valpoathletics.com/mtennis/news/2016-17/17437/senior-duo-punches-ticket-to-round-2-of-ncaa-doubles-tournament/#.WSgOf2grLIU

[vu72]

So our boys win again, this time not so impressively, as they ONLY beat the 19th ranked team, 6-3, 6-4.  Ho Hum, on to the quarter-finals!   

[VULB#62]

Time for this....

https://youtu.be/rY0WxgSXdEE

[talksalot]

This is SOO COOL !!   Bring on Wimbledon!!  Roland Garros!!   

[valpotx]

They have the chance to knock of the #1 team in NCAA!  They can join our baseball team, as one of the only sports to do so

[bbtds]

They have the chance to knock of the #1 team in NCAA!  They can join our baseball team, as one of the only sports to do so

Were would be really drunk then!

[bbtds]

Valpo breaks the incredible serve of Loeb and take a 3-2 lead in the 2nd set. Valpo lost first set 6-3.

EDIT: No mountain involved but Valpo had their serve brokeback.  3-3 in 2nd set.

Emhardt emotionally bucks that Zeilinski serve and Valpo up 6-5 in 2nd set. Oh boy!

Valpo wins the 2nd set 7-5. We are certainly in uncharted territory!

[vu72]

Losing the tie breaker 11-9 is just brutal.  What a battle.  Our guys should be very proud of their effort, losing in front of a sizable home court crowd for Georgia.  I don't think we have heard the last from this pair.  What a fabulous career at Valpo!!!   

[bbtds]

I went out and bought some


Schorschbock beer

I drink in gratitude to a great team!

[VU2014]

Is the Summit League a step-up or a step down from the Horizon League's Men's Tennis Conference play? Or are they about on par with Horizon?

I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing for Men's Tennis? The guys had a hell of a year this year and the senior could be program changing with the outstanding year the Senior's had.

https://twitter.com/ValpoU/status/874342201630830592
https://twitter.com/thesummitleague/status/874340960787943426
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/874343218237853697

[vu72]

Is the Summit League a step-up or a step down from the Horizon League's Men's Tennis Conference play? Or are they about on par with Horizon?

I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing for Men's Tennis? The guys had a hell of a year this year and the senior could be program changing with the outstanding year the Senior's had.

https://twitter.com/ValpoU/status/874342201630830592
https://twitter.com/thesummitleague/status/874340960787943426
https://twitter.com/MichaelOsipoff/status/874343218237853697

Not sure.  Denver won the conference title last year going 6-0 in conference but only 13-13 overall.  The 13 wins included one against Arizona and UNLV.

[VULB#62]

IMO,  the fact that both MS&D and MT are going to the Summit shows clearly that our administration is definitely behind our athletic program. Both these teams will require greater travel budgets. Thanks MLB and MH. 👌🏻

[vusupporter]

Swimming does not swim a "league schedule", hence no need for trips to Denver -  my guess is that the schedule will remain very similar to what it's been in past years.

[VULB#62]

Assuming that the same or similar teams re-up in 2017-18.  We did have a dual with EU last season. Perhaps MVC Teams will do a dual meet  thing now that we are in the league, but not really.  Damn, I wish we had a better pool.

[IndyValpo]

IMO,  the fact that both MS&D and MT are going to the Summit shows clearly that our administration is definitely behind our athletic program. Both these teams will require greater travel budgets. Thanks MLB and MH. 👌🏻

I don't understand the choice of the Summit over the MAC. Having said that tennis probably wins either place and with Western Illinois in the swimming conference perhaps they don't finish last...

[IndyValpo]

http://www.tennisrecruiting.net/teams/map.asp?division=1

Good tennis website...

[bbtds]

It's interesting that both Drake and Illinois State have their men's tennis teams in the Summit League. It seems that this men's tennis conference could be called the MVC/Summit League Conference. The schools that have men's tennis in the Summit League and most of the rest of their teams in the SL are Denver, IUPUI, Omaha, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State and Western Illinois. That in reality is now 6 SL teams and 3 MVC teams in the Summit League men's tennis conference. That's only 3 of our former conference mates remaining in the SL men's tennis conference that Valpo played in before.

When Valpo has a tennis match with either Drake or Illinois State can Valpo sneak in the MVC logo?

Of course with Drake they should sneak in the PFL logo too.

[crusader05]

Since the Summit also has other MVC tennis teams I wonder if it also helped keep some sort of connection for the teams. They maybe not be in the same schedule but at least some of the teams they're playing are the same. May help the team feel more connected to overall athletic department vs being in a more isolated league.

[bbtds]

Since the Summit also has other MVC tennis teams

Technically the Drake, Illinois State and Valpo men's tennis teams are not MVC tennis teams because there are no men's MVC tennis teams but rather they are Summit League associate member men's tennis teams.

[IndyValpo]

Dumb question, but are there individual champions as well?

Not a these events as they are to determine the NCAA team championship.  The individual and doubles championships will be coming up at the end of May.  Our guys, Jeffrey and Charlie will again be playing for the National Doubles Championships after finishing runner-up in the Indoors.  Jeffrey Schorsch, is undoubtedly a first able member of the Valpo Hall of Fame after being named Horizon League Player of the Year, three straight years.

Congrats to him and the rest of the team on a fantastic and record breaking year.   

Schorsch won a touney last week and today he finished second in the Pearson Ford Open in Indy. The doubles teams have gotten second each week. A great start to their professional careers. Emhardt won a couple of singles matches at each.

Yesterday Schorsch beat Mardy Fish who a couple years ago was a top player.

[vu72]

Dumb question, but are there individual champions as well?

Not a these events as they are to determine the NCAA team championship.  The individual and doubles championships will be coming up at the end of May.  Our guys, Jeffrey and Charlie will again be playing for the National Doubles Championships after finishing runner-up in the Indoors.  Jeffrey Schorsch, is undoubtedly a first able member of the Valpo Hall of Fame after being named Horizon League Player of the Year, three straight years.

Congrats to him and the rest of the team on a fantastic and record breaking year.   

Schorsch won a touney last week and today he finished second in the Pearson Ford Open in Indy. The doubles teams have gotten second each week. A great start to their professional careers. Emhardt won a couple of singles matches at each.

Yesterday Schorsch beat Mardy Fish who a couple years ago was a top player.

Here's a link to an interview with Jeffrey.  Couldn't figure out how to just put it up so schroll down a little to find it. Also, the story has a link to their GOFundMe account.  Throw Jeffrey and Charlie a little cash!

https://www.collegetennistoday.com/item/1558-catrina-thompson-new-minnesota-coach-pro-circuit-success-jeffrey-schorsch-tops-mardy-fish-in-indy.html

[agibson]

IMO,  the fact that both MS&D and MT are going to the Summit shows clearly that our administration is definitely behind our athletic program. Both these teams will require greater travel budgets. Thanks MLB and MH. 👌🏻

I don't understand the choice of the Summit over the MAC. Having said that tennis probably wins either place and with Western Illinois in the swimming conference perhaps they don't finish last...

I don't know where the two sit for tennis. It may have been "follow the other MVC schools".

For men's swimming the other MVC schools _are_ in the MAC. But, it sounds like that was considered a bridge too far for our swimming program. At least one person with some ties to the program seemed pleased that it was the Summit, not the MAC, for swimming.

[agibson]

As for tennis proper.

Jeffrey's continued to play in ITP Futures and Challenger type events this summer. He's in Champaign, IL this week and apparently doing very well.

He won through the qualifying (three matches) to make it to the main event, and won his first match by forfeit (happened to draw a player who had an illness). That was a bit of a back-handed way to get his first pro, ATP tour, points. But, then he won his next match! So, he's through to the quarterfinals and probably started playing just a few minutes ago after a rain delayed the day's start.

http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/players/player/profile.aspx?playerid=100315152

I guess he'll pick up a ranking when those next update.

In the doubles, instead of playing with Charlie (who was in Champaign for the qualifying bracket, I think), he partnered with former Northwestern player Strong Kirchheimer who had helped knock Jeffrey and Valpo out of the 2016 NCAA tournament.

Here's a video with Jeffrey, on picking up his first pro points
[tweet]887791549681205252[/tweet]

[agibson]

I'm seeing Jeffrey with a 412 national ranking one place (probably that's tied for 412 with a bunch of other people with the same small integer number of tour points).

Jeffrey and Charlie are both playing in Champaign again this weekend, sort of seems like they have a pro tournament every week there this summer.

Charlie picked up a win in qualifying before falling, maybe his first this summer in singles, maybe first ever, at an ITF event?

Jeffrey went straight into the Main Draw as a wild card, and picked up another win! I know almost nothing about tennis, but it looks like it was close. 7-6(7) 1-6 7-6(4). Against the #6 seed in the tournament (of 32 players, eight seeded), no less. A young Argentinian, just 18, but apparently with a bunch of pro experience 26-24 overall, ranked #611 in the world, it seems.

Jeffrey and Charlie are reunited in doubles this week, with a wild card entry like in Winnetka a couple of weeks ago.

6-7(4), 6-3, and into the tiebreaker now. This against the #1 seed (of 4 seeded, 16 pairs in the doubles). Their closest match as pros, together.

The live tweet, as is often the case, is over at

[tweet]889927996626399234[/tweet]

[agibson]

And they win the tiebreaker, 10-8! First pro doubles win, I think? At least first ITF. Rankings for everyone!

[tweet]889931888290410497[/tweet]