2020-21 Shocker Men's Tennis

[WuDrWu]

Marius breaks again and it's 5-2. This match is about over and it all hinges on Acevedo v Stroupe at the 4.

Stroupe is up a break at 2-0.

[WuDrWu]

Marius still up a break in the 3rd at 4-2 but Stroupe breaks Acevedo and leads 2-0 in the likely deciding match. That match is not going well and Acevedo took a tumble at the end of the last game.

[WuDrWu]

Acevedo's opponent has been putting a ton of pressure on him at the net. He should have closed him out in 2, but now the Sun Devils have the momentum.

[WuDrWu]

SPECTACULAR match in progress.

Shocks trail 3-2 but Marius Frosa just completed the break and leads 3-1 in the 3rd at the #2 singles and Nicolas Acevedo just lost a tie break in the 2nd and is now going to a deciding 3rd set at the #4 singles.

Marius looks the stronger player and I expect him to close out his Sun Devil opponent here in just a bit, so the dual will likely hinge on who takes the 3rd set in Acevedo's match.

Go Shocks!

[1972Shocker]

Dellien Wins AAC Co-Player of the Year

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/5/6...-the-year.aspx

Senior Murkel Dellien caps off his wildly successful regular season by being named the American Athletic Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Year. He shares the honor with UCF junior Gabriel Decamps.

[1972Shocker]

Murkel Dellien Receives At-Large Bid to NCAA Singles Championships

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/5/5/mens-tennis-dellien-receives-at-large-bid-to-ncaa-singles-championships.aspx

Senior Murkel Dellien's spectacular final season has earned him a spot in the field of 64 players that will compete in the 2021 NCAA Men's Tennis Singles Championships from May 23-28 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

Dellien has been on a roll, having won 12 straight singles matches. He is ranked No. 35 in the latest ITA rankings with a 13-2 record. Seven of his wins have come at the top spot and five of them were versus ranked opponents, including No. 4 Gabriel Decamps of UCF and No. 29 Hamish Stewart of Tulane. Dellien is a perfect 5-0 against ranked competition.

Congrats and Good Luck Murkel.

[1972Shocker]

Wichita State Returns to NCAA Tournament for First Time Since 2016

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/5/3...ince-2016.aspx

The Shockers ended a 5-year NCAA tournament drought and are headed to Fort Worth, Texas to face Arizona State in the first round of the NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships on Saturday, May 8 at 11:00 a.m. at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center. This is the first ever at-large bid for the Shocker program. The Shocks have never won a match in the NCAA Touranment.

Arizona State (16-8)

• The Sun Devils made a run all the way to the finals of the Pac-12 Championships and lost to eventual champion and 12 seed Southern California, 4-1.
• ASU came in at No. 20/22 in the last ITA poll and feature No. 98 Nathan Ponwith and No. 69 duo Tim Ruehl and Andrea Bolla.
• Ponwith leads the team with 15-7 record, with all but one match being at No. 1. He is 2-2 versus ranked opponents.
• The two teams met once in 2004, a Shocker loss

The AAC, at least this year, was a very good men;s tennis conference. UCF, USF, Tulane and Memphis also are in the field. SMU and Tulsa, while not in the field, are ranked in the ITA's top 50 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association.

Congrats and Good Luck Shocks!

[1972Shocker]

Shocks fall to #11 UCF in the AAC Championship semi-finals 4-0.

A pretty good battle was being waged in the #1 doubles with the 13th ranked UCF pair vs the 39th ranked duo of Murkel Delien and Marius Frosa tied at 5-5 but UCF won the #2 doubles 6-4 and the #3 doubles 6-0 to secure the doubles point with the #1 doubles going unfinished.

UCF then took the #3 singles (6-4, 6-0), #4 singles (6-4,6-3) and #5 singles (6-4, 6-3) to clinch the match.

#35 Delien trailed #11 Deccamps 4-6, 4-5 in the #1 singles, Frosa was at 6-7 (7-6), 3-3 in the #2 singles and Luka Mrsic was at 4-6, 6-3, 1-1 in #6 singles when play was halted after USF clinched the win.

Not a terrible effort by the Shocks.

The team has put together a 15-8 record that included five ranked wins and other high-quality victories sprinkled throughout. They are well positioned for the team's first NCAA bid since 2016. The NCAA Division I men's tennis selection show is on May 3 at 5:30 p.m., CT. The show will be streamed on NCAA.com.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Advance to Semifinals After Tight Memphis Win

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/4/22/mens-tennis-shockers-advance-to-semifinals-after-tight-memphis-win.aspx

Freshman Luka Mrsic earned his first clinch of the season with a 3rd-set tiebreaker win to push No. 33 Wichita State ahead of No. 32 Memphis, 4-3, and advance to the semifinals of the AAC Men's Tennis Championships at the USTA National Campus on Thursday.

The Shocks lost the doubles point and had to win 4 of the 6 single matches to pull out the win.

Murkel Dellien took the message to heart and wasted no time getting the Shockers on the board. He downed No. 60 James Story, 6-2, 6-3, to win his 12th straight singles match.

Memphis won at No. 2, but Stefan Latinovic tied the match up again. He won a first set tiebreak and went on to take the second set against Oscar Cutting, 7-6(4), 6-3.

The team found themselves down again with two matches left, both in their third sets. Nicolas Acevedo was able to control his third set, beating Jan Pallares, 7-6(1), 2-6, 6-2. The freshman Luka Mrsic was in a back-and-forth battle with Pau Fanlo at No. 6. The two had to settle the match in a third-set tiebreak, and Mrsic was able to pull out the victory in the end with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5) decision.

Up Next
The Shockers face the one seed in the tournament, No. 11 UCF, tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., CT.

The Shocks lost 2-5 to UCF in Orlando 10 days ago. But today's win may be enough to get the Shocks an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament. An unexpected win over UCF would pretty much make the Shocks a lock for the NCAA Tournament. Appears the AAC is a pretty solid men's tennis conference.

[RoyalShock]

I watched Dellien's match with Decamps off and on. He looked over-matched in the first set but settled down and battled in the 2nd. I had no idea Decamps was ranked that high but with the way he looked in that first set I'm not surprised. Great win!

[Kung Wu]

Dellien Awarded AAC Player of the Week

This kid is a stud!

[1972Shocker]

Dellien Awarded AAC Player of the Week

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/4/13/mens-tennis-dellien-awarded-aac-player-of-the-week.aspx

Senior Murkel Dellien had a stellar weekend of singles action, downing two of the AAC's best players in No. 24 Tulane's No. 29 Hamish Stewart and No. 9 UCF's No. 4 Gabriel Decamps to be named the American Athletic Conference Men's Co-Player of the Week.

Dellien, a native of Trinidad, Bolivia, had to fight back from a first set loss to Stewart and win a third-set tiebreak to earn a victory, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(1). Decamps also won his first set against Dellien, but the Dellien exerted his will the rest of the way and comfortably won the last two sets, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. These wins increased his win streak to 11 and the victory over No. 4 Decamps will go down as one of the best in school history. Dellien also picked up a ranked win in doubles with partner Marius Frosa. The 72nd ranked duo downed UCF's No. 29 Trey Hilderbrand/Bogdan Pavel, 6-3.

[1972Shocker]

Shockers Fall to Ninth Ranked Knights 5-2

https://goshockers.com/news/2021/4/12/mens-tennis-shockers-couldn-t-upset-ninth-ranked-knights.aspx

Highlights for the Shocks was No. 72 Murkel Dellien and Marius Frosa a beating No. 29 Trey Hilderbrand/Bogdan Pavel, 6-3 at the No.1 doubles slot but UCF won #2 and #3 doubles to secure the doubles point.

At the No. 1 singles Murkel Dellien played one of the best players in the nation, No. 4 Gabriel Decamps. Decamps has seven ranked victories this season and was riding a 13-match win streak at one point. Decamps got the best of Dellien in the first set, but the rest of the match favored the senior from Bolivia. Dellien was able to force a third set and won comfortably in the end, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2. This was Dellien's highest ranked win of his career and one of the best singles wins in school history. He improved his record to 12-2 and is currently on a 11-match win streak with a 4-0 record versus ranked foes. Very nice win indeed.

In the No. 2 singles Marius Frosa won the first Shocker point of the afternoon by winning a close 10-point tiebreak over Alan Rubio, 6-2, 3-6, 10-8.

However, UCF prevailed in the other 4 singles matches.

Not a bad effort by the Shocks.

[1972Shocker]

Today's match vs USF has been cancelled due to weather. I guess no indoor tennis facilities in Tampa to serve as a backup in case of bad weather. A long way to travel for a rainout.

[1972Shocker]

The Shocks now head out on the road to play 3 consecutive ranked AAC teams. @ #27 Tulane on April 9, @ #29 USF on April 11 and @ #21 UCF on April 12th.a 5-1 back on March 5th.

Shocks were not able to get it done against Tulane on Friday falling to the Green Wave 5-2. The highliht of the match was Senior Murkel Dellien's comeback victory and dominant tiebreak performance over No. 29 Hamish Stewart, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1.) This extends his winning streak to 10 matches.

On to Florida.