NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships : SMU Upset, but USC, UCLA, Long Beach, Pepperdine Win

Miami of Florida, seeded No. 14, upset SMU, seeded No. 3, in the NCAA tennis championships Saturday, while No. 1 USC beat No. 17 Michigan to reach the quarterfinals.

Miami, which had lost three of four matches to SMU earlier in the year, easily ousted the Mustangs, 5-1. USC also won, 5-1.

In other matches, No. 4 Georgia defeated No. 13 Clemson, 5-2; No. 2 Cal State Long Beach beat UC Irvine, 5-3; No. 10 Tennessee beat No. 7 South Carolina, 5-3; No. 6 UCLA defeated TCU, 5-1; No. 8 LSU beat No. 9 Texas, 5-2, and No. 5 Pepperdine defeated California, 5-3.

Today’s schedule: Georgia vs. Pepperdine, UCLA vs. Miami, Tennessee vs. Cal State Long Beach, LSU vs. USC.

SMU (20-7) had reached the NCAA semifinals seven times in the past nine years, and finished third last year.

“It’s really tough. All year we had so many problems with injuries and stuff like that,” said SMU’s No. 1 player Richey Reneberg. “We thought this would be a good chance to do well and prove ourselves.”

Instead, Reneberg, the top-ranked collegiate player in the nation, lost to Miami’s Andrew Burrow, 6-3, 6-3, in the opening match.

USC lost only its No. 2 singles match when Dan Goldberg of Michigan defeated Luke Jensen, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.