Six of the top college players in the country – Francesca Di Lorenzo of Ohio State, Hayley Carter of North Carolina, Ena Shibahara of UCLA, Christopher Eubanks of Georgia Tech, Tom Fawcett of Stanford and Strong Kirchheimer of Northwestern – have been selected to represent the U.S. at the the 2016 Master’U BNP Paribas, the world's most prestigious international college team competition, which is taking place Dec. 1-4 in Marcq-en-Baroeul, France. The event features college teams from eight countries: Belgium, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Russia and the U.S.
Boise State men's coach Greg Patton is leading the U.S. team for the eighth time in the last nine years and is being joined at the helm by Ohio State women’s coach Melissa Schaub, as Team USA goes for its sixth straight title and seventh championship in the last eight years. Coach Patton is writing a blog for USTA.com during the team's stay in France. Stay tuned for daily updates.
By Greg Patton, special to USTA.com
Yaaaa! Great people create great teams and championships. What a joyous ride it was for co-coach Melissa Schaub and myself to coach the championship U.S. Master'U BNP Paribas team in Lille, France.
The tournament was tougher than solid granite, but we broke on through with incredible heart, courage and talent. The true-grit American team won 4-1 over the Russians.
No time to type, for we are running out of the hotel (dressed and showered) to the tournament banquet.
Recap...
Hayley Carter starts the momentum from the get go, with a straight-sets victory.
USA 1-0
Strong Kirchheimer loses a heart breaker in three sets.
USA 1, Russia 1
Francesca Di Lorenzo wins the match of the day, as she defeats the No. 190 WTA professional, 7-6, 7-5. (She came back from being down 1-4 in the second set.) Team MVP, with a 3-0 record in singles.
USA 2, Russia 1
The terminator, Chris Eubanks, was out-of-this-world great in demolishing the No. 1 Russian, 6-3, 6-2.
USA 3, Russia 1
Our phenomenal women's doubles team, which went 3-0 for the tournament, sealed the deal with a convincing straight-sets victory.
Lifetime memories resonating from a three-day international tennis celebration of some of the most talented young collegians from all over the world.
Vive la USA!