By Sally Milano, USTA.com
History was made at the NCAA Singles Championships Monday, as UCLA junior Mackenzie McDonald swept the men's singles and doubles titles and Virginia senior Danielle Collins captured her second career NCAA singles championship.
The NCAA invidual championships were held May 25-30 at the Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Okla., beginning a day after the Virginia men and Stanford women captured the team titles.
McDonald (pictured above) upset top-seeded Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State, 6-3, 6-3, to win the NCAA men's singles title, and just four hours later, he and his UCLA teammate Martin Redlicki beat Arthur Rinderknech and Jackson Withrow of Texas A&M to claim the doubles championship.
With the wins, McDonald became the first man in 15 years to sweep the NCAA singles and doubles titles in the same year, dating back to Matias Boeker of Georgia in 2001.
"I'm really happy with this accomplishment. It's unbelievable," McDonald said. "I always wanted to win something for UCLA, and to bring back two trophies for them this year is really cool to me."
McDonald, from Piedmont, Calif., is the 12th NCAA singles champion in UCLA history. His run to the title included wins over No. 42 Ryotaro Matasamura of Kentucky in the first round, No. 35 Quentin Monaghan of Notre Dame in the second round, No. 13 Skander Mansouri of Wake Forest in the round of 16, No. 2 Roberto Cid of South Florida in the quarterfinals, No. 14 Joao Monteiro of Virginia Tech in the semifinals and Torpegaard in the final.
In the women's singles final, No. 2 seed Collins defeated top seed Hayley Carter of North Carolina, 6-3, 6-2, to win her second NCAA title in three years. Collins, a native of St. Petersburg, Fla., also claimed the title in 2014 as a sophomore and became only the seventh woman in history to win two NCAA singles titles during a college career.
"I knew I was going to have to play my absolute best to beat her," said Collins, who boasted a 38-4 record during the 2016 season. "I feel like it's harder winning it the second time than it was the first time. It's pretty sweet to go out of my college career winning a national championship again."
Collins dropped only one set en route to the title, defeating No. 61 Anna Shkudun of Syracuse in three sets in the first round, No. 57 Jessie Aney of North Carolina in the second round, No. 33 Arianne Hartono of Ole Miss in the round of 16, No. 13 Jasmine Lee of Mississippi State in the quarterfinals and No. 6 Luisa Stefani of Pepperdine in the semifinals, before her win over Carter in the final.
The women's doubles title went to third-seeded Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan of Florida, who won the national championship with a 6-2, 6-0 win over the No. 4-seeded duo of Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr of California.