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.
In the latest of a series of blogs written for USTA.com from the Master'U tournament, Fawcett, the only returning member to the 2016 Master'U U.S. team, writes about the Americans' semifinal thriller against Germany.
By Tom Fawcett, special to USTA.com
Today was another great day for our team! Getting past the Germans was no easy accomplishment, as their team was extremely talented, just like last year.
We got behind 2-0 after the first two matches, but everyone on the team did a great job of staying positive and keeping up our energy. The next match cut their lead in half, as Francesca played great to get us on the board.
The following match proved to be a huge momentum changer, as Chris “Cool Breeze” Eubanks came through in exciting fashion. After splitting sets, he found himself in a third-set breaker to decide if the match would be even or if our deficit would be increased to 2.
After getting down, 5-1, in the breaker, Chris locked it in and went on to win six straight points with the team going crazy after each one! The atmosphere in that match was electric, and it was great to see the team come together to get a pivotal win.
Next up, Hayley and Ena continued their dynasty and cruised through another doubles match (they won yesterday as well) for the 3-2 lead. Chris and I followed with a three-set victory over the German doubles team to finish it up (10-2 in the third-set match breaker)!
Even though the match was clinched already, we decided to play the mixed out. Hayley carried me to a mixed doubles victory, and the match ended at 5-2.
Overall the energy from everyone in the crowd and on our team was amazing, and all of us can’t wait to get back out there tomorrow and compete for the title!
Tom Fawcett
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