Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest University
NCAA Singles Championship
Rubin's Historic Run Ends in NCAA Finals
5/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
By Andrew Wilson, Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeMTennis)
WACO, Texas - Noah Rubin's historic run in the NCAA Singles Championship came to an end in the championship match on Monday as the Wake Forest men's tennis freshman fell to No. 8 Ryan Shane of Virginia by the score of 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1.
The match was started outdoors at Hurd Tennis Center at Baylor, but with a few stops and starts due to weather throughout the first seven games, heavy rains made their way into the Waco area and quickly forced the remainder of the match indoors to Hawkins Tennis Center.
Prior to the 2015 tournament, no Demon Deacon had advanced past the second round of the championship. Along the way, Rubin topped No. 26 Tom Fawcett of Stanford, No. 50 Chris Diaz of Ohio State, No. 15 Yannick Hanfmann of USC, No. 23 Jared Hiltzik of Illinois and No. 19 Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of Virginia before falling to Shane. Only Hiltzik and Shane were able to snag sets from Rubin, as Hiltzik won the first set of the Elite Eight matchup between the two in a tiebreaker before Rubin went on to win each of the next two sets in only giving up four games.
Rubin finishes his freshman campaign with a 26-4 mark. The loss snapped his individual 17-match winning streak. On the year, Rubin went an impressive 18-4 against nationally-ranked opponents. After just one NCAA Championship, Rubin holds the Wake Forest record with five tournament wins. With a win Monday, Rubin would have become just the second player all-time to win Wimbledon juniors, the USTA Boys 18 National Championship and the NCAA Singles Championship, but he would have been the first to do so as a freshman. UCLA men's tennis coach Billy Martin is the only individual to have won all three titles.
In the first set, Rubin got out to a hot start against Shane by earning back-to-back breaks to go up 5-0 early on. Though Shane did come up with a break and two holds to make it 5-3, Rubin ultimately served out the set to go up 1-0.
In the second set, the first four games saw each player hold serve before Rubin came away with a break and successive hold to go up 4-2. After three holds for the two players to make the score 5-4, Rubin was on serve for the championship before dropping the game after Shane hit a nice forehand down the line past Rubin to knot it at 5-5. After one hold apiece, the set went to a tiebreaker where Shane jumped out early and never looked back in taking a 7-4 win in the tiebreaker.
With momentum in his favor, Shane jumped on Rubin early in the third set on the way to a 6-1 win to claim the title.
NCAA Men's Tennis Championship
Singles competition
#8 Ryan Shane (Virginia) def. #6 Noah Rubin (Wake Forest) 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
Tournament Notes
Championship match
Rubin - 17-match win streak snapped.
Rubin - First WFU player to advance to championship match in school history.
Players Mentioned
