Georgia Tennis Beats Texas: Bulldog Reunion in The NCAA Quarterfinals
After defeating Texas, Georgia tennis will play Oklahoma in the NCAA quarterfinals. A pair of Bulldogs will do all they can to stop them.
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The eighth-seeded Georgia men’s tennis team (24-4) romped past Texas and through two and quarter hours of weather stoppages to defeat ninth-seeded Texas 4-1. The Dawgs advance to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championships to face a Oklahoma team that is very familiar with Georgia tennis tradition.
Oklahoma is led by head coach John Roddick, a Bulldog tennis letterman, and associate head coach Bo Hodge, also a former Bulldog tennis letterman and coach for the 2008 Bulldog National Champion team. The top seeded Sooners out fought UCLA 4-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
“We’re really proud of our guys,” said head coach Manuel Diaz to Georgiadogs.com. “We played a good Texas team who fought tooth and nail with us. One of the things we talked about the last couple of days is we need to be ready for anything. We knew rain would be an issue, and there may be some stoppages. We talked about not letting things that we couldn’t control affect us and staying focused and continuing to fight through all of these things. Our guys have learned to deal with situations like this.”
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Rain showers suspended doubles play twice, but the Bulldogs quickly claimed the doubles point with wins by senior Nathan Pasha and freshman Wayne Montgomery on court 2 and senior Eric Diaz and freshman Paul Oosterbaan on court 3.
The feature match on court one between Georgia’s number one ranked tandem of Austin Smith and Ben Wagland and the Longhorns’ number 19 ranked pair of Lloyd Glasspool and Søren Hess-Olesen went unfinished at 5-5.
Play was moved indoors midway through the singles matches after a rain shower and lightning delays.
After moving indoors, Pasha went to work and won the needed two points to close out his match on court 3. The senior won 6-3, 6-2 over Adrian Berkowicz (54), giving the Atlanta native his thirteenth win over a ranked opponent this season and giving the Dawgs a 2-0 lead.
On court two, Smith dispatched Glasspool 6-3, 7-6(5) to extend the Bulldogs’ lead to 3-0, leaving Montgomery, Wagland, junior Nick Wood, or Oosterbaan to clinch on one of the remaining courts.
With the Longhorns rallying, Wood overcame 5-1 and 5-2 deficits in the first two sets to pull out a 7-6(5), 7-5 win to clinch Georgia’s 101st all-time win in the NCAA Tournament.
Montgomery led Hess-Olesen 5-3 in the third set, and Oosterbaan was up 2-1 in the third set when Georgia’s 101st all-time win in the NCAA Tournament was clinched.
The Bulldogs and Sooners will play Saturday.