Texas-Georgia NCAA men's tennis quarterfinal match postponed until Sunday at 9 a.m.
May 16, 2009 COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- The NCAA men's tennis quarterfinal match between 12th-seeded Texas and fourth-seeded Georgia that was delayed during singles play Saturday afternoon due to rain has been postponed for the day and will restart Sunday at 9 a.m. Central at Texas A&M's Mitchell Tennis Center. The match began as scheduled at noon Central with Georgia claiming a tight doubles session. With lightning in the area, the match was suspended at 1:40 p.m. Central. The match was tentatively scheduled to restart at 5:30 p.m., but persistent rain pushed back the tentative start time to 8:30 p.m. Tournament officials postponed the match for the day at around 6:30 p.m. Georgia claimed the tight doubles session to take a 1-0 lead. At the first slot, the Bulldogs' fifth-ranked duo of Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt held a 6-1 lead on Texas sophomores Kellen Damico and Ed Corrie before the Longhorns' duo cut significantly into the deficit. Texas held serve for 6-2 and broke Georgia's serve in the next game to cut the lead to 6-3. Damico held serve in the next game to pull Texas within 6-4 before Georgia held serve in ensuing game to push the lead to 7-4. UT's Corrie held serve at 7-5, but Georgia took the next game to nail down the win at first doubles. At second doubles, Georgia's Borja Malo and Christian Vitulli broke Texas juniors Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala to take a 6-3 lead, but the Longhorns' duo broke, held and broke once more to even the match at six games apiece. Zavala held serve to give Texas a 7-6 lead, but UGA held once more to even the set at seven games all. Kutrovsky held serve in the next game to put UT up 8-7. Texas held two match points on Georgia's serve in the following game, but the Bulldogs saved both and ultimately won the game to force a tiebreaker.
Georgia took a 5-2 lead in the tiebreaker only to see Texas storm back to take a 7-6 lead. But, the Bulldogs saved the match point and two additional match points in the tiebreaker before prevailing by an 11-9 count to earn the win and clinch the doubles point. UT's Miguel Reyes Varela and Olivier Sajous had just taken an 8-7 lead over Georgia's Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz when the match was called. 2009 NCAA Men's Tennis Championships (Quarterfinals) |
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