The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Georgia
No. 9 Men’s Tennis falls in Sweet 16 marathon match
05.14.2015 | Men's Tennis
No. 8 Georgia defeats No. 9 Texas, 4-1, in seven-hour Sweet 16 match.
WACO, Texas -- After a nearly seven-hour match involving four weather delays and two facilities, No. 9 seed Texas (21-7) was outlasted by No. 8 seed Georgia (24-4), 4-1, in the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship Round of 16.
The match was originally scheduled for a 9 a.m. first serve at the Hurd Tennis Center, but was delayed until 9:15 a.m. due to a light rain on the courts. Only a handful of games were competed in doubles before the next rain delay at 9:34 a.m.
When play resumed at 10:40 a.m., Georgia took control of the doubles point by going up two breaks on courts two and three. At two doubles, Georgia's Wayne Montgomery and Nathan Pasha defeated George Goldhoff and Jacoby Lewis, 8-3. The doubles point was clinched at court three as Eric Diaz and Paul Oosterbaan defeated Nick Naumann and Michael Riechmann, 8-4.
UT's senior All-American doubles team of Lloyd Glasspool and Søren Hess-Olesen were even with Georgia's No. 1-ranked duo of Austin Smith and Ben Wagland, 5-5, when doubles competition concluded.
Shortly after singles competition began, light rain made the courts slippery enough for a third delay from 11:50 a.m. to 12:05 p.m. When play resumed, Texas went on to win two first sets in singles. Goldhoff broke serve on match point to win his first set, 6-3, on court four, and senior Clement Homs also won by two breaks, 6-3, on court six.
Georgia was able to win two first-set tiebreakers over Texas to maintain its momentum gained from doubles competition.
The fourth and final weather delay was due to lightning and occurred at 1:12 p.m. with most singles matches in a second set.
When play resumed at 2:05 p.m. inside Baylor's Hawkins Indoor Tennis Center, the remaining six singles matches could only utilize three courts while sharing the facility with Oklahoma and UCLA, whose match was moved indoors at the same time.
Georgia took a 2-0 team lead as 31st-ranked Nathan Pasha defeated 54th-ranked Adrian Berkowicz, 6-3, 6-2, on singles court three.
No. 42 Glasspool battled with No. 30 Austin Smith in the second set on court two -- trading two breaks each before Smith edged Glasspool in a second-set tiebreaker to win the match, 6-3, 7-6 (5).
Goldhoff then put the Longhorns on the board by finishing a straight-set victory over Ben Wagland, 6-3, 6-4, on court four.
In his final team competition for the Longhorns, Hess-Olesen fought off match point to force a third set on court one. Hess-Olesen broke to take a 6-5 lead in the second set and went on to win the set in a tiebreaker.
Georgia clinched the team victory behind Nick?Wood's comeback effort against Nick Naumann on court five, 7-6 (5), 7-5. Wood rallied from two breaks down in both the first and second sets to defeat Naumann.
Competition concluded at 3:55 p.m. Hess-Olesen and Homs did not finish their respective singles matches.
With five seniors on the roster, Thursday's Sweet 16 loss marks the end of an era for Texas Men's Tennis. Seniors Adrien Berkowicz, All-American Lloyd Glasspool, All-American Søren Hess-Olesen, Clement Homs, and Jacoby Lewis account for 77 victories, four All-American honors, the 2014 Big 12 regular season title, and a 6-4 record in NCAA postseason play.
On the long day:
"It was a full day. When you start and stop four times like that – start outside finish inside – you are trying to feed the guys and all that and then you start three guys back in singles. At the end of the day, we had opportunities but we didn't make plays in the key moments. I think that was the difference. I knew Georgia had a good team and that we were going to have a close match-up, but I really thought we had opportunities but we just didn't convert on those opportunities. Credit to Georgia, but I'm a little disappointed we are not moving on."
On the senior class:
"We had a great senior class this year. They have all mean so much to this program throughout the years and to see them finish their team career today is really, really tough. Our younger student-athletes will really have some big shoes to fill."
Players Mentioned
