The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Oregon (ITA Kick-Off Weekend)
No. 9 Men's Tennis defeats Oregon, 4-2, advances to ITA National Team Indoors
01.29.2017 | Men's Tennis
Senior George Goldhoff rallies for three-set win to send Texas to next month’s National Team Indoors at The University of Virginia.
Watch George Goldhoff's match point
Post-Match Comments: Texas head coach Michael Center
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 9 Texas (6-1) dropped the doubles point but rallied with four singles wins to hold off Oregon by a 4-2 count Sunday afternoon at UT's Edgar O. and Melanie A. Weller Tennis Center.
The match was contested as part of the annual ITA Kick-Off Weekend event, which features 15 four-team tournament sites around the country. Texas earns a berth in next month's 16-team ITA National Team Indoor Championships as a result of its wins this weekend over Drake and Oregon.
Oregon won doubles contests at the first and third positions and assumed a 1-0 match lead. However, Texas commenced a charge in singles play led off by freshman Yuya Ito's 6-2, 6-0 win over Akihiro Tanaka at fourth singles. Sophomore Harrison Scott gave the Horns the lead for good with his 6-1, 6-2 win over Jayson Amos at third singles.
Up a set and tied at four at fifth singles, UT sophomore Rodrigo Banzer rang in his 20th birthday by breaking Oregon's Cormac Clissold and holding serve to finish off a 6-4, 6-4 win that gave Texas a 3-1 lead. The Ducks responded with a straight-sets win at sixth singles, leaving the match's outcome to first and/or second singles.
Trailing Oregon's Simon Stevens 3-2 in the third set, Texas senior George Goldhoff held serve and broke Stevens to assume a 4-3 lead. Stevens returned the favor and evened the set at four, but Goldhoff smashed an overhead winner to answer with another service break that delivered him a 5-4 third-set lead. Stevens went wide with a forehand on match point, and Texas sealed the 4-2 win.
UT's Christian Sigsgaard led 5-2 in the third set over the Ducks' Thomas Laurent only to see Laurent take the next four games and assume a 6-5 lead. Sigsgaard led 15-40 on Laurent's serve in the ensuing game before Goldhoff closed out the win, which forced the suspension of Sigsgaard's match.
Texas continues its road swing the next two weeks with a home match against Virginia Tech (Feb. 4) and a day-night doubleheader against Purdue and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (Feb. 12) before heading to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
ITA Kick-Off Weekend – Final Round
No. 9 Texas 4, Oregon 2
Doubles – Order of Finish: 1, 3
1 Jayson Amos/Armando Soemarno (Oregon) def. Christian Sigsgaard/Julian Zlobinsky (UT),
2 Colin Markes/George Golfhoff (UT) vs. Simon Stevens/Akihiro Tanaka (UO), 4-5, susp.
3 Thomas Laurent/Cormac Clissold (Oregon) def. No. 38Harrison Scott/Yuya Ito (UT), 6-3
Singles – Order of Finish: 4, 3, 5, 6, 2
1 No. 6 Christian Sigsgaard (UT) vs. Thomas Laurent (Oregon), 6-3, 4-6, 5-6, susp.
2 George Goldhoff (UT) def. Simon Stevens (Oregon), 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
3 No. 47 Harrison Scott (UT) def. Jayson Amos (Oregon), 6-1, 6-2
4 No. 36 Yuya Ito (UT) def. Akihiro Tanaka (Oregon), 6-2, 6-0
5 Rodrigo Banzer (UT) def. Cormac Clissold (Oregon), 6-4, 6-4
6 Ethan Young-Smith (Oregon) def. Julian Zlobinsky (UT), 7-6 (4), 6-4
Players Mentioned
