Jane Lee
Sports Editor
The University of Georgia men’s tennis team seemed to have a lock on this year’s NCAA championship.
Before facing Pepperdine last night in the championship match, the Bulldogs had an undefeated record and had previously handed the Waves a 4-0 defeat in February. Georgia had four NCAA titles under its belt, while Pepperdine hadn’t even made an appearance in the finals since 1986.
The Waves, led by Head Coach Adam Steinberg, pushed all that aside and made it anything but smooth sailing for the Bulldogs as they made history Tuesday at Stanford University by upsetting Georgia, 4-2, for its first ever NCAA men’s tennis title.
Sophomore Andre Begemann’s victory at the fourth position in singles clinched the victory for the Waves, snapping Georgia’s (30-1) longest winning streak since 1971.
Begemann dropped the first set, 6-2, and rallied from a 2-4 deficit to win the second set in a tiebreaker. Begemann and the Bulldogs’ Matic Omerzel each held serve until the mighty Wave broke to go up 5-4 in the third.
In other action, Pepperdine won a competitive doubles point when Begemann and senior West Coast Conference Player of the Year Scott Doerner needed a late break to beat the Georgia duo of John Isner and Antonio Ruiz, 9-7.
Pepperdine freshman Omar Altmann, at No.-6 singles, was the first to finish, winning in straight sets to give the Waves an early 2-0 edge. Senior Ivor Lovrak then followed with a clutch 1-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory at the No.-3 spot, ending the Bulldogs’ Antonio Ruiz’s 16-match winning streak.
Lovrak, who lost just once at the No.-3 position all year, was named the Most Outstanding Performer of the tournament.
With the match at 3-0, Georgia received its first point when John Isner grabbed a 7-6, 6-4 victory over Doerner at No.-1 singles. Isner, the second seed in the individual tournament, extended his winning streak to 28 matches and improved his overall record to 44-2.
The Bulldogs made it 3-2 when Colin Purcell won a tiebreaker in the second set for a 7-5, 7-6 win at the No.-5 spot to extend his own winning streak to 20 matches.
It wasn’t the first time this year the Waves came out victorious over a team that had previously defeated them. Pepperdine suffered its only two losses during the regular season in the final two matches of the tournament. The Waves beat Texas in the semifinals after losing to the Longhorns last month. Georgia dominated the Waves 4-0 on Feb. 20 and had been ranked first in the country ever since.
05-24-2006
