Junior ‘fights’ for late victories
April 10, 2008 by JASON BUTT
Filed under Sports
Don’t call it a comeback. She’s been here for years.
Well, she’s only been in Athens for two years, but in her time spent playing for the Georgia women’s tennis team, junior Monika Dancevic has been consistent in finding ways to come back in matches that she’s trailing in late.
Most recently, it was in Georgia’s dual match against Vanderbilt on Sunday, where it came down to Dancevic to decide if the Bulldogs would walk away with the win. Dancevic battled Taka Bertrand at No. 3 singles and fell 4-1 in the third set with the dual match tied up at 3-3.
But like the Boston Red Sox in 2004, who were down three games in the ALCS to the New York Yankees before winning four straight, Dancevic wouldn’t let Vanderbilt come up with a victory.
“Obviously we all know I went down 4-1, but every game in the third set was pretty close, so I knew even though I was down that I had done it before in this situation,” Dancevic said. “I just knew I could come back if I kept fighting.”
With both teams and Commodore fans staring, head coach Jeff Wallace tried to offer some advice for Dancevic as fatigue set in on both players and the match neared its end.
“One thing I was saying at the end of that match, and I don’t know if she heard me, but I was talking about the weight room because she’s such a beast in the weight room,” Wallace said. “She does such a great job, and I was saying, ‘One more pull-up Mon, one more pull-up,’ as each game was going on.”
Dancevic pulled it to 6-5 before winning the next game and the tiebreaker to give Georgia its 16th win of the year.
It was nothing new to teammate Yvette Hyndman, who saw Dancevic battle leg cramps two years in a row to rally against rival Georgia Tech – including this year’s match against Kristen Flower, in which Dancevic overcame a 5-2 deficit in the third set with the dual match on the line.
“Anytime I see Monika and she’s the last one on the court, everyone else might be nervous – and don’t get me wrong, I was a little nervous – but I always have a feeling Monika is going to come back because she always does,” Hyndman said.
With many comebacks under her belt, Dancevic couldn’t come up with what she thought was the best comeback in the history of sports. Wallace couldn’t either, saying, “I’ll think about that one and get back to you.”
Hyndman said Kansas’ comeback in the last two minutes over Memphis in the NCAA basketball championship Monday was a fun one to watch.
“And I guess all of Monika’s matches,” Hyndman added.
