A rain delay, a broken racket and almost five hours of playing time later, the No. 7 Georgia men’s tennis team fell short at home for the second time this season to No. 3 Ohio State Thursday.

In doubles, held outdoors, the No. 39 team of senior captains Jamie Hunt and Nate Schnugg won a decisive 8-4 victory on court one.

After juniors Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz lost 4-8 on court two, the freshman and senior pair of Bo Seal and Christian Vitulli was left to decide the doubles point.

The duo was up a break and held serve at 6-3 before losing momentum and being forced into a tiebreaker. As rain began to fall, the pair failed to rally back and finished with the Buckeyes up a point going into singles.

“The other guys played well. We played a couple loose points, and it’s 1-A in college tennis and it’s just so close. The differences are so small, and when you don’t take advantage of it, it bites you in the butt. We got bit in the butt,” Vitulli said.

Vitulli, fueled by his almost-success-turned-defeat, focused on obtaining redemption on court five. Once the match moved inside due to the weather, Vitulli waited for one of the four indoor courts to clear and watched as Ohio State began to take control of the match.

On courts one and two, Schnugg and Garrapiz each lost in two sets, which saw Schnugg throw and break his racket in the second set amid a fit of anger.

Senior Nate Schnugg (left) has lost two of his last three singles matches, as Georgia has dropped two of its last three after a six-match winning streak.

With three points lost, Georgia had no room for error in the bottom of the lineup.

Bernstein found success on court three ending 7-6 (7-3), 6-2. Vitulli and Seal went onto their courts to play as Hunt entered into his third set against No. 74 Dino Marcan. The doubles partners, who failed to win earlier, played next to each other on courts five and six with a determination to not repeat the mistakes of a few hours earlier.

“I knew we put ourselves in a position to win doubles … That motivated me to play even harder

because we were that close and we just didn’t get it. It annoyed me,” Vitulli said.

Vitulli answered his frustration with a 6-2, 6-0 victory before Hunt could finish his third set. As Seal, 5-foot-9, faced off against Ohio State’s Matt Allare, standing at 6-foot-7, Hunt broke his opponent at 5-4. But before Hunt could serve for his match, the Buckeyes clinched the win on court six with Allare winning 6-4, 6-2. Hunt’s match was left unfinished, ending 4-6, 6-2, 5-4.

“It hurts pretty bad, very bad actually [not finishing]. It was a great match. At times I was playing great, at times I wasn’t playing great, so I just kind of had to will myself to victory. Even though we didn’t finish, I feel like I was going to win that last game,” Hunt said.

While disappointed in the beginning of singles play, Diaz felt he saw a positive change in the second half of the match. Diaz sees the potential for growth in the team still, citing controlling nerves as one place to improve, believing the team will be able to win this type of match later in the season.

“If you had asked me [how the match went] about an a hour and fifteen minutes ago, I was very disappointed. It was very disappointing. They were just rolling over us. They just beat us up,” Diaz said, after the match. “Here in the last hour and fifteen minutes, our guys really just made a charge … So, overall we came back, won two matches and put ourselves in a position to win the third one there. It’s unfortunate. It’s a tough loss. But you got to take your hat off to Ohio State — they played better than we did today.”