2008 Woodie Awards
Men's tennis team moves to Sweet 16
Issue date: 5/10/08 Section: Sports
ATHENS, Ga. - The No. 4-seeded University of Georgia men's tennis team (23-3) is headed to the Round of 16 in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth consecutive year, following a 4-0 second-round victory against Auburn (11-13) Sunday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. In windy conditions, No. 4-ranked senior Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) clinched the victory from the top singles position to propel Georgia on to Tulsa, Okla., site of this year NCAA Championships.
"I thought we played well at every spot today," said Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz. "When you can do that it puts a lot of pressure on your opponent. Having said that, it was close at almost every position, but we did not giving anything away. Our guys competed well in terrible conditions. Wind like this affects everything, your serve, your margin of error and the margin of skill between opponents. You have to work for everything you get. I think they did a good job of fighting through the conditions and closing out their sets."
With the shutout, Georgia has now won 11 of its last 14 NCAA Tournament matches by a perfect 4-0 score, dating back to 2006. In those 14 matches over the last three years, Georgia's record is 13-1 and includes the 2007 NCAA Championship. The only loss came in the 2006 NCAA Finals to Pepperdine.
Georgia will now face the winner of 13th-seeded Pepperdine and #17-32 seed Stanford in the Rd. of 16 in Tulsa, Friday, May 16. The Bulldogs topped Stanford earlier this season in a neutral-site match at Tulsa, 7-0. The last time Georgia faced Pepperdine was at the ITA National Team Indoors in 2007, beating the Waves 4-0. However, should the Bulldogs face Pepperdine, UGA will be looking to avenge a 4-2 loss to PU in the 2006 NCAA Championship Finals, 4-2, which was their last outdoor meeting.
Against Auburn, Georgia took a 1-0 lead by capturing the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. First to finish was the Bulldog tandem of Helgeson and sophomore Christian Vitulli (Mombasa, Kenya), who topped Lukas Marsoun and Milan Krnjetin, 8-2. The Tigers then fought back at the No. 2 position as Tim Puetz and Pawel Dilaj topped UGA's senior Luis Flores (Xalapa, Mexico) and freshman Javier Garrapiz (Huesca, Spain), 8-4. With the crucial point hanging in the balance, the 17th-ranked sophomore tandem of Jamie Hunt (San Antonio, Texas) and Nate Schnugg (Medford, Ore.) took down Alexey Tsyrenov and Terence Nugent, 8-6.
"I thought we played well at every spot today," said Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz. "When you can do that it puts a lot of pressure on your opponent. Having said that, it was close at almost every position, but we did not giving anything away. Our guys competed well in terrible conditions. Wind like this affects everything, your serve, your margin of error and the margin of skill between opponents. You have to work for everything you get. I think they did a good job of fighting through the conditions and closing out their sets."
With the shutout, Georgia has now won 11 of its last 14 NCAA Tournament matches by a perfect 4-0 score, dating back to 2006. In those 14 matches over the last three years, Georgia's record is 13-1 and includes the 2007 NCAA Championship. The only loss came in the 2006 NCAA Finals to Pepperdine.
Georgia will now face the winner of 13th-seeded Pepperdine and #17-32 seed Stanford in the Rd. of 16 in Tulsa, Friday, May 16. The Bulldogs topped Stanford earlier this season in a neutral-site match at Tulsa, 7-0. The last time Georgia faced Pepperdine was at the ITA National Team Indoors in 2007, beating the Waves 4-0. However, should the Bulldogs face Pepperdine, UGA will be looking to avenge a 4-2 loss to PU in the 2006 NCAA Championship Finals, 4-2, which was their last outdoor meeting.
Against Auburn, Georgia took a 1-0 lead by capturing the doubles point with wins at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions. First to finish was the Bulldog tandem of Helgeson and sophomore Christian Vitulli (Mombasa, Kenya), who topped Lukas Marsoun and Milan Krnjetin, 8-2. The Tigers then fought back at the No. 2 position as Tim Puetz and Pawel Dilaj topped UGA's senior Luis Flores (Xalapa, Mexico) and freshman Javier Garrapiz (Huesca, Spain), 8-4. With the crucial point hanging in the balance, the 17th-ranked sophomore tandem of Jamie Hunt (San Antonio, Texas) and Nate Schnugg (Medford, Ore.) took down Alexey Tsyrenov and Terence Nugent, 8-6.
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