Bob Larson's Tennis News | MTN: 2009 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship Quarterfinals Match Results: #12 Texas 4, #4 Georgia 2

NCAA Division I Tennis Championships
Men's Quarterfinals
May 17, 2009
George P. Mitchell Tennis Center
College Station Texas

#12 Texas 4, #4 Georgia 2
RECORDS: Texas 23-6; Georgia 25-4;

SINGLES
1. (#19) Dimitar Kutrovsky, TEX def. (#12) Nate Schnugg, UGA, 6-4, 7-6 (2)
2. (#62) Javier Garrapiz, UGA def. (#69) Ed Corrie, TEX, 6-4, 6-3
3. (#75) Jamie Hunt, UGA vs. (#80) Kellen Damico, TEX, 6-4, 5-7, 2-3, DNF
4. Olivier Sajous, TEX def. Josh Varela, UGA , 7-6 (6), 7-6 (4)
5. Josh Zavala, TEX def. Christian Vitulli, UGA, 6-4, 6-1
6. Miguel Reyes Varela, TEX def. Borja Malo, UGA, 6-2, 6-1

DOUBLES
1. (#5) Hunt/Schnugg, UGA def. (#27) Corrie/Damico, TEX, 8-5
2. Malo/Vitulli, UGA def. (#60) Kutrovsky/Zavala, TEX, 9-8 (9)
3. Bernstein/Garrapiz, UGA vs. Reyes Varela/Sajous, TEX, 7-8, DNF

ORDER OF FINISH: Doubles: 1, 2; Singles: 6, 5, 1, 2, 4

NOTES: Texas advances to the semifinals on Monday at 1 p.m. and will face No. 8 Southern California, which upset No. 1 Virginia, 4- 0, in the quarterfinals…The doubles matches were completed on Saturday, but with singles just underway, play was suspended at 1:47 p.m. because of lightning. Play did not resume until Sunday morning at 9 a.m…The Texas-Georgia contest was a rematch of last year’s National Championship match, won by Georgia, 4-2, in Tulsa, Okla.

QUOTES:
Texas Head Coach Michael Center: "To beat Georgia in the NCAA Championships is quite an accomplishment for us. They've won back-to-back national championships. They beat us last year in the finals and they've got a great program. Even though they lost some key guys from last year, they seemed to rally together and put it together again. So to knock them out here was quite an accomplishment. They never give up. I thought our guys were awesome today the way we came out of the gate and put those three points up on the board pretty quickly. That was exactly what we hoped to do. We had the pressure on them and then Olivier (Sajous) came through to get that fourth point so it was a team effort today."

Texas junior Olivier Sajous: (On the weather and delay) "Like coach said, we try not to think about it. We just start a brand new day and try to stay focus to fight for every point. Having the support of the team was very helpful. I’m thankful to be here and thankful we won."

(On his match): "I was down in the tiebreaker, 5-2, and I just tried not to think about it at all. I just tried to stay focused and move on. I tried not to think about my weaknesses or my mistakes. I won the first set and was happy, but my mind went off in the second set and I fell down 3-0. My assistant coach told me to stay focused and stay in my match which helped me get back to 3-3."

Georgia Head Manuel Diaz Coach: "Texas played a great match today. We had a lot of momentum after the doubles point yesterday, but with the rain delay today was a separate match. We just got outplayed today."

(On the weather delay) "It took away our momentum, but that what happens in sports. It's just the way it is. We maybe could have dealt with it a bit different. Our guys showed up and did everything I asked them to do. They were prepared, alert, awake, and enthusiastic. It was windier out there today. I think that played a small part. I think Texas handled that challenge a little bit better than we did."

Georgia junior Jamie Hunt: "They played great. I'm proud of my teammates. They fought as hard as they could and left it all out on the court. That’s all we can ask for. We gave it our all and that's all you can ask for. I think we came out fired up and ready to play. We were just as excited and pumped up to play as we were yesterday. They played well in a couple of spots and got some momentum. We tried to shift it back, but they came through in the end."