April 13, 2008
ATLANTA – Guillermo Gomez, Scott Blackmon and Ryan Smith earned singles wins but the Georgia Tech men’s tennis team (13-11, 3-8 ACC) fell 4-3 to Duke (9-12, 6-5) in its regular-season finale Sunday afternoon at Ambler Tennis Stadium on the Duke University campus.
“At this stage in the game you want to come out of here with a win but we have enough wins that our guys are going into the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament with confidence,” head coach Kenny Thorne said. “We had opportunities in doubles and singles but just didn’t get it done today.”
In doubles play, the Jackets duo of Gomez and George Gvelesiani dropped their match to Reid Carleton and Kiril Dimitrov 8-4 on court two before David North and Eliot Potvin finished off Dylan Arnould and Alex Stone 8-6 at the No. 3 position. The Blue Devils earned the doubles point when No. 50 David Goulet and Christopher held off No. 43 Blackmon and Smith, 9-8, at the top doubles spot in the lineup.
“We had a match point in the No. 1 doubles match but we finished on the losing end,” Thorne said. “We played hard and played some very good points in doubles, just a couple of errors on big points hurt us.”
The Blue Devils moved ahead 2-0 after No. 78 North withdrew from his match against No. 62 Carleton. Duke’s lead grew to 3-0 after Alain Michel defeated Austin Roebuck 6-2, 6-4 at the No. 6 singles position.
A 6-2, 6-2 victory by No. 70 Gomez over No. 50 Goulet at the top spot in the lineup cut the Blue Devils lead to 3-1. Blackmon got past Stone by the score of 6-3, 7-5 from the No. 5 singles position to bring the Jackets within one point.
Duke sealed its sixth ACC win of the season when Dimitrov finished off Potvin 6-3, 7-6 in the No. 3 singles spot. Smith finished the day with a three-set 7-6, 2-6, 1-0 victory over Duke’s Arnould from the fourth singles position.
“Guillermo continued to play some very good tennis in his match against the No. 50 player,” Thorne said. “It was very good to see Scott come out and play well. Eliot fought very hard but just came up a little short in his match and Ryan played very aggressive and come through against a very good player at No. 4 singles.”
The Jackets will travel to Altamonte Springs, Fla., next week to compete in the ACC Championships, which begin Thursday and conclude Sunday. Live stats for all Tech tennis matches will be available at ramblinwreck.com.
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