March 1, 2005
Georgia Tech’s Jose Muguruza posted a straight set victory over Tom Ecklund to secure a 4-0 win over South Carolina Tuesday afternoon at the Bill Moore Tennis Center. With the win, the Yellow Jackets improve to 6-2 on the season while the Gamecocks fall to 9-3. The cold weather and winds forced the match indoors and due to time constraints for both teams the coaches agreed to suspend the match once one team had won four points.
Georgia Tech took the lead early in the match with doubles wins from the teams of Jordan Delass and Noah Tyler at No. 3 as well as David North and MarkoRajevac at No. 1, both of which won 8-6. After Rajevac and North clinched the doubles point for the Jackets the third match featuring Muguruza and Scott Blackmon at No. 2 was ended with Tech leading the game 30-0, but tied 6-6 in games.
In singles action Tech continued to roll with all three singles players winning in straight sets. North won at the No. 2 spot in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, against South Carolina’sPedro Rodrigues, while Rajevac was slowed only by a first set tie-break against Geraldo Knorr, winning 7-6 (7-4) and 6-3 at No. 3. In No. 1 singles, No. 18 Muguruza got off to a slow start falling behind 4-1 before coming back to take the lead and eventually win 7-5 and 7-6 (7-4) over No. 68 Ecklund.
“This was a really important win for our team today,” said head coach Kenny Thorne. “South Carolina is a very good team. I thought our team did a great job of getting out early and staying focused and really for the first time just taking care of business. It started with the doubles point and we really never let up, which is really the first time this season that this has happened and it’s exactly what we are going to need to do as a team to be successful this year.”
The Yellow Jackets will return to action March 9th when they open the Atlantic Coast Conference portion of their schedule at Clemson University.
#47 Georgia Tech 4, #43 University of South Carolina 0
Doubles:*No. 1 North/Rajevac (GT) d. Rodriguez/Knorr (SC), 8-6No. 2 Scott Blackmon/Muguruza (GT) vs. Ecklund/Cuellar (SC), 6-6 DNFNo. 3 Jordan Delass/Noah Tyler (GT) d. Babenko/Atkinson, 8-6* Clinched doubles point
Singles: **No. 1 #18 Jose Muguruza (GT) d. #68 Tom Ecklund (SC), 7-5, 7-6 (4) No. 2 David North (GT) d. Pedro Rodriguez (SC), 6-4, 6-2 No. 3 Marko Rajevac (GT) d. Geraldo Knorr (SC), 7-6, 6-3
order of finish: 2, 3, 1
–30–
