Georgia Tech’s David North fell in three sets to Vanderbilt’s Jason Pinsky at No. 2 singles as the Yellow Jacket’s men’s tennis team lost to the Commodores, 4-3, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament held in Gainesville, Fla. With the win, the Commodores improve to 13-11 on the season while the Yellow Jackets end their season with a 14-10 record. Vanderbilt will advance to face No. 3 Florida Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. in the NCAA Second Round.
“This was obviously as close of a battle as I thought that it might be,” said head coach Kenny Thorne. “It was a back and forth battle and neither team ever really had a ton of momentum at anytime. We fought hard to get the doubles point, and had some great wins from Zach and Jordan in the bottom of the lineup, but today it was the top of the lineup where we struggled. Two of those matches went to three sets and were very close, but I give Vanderbilt a ton of credit of responding to the challenge and finding ways to win.”
Tech opened the match claiming the doubles point by winning two of the three matches. Jose Muguruza and Sukhwa Young started the match by defeating Vanderbilt’s Nathan Sachs and Evan Dufaux, 8-1 at the No. 2 doubles position. The Commodores then won at No. 1 doubles as #12 Scott Brown and Jason Pinsky beat #38 Marko Rajevac and David North, 8-5. The Jackets then captured the point as Scott Blackmon and Zachary Rath paired together to beat Ryan Preston and Matt Lockin in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (5).
Tech then took a 2-0 lead as Delass won at No. 5 singles over Sachs in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5. Vanderbilt then narrowed the gap to 2-1 as Lockin beat Rajevac at the No. 3 position, 6-3, 6-3. The Commodores tied the match at 2-2 when Preston won at No. 4 singles over Rath, 7-5, 6-3. The Jackets then took a 3-2 lead as George Gvelesiani won in straight sets at No. 6 singles, 6-2, 7-5 over Evan Dufaux. The match was then tied again as No. 39 Brown held on to defeat No. 22 Muguruza, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
“Certainly we are disappointed in the outcome of today’s match, but there are still a lot of positives to take from this,” said Thorne. “We were able to give a number of guys NCAA Tournament experience which will do nothing but help us in the future. I’m proud of the season that we had and am excited about the future of Georgia Tech tennis.”
NCAA GAINESVILLE REGIONALFIRST ROUND RESULTSNo. 28 Georgia Tech 4 No. 38 Vanderbilt 3
Doubles: 1.) #12 Scott Brown/Jason Pinsky (VU) def. #38 Marko Rajevac/ David North (GT), 8-5 2.) Jose Muguruza/Sukhwa Young (GT) def. Nathan Sachs/Evan Dufaux (VU), 8-1 3.) Blackmon/Rath (GT) def. Ryan Preston/Matt Lockin (VU), 9-8 (5) Order of finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles: 1.) #39 Scott Brown (VU) def. #22 Jose Luis Muguruza (GT) – 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 2.) Jason Pinsky (VU) def. David North (GT) 0-6, 7-6 (2), 6-4 3.) Matt Lockin (VU) def. Marko Rajevac (GT) 6-3, 6-3 4.) Ryan Preston (VU) def. Zachary Rath (GT), 7-5, 6-3 5.) Jordan Delass (GT) def. Nathan Sachs (VU), 6-1, 7-5 6.) George Gvelesiani (GT) d. Evan Dufaux (VU), 6-2, 7-5 Order of Finish: 5, 3, 4, 6, 1, 2
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