May 14, 2004
The No. 28 Georgia Tech men’s tennis team fell to No. 35 SMU in the NCAA Regional at the Baylor Tennis Center in Waco, Texas, Friday afternoon, 4-0. With the loss, the Yellow Jackets conclude their season with a 15-8 record while the Mustangs improve to 18-11 and will face the winner of tonight’s Baylor University/Manhattan match on Saturday at 7 p.m.
“As many of our matches have gone this season, the doubles point was really, really important today,” said head coach Kenny Thorne. “All three lines of doubles went down to the end and were well fought, but I give credit to SMU for finding a way to get breaks when they needed to. After doubles, the top of our lineup really stepped up and was playing well, but unfortunately, the bottom of our lineup really struggled. I felt like we needed a couple of guys to step up and today we just didn’t have it. I really give credit to SMU for playing a great match today. There’s so much parity in college tennis today, and today was a perfect example of that.”
The Yellow Jackets opened the match dropping the doubles point as the 26th-ranked duo of Brunstrom and Soderberg defeated Scott Schnugg and Jose Muguruza, 9-7 at No. 1 doubles. At No. 2 doubles, SMU’s Chingoka and McNaughton defeated Marko Rajevac and West Nott, 9-8 (4).
After dropping the doubles point, Tech could not regroup, dropping matches at No. 5, No. 6 and No. 4 in straight sets. Alex Skrypko easily disposed of Zachary Rath, 6-1, 6-0. At No. 6 singles, Peter Oredsson defeated Rajevac in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2. In the clinching match of the afternoon, Lukasz Senczynszyn beat Joao Menano, 6-2, 6-4.
“Certainly I am disappointed that this is the last match for our seniors,” said Thorne. “This was a great group of seniors who worked really hard all season and did a good job of leading us this year. More importantly, they will all graduate by December, and when you think about college athletics, that’s really what being a student-athlete is all about and that’s why we are here. I’m proud of this team and really enjoyed being their coach this season.”
#35 SMU 4 #28 Georgia Tech 0DoublesOrder of finish:1, 21. #26 Brunstrom/Soderberg (SMU) def. Muguruza/Schnugg (GT) 9-72. Chingoka/McNaughton (SMU) def. Rajevac/Nott (GT) , 9-8 (4)3. Trevor McLeod/Menano (GT) vs. Oredsson/Murgier (SMU), 8-7, DNF
Singles Order of finish: 5, 6, 4 No. 1 #52 Scott Schnugg (GT) vs. #26 Johan Brunstrom(SMU), 6-3, 3-4, DNF No. 2 #117 Jose Luis Muguruza (GT) vs. Henrik Soderburg (SMU), 3-6, 6-2, 1-0, DNF No. 3 West Nott (GT)vs. Gwinyai Chingoka, (SMU), 3-6, 5-5, DNF No. 4 Lukasz Senczyszyn (SMU) def. Joao Menano (GT), 6-2, 6-4 No. 5 Alex Skrypko (SMU) def. Zachary Rath (GT) 6-1, 6-0 No. 6 Peter Oredsson (SMU) def. Marko Rajevac (GT) 6-3, 6-2
