May 13, 2001
ATHENS, Ga. – The No. 26 Georgia Tech men’s tennis team fell to the top-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, 4-0, in the second round of the NCAA Men’s Tennis Championships Sunday afternoon at Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
Georgia took an early lead, winning at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles to claim the doubles point. The Bulldogs’ duo of Matias Boeker and Travis Parrott, ranked fourth nationally by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, clinched the point with an 8-4 victory over the Yellow Jackets’ 45th-ranked pair of Roger Anderson and David Wright at No. 1 doubles. At No. 2, Tech senior Romain Coirault and Joao Menano battled back from a 6-2 deficit to tie the match at 6, but eventually fell to Georgia’s Bo Hodge and Brandon Wagner, 9-7. On court 3, Georgia Tech senior Sergio Aguirre and sophomore Stephen Moros led 7-4 when the match was suspended.
In singles competition, the top-ranked Bulldogs demonstrated their depth in winning all but one set en route to a 4-0 victory. Hodge, the Southeastern Conference Freshman of the Year and the nation’s eighth-ranked player, defeated Coirault 6-3, 6-2. No. 47 Chad Carlson upended Moros, 6-0, 6-2, at No. 4 and fifth-ranked Boeker defeated Anderson, 6-4, 6-1, at No. 1 singles to claim the match. Tech freshman Joao Menano was the lone Yellow Jacket to win a set, defeating No. 50 Parrott, 7-5, in the first set at No. 5 singles.
“Today we were going to have to have everything go for us,” Georgia Tech head coach Kenny Thorne said. “Georgia is obviously a very good team. We needed the doubles point. It was a hard-fought point. The players didn’t get down after doubles, but they knew it was going to be very tough.
“This was a good year,” Thorne said. “We had some great senior leadership. We had seniors who weren’t even in the lineup but provided great leadership. They had great practice and great conditioning and they pushed everyone else who was in the lineup and made the team better. We have some sophomores, some young guys, who have been under pressure and come through for us. And yesterday (in NCAA Championships first-round win over Arizona) we had a couple of freshmen who won in singles play. That is good experience for us. We meshed pretty well this year with the combination of senior leadership and young guys. I like to see that they competed well.”
Georgia Tech finished the season with a 17-7 record, its best mark since the 1989 Yellow Jackets went 18-6. Georgia improved to 24-1 on the season and will play California May 19 in the third round of the NCAA Championships in Athens.
Georgia 4, Georgia Tech 0
Singles:
1. No. 5 Matias Boeker (UGA) def. Roger Anderson (GT) 6-4, 6-1
2. No. 8 Bo Hodge (UGA) def. Romain Coirault (GT) 6-3, 6-2
3. No. 28 Lesley Joseph (UGA) — David Wright (GT) DNF
4. No. 47 Chad Carlson (UGA) def. Stephen Moros (GT) 6-0, 6-2
5. Joao Menano (GT) — No. 50 Travis Parrott (UGA) DNF
6. No. 60 Brandon Wagner (UGA)– Alex Navinkov (GT) DNF
Doubles:
1. No. 4 M. Boeker (UGA) def. Wright/Anderson (GT) 8-4
2. Hodge/Wagner (UGA) def. Coirault/Menano (GT) 9-7
3. Moros/Aguirre GT) – Joseph/N. Boeker (UGA) DNF
