March 4, 2008

Yellow Jackets drop Tigers, 4-3

March 4, 2008

ATLANTA –

Scott Blackmon and Ryan Smith opened the match with an 8-5 win at No. 1 doubles and David North remained unbeaten in dual match singles play to lead Georgia Tech (9-2, 1-1) to a 4-3 win over Clemson (9-7, 0-1) Tuesday afternoon at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.

“It was good to win the doubles point because we’ve been playing really good doubles lately,” head coach Kenny Thorne said. “All around it was an extremely hard fought match. [Clemson] coach [Chuck] Kriese always does a nice job getting his guys to fight. He’s retiring this season and the fight his guys are putting up is tribute to him and all he’s done.”

The duo of Blackmon and Smith improved to 12-5 on the season and 7-3 in dual matches with their win over Ike Belk and Derek DiFazio. Tech took a 1-0 lead in the match when North and Guillermo Gomez finished off Carlos Alvarez and Kevin Fleck 8-3 in the No. 2 doubles position.

Gomez pushed the lead to 2-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Gera Boryachinskiy at No. 2 singles and North made it 3-0 with a 7-5, 6-2 win in the No. 1 singles position. The Tiger’s Kevin Fleck pushed the score to 3-1 with a three-set win (6-3, 5-7, 7-5) over Tech’s Eliot Potvin. The deciding point came at No. 4 singles as Blackmon topped Clemson’s DiFazio in straight sets (6-1, 7-6 [7-3]).

“It was nice to see David and Guillermo come through, they hung in there and finished off their singles matches,” Thorne said. “It was good for Scott to clinch the match after struggling lately and win the match in the tiebreaker. I think that’s going to be a sign of good things to come.”

Clemson took the remaining two matches as Belk won at the No. 5 position (7-6 [7-1], 6-3) over Smith and the Tigers’ Kevin Galloway won in three sets at No. 6 singles (4-6, 6-1, 7-6 [8-6]) over Tech’s Doug Kenny.

Tech will be back in action Friday when Miami travels to Atlanta. The match is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. The Jackets will then travel to Athens for a match-up with third-ranked Georgia next Wednesday, March 12 at 1:00 p.m.

– RamblinWreck.com –

Tennis Match Results

Clemson vs Georgia Tech

Mar 04, 2008 at Atlanta, Ga.

#36 Georgia Tech 4, #42 Clemson 3

Singles competition

1. #61 David North (GT) def. Carlos Alvarez (CLEM) 7-5, 6-2

2. Guillermo Gomez (GT) def. Gera Boryachinskiy (CLEM) 6-4, 6-3

3. Kevin Fleck (CLEM) def. Eliot Potvin (GT) 6-3, 5-7, 7-5

4. Scott Blackmon (GT) def. Derek DiFazio (CLEM) 6-1, 7-6 (7-3)

5. Ike Belk (CLEM) def. Ryan Smith (GT) 7-6 (7-1), 6-3

6. Kevin Galloway (CLEM) def. Doug Kenny (GT) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8-6)