University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
#4 Georgia
No. 6 Vols Down No. 4 Georgia to Reach SEC Tournament Finals
April 25, 2009 | Men's Tennis
April 25, 2009
Auburn, Ala. -- Matt Brewer's thrilling three-set victory, in which he stormed from behind in the final point, at the No. 6 singles slot propelled the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers to a resounding 4-1 victory over the No. 4 Georgia Bulldogs in the semifinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament at Auburn's Yarbrough Tennis Center.
Tennessee now faces No. 1-seed and second-ranked Ole Miss Rebels who blanked the fourth seed Florida Gators, 4-0, in the finals Sunday at 2 p.m. ET. Live results can be found at UTSports.com.
"It was another SEC battle," Tennessee head coach Sam Winterbotham said. "Every match in this league comes down to the wire and today was no different. I am proud of my guys' victory today. We need to regroup and get ready for tomorrow.
"We came out with good focus and a high level of intensity. Georgia played well as we knew they would. Every match in the SEC is played at such a high level and I'm really proud of how hard our guys worked on making adjustments to their games in the past week."
Brewer earned a three-set victory over Christian Vitulli, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, for the clinching point.
"I felt really great, especially since we took a hard loss to Georgia last week," Brewer said. "Today was really a team effort and all about sticking together down on the court. I feel like we played our best match of the year as far as coming together."
Winterbotham was also impressed with Brewer's play. "Matt really dug deep today. He has great character and gives us his best effort. He fought back from being a set down. He wasn't going to be denied today."
The third-seeded Vols, who finished the regular season behind Georgia in the Eastern Division, will make their fifth appearance in the tournament finals and fourth in the last nine years. They own a 2-2 mark in the championship round, winning in 1990 and 2002, while finishing runner-up in 2001 and 2005. En route to its last title in 2002, a 4-1 win over Auburn in Knoxville, it also beat Georgia in the semifinals.
"Opportunities to compete for championships are few and far between, so we'll take this one," said Winterbotham. "We've been able to beat two teams that beat us this season in this tournament. We don't like losing but we were able to learn from those losses and see what we needed to get better at and we have. We have another opportunity tomorrow to get another win over a team that beat us and bring home a title in the process."
Starting the afternoon match, the Vols rolled through doubles action. Their first win came as the No. 42 pair of Boris Conkic and Matteo Fago made quick work of Georgia's Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrarpiz, 8-2. Tennessee's No. 5-ranked duo of John-Patrick Smith and Davey Sandgren followed to defeat Georgia's No. 4 ranked team, Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt, 8-6, to clinch the early lead.
The final doubles match-up of Borja Malo and Christian Vitulli of Georgia and the Vols' Brewer and Bryan Swartz went unfinished as the point had already gone to Tennessee. However, Georgia was leading, 6-4, when the decision was made.
Moving into singles competition, Tennessee did not skip a beat as Christian Hansen took a 6-3, 6-2 win over Georgia's Bernstein at No. 5.
Bringing the Bulldogs onto the board for the first time of the day was Josh Varela with his 6-4, 6-3 win over Sandgren on court four.
Giving Tennessee another win and bringing the team within one point of the win, No. 8 Smith took a 6-4, 6-4 win over Georgia's No. 11 Schnugg.
When the match had been decided, Georgia's No. 66 Garrapiz took the first set over Tennessee's No. 33 Conkic, but was behind in the second, 6-4, 2-3. The case proved the same for No. 78 Hunt as he was caught on the back end of the second set against the Vols' Fago, 6-3, 3-4.
Georgia head Coach Manuel Diaz was disappointed in the loss, but noted that the better team won the match.
"We just did not play well enough to win," Diaz said. "I thought we gave it a great effort, we just did not play well enough in several positions. Tennessee played an outstanding match. They are a good team, they played with a lot of belief today and were the better team."
The semifinal win moves Tennessee to 21-5 on the season, while Georgia ends their run in the tournament with a 22-3 mark.
#6 Tennessee 4, #4 Georgia 1
Singles competition
1. #8 John-Patrick Smith (UT) def. #11 Nate Schnugg (UGA) 6-4, 6-4
2. #66 Javier Garrapiz (UGA) vs. #33 Boris Conkic (UT) 6-4, 2-3, unfinished
3. #78 Jamie Hunt (UGA) vs. Matteo Fago (UT) 6-3, 3-4, unfinished
4. Josh Varela (UGA) def. Davey Sandgren (UT) 6-4, 6-3
5. Christian Hansen (UT) def. Drake Bernstein (UGA) 6-3, 6-2
6. Matt Brewer (UT) def. Christian Vitulli (UGA) 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
Doubles competition
1. #5 John-Patrick Smith/Davey Sandgren (UT) def. #4 Nate Schnugg/Jamie Hunt (UGA) 8-6
2. #42 Boris Conkic/Matteo Fago (UT) def. Drake Bernstein/Javier Garrapiz (UGA) 8-2
3. Borja Malo/Christian Vitulli (UGA) vs. Matt Brewer/Bryan Swartz (UT) 6-4, unfinished
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1); Singles (5,4,1,6)
Players Mentioned
