University of Tennessee Athletics
University of Tennessee
NCAA Championships (Singles & Doubles)
Libietis, Reese's NCAA Run Ends in QF
May 23, 2015 | Men's Tennis
WACO, Texas -- Tennessee seniors Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese staged a late-match comeback but could not complete the effort in a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 loss to Baylor's eighth-ranked team of Diego Galeano and Julian Lenz in the NCAA doubles quarterfinals Saturday night.
Libietis and Reese, the tournament's defending champions, completed their three-time All-America careers as one of the most accomplished doubles teams in modern college tennis history with three total national doubles titles and 96 career wins over four years of playing No. 1 in the lineup.
Baylor's duo reeled off five games in a row to take the second set and a 2-0 lead into the third set. The Vols had not generated any break points through much of the match, but they finally had their opportunity.
Libietis and Reese strung together several god returns off first serves and Lenz double faulted to tie the third set at 4-4. Libietis fell behind 0-40 on his following service game, saved four break points on big serving but not the fifth. Lenz hit a return winner off second serve down the line for the break.
Baylor took the 5-4 lead and got a service winner on its second match point from Galleano to end the match.
The match was wire close from the start, though neither team had any break points early. Reese fought off three set points on his serve to put the Vols up 6-5 and minutes later, Baylor forced a tiebreaker.
The Vols kept their nerve in the tiebreaker, understandable since they had played -- and won -- two of them in the first two rounds. They jumped out to a 5-2 lead before Baylor narrowed the score to 5-4. A good return by Reese in the ad court gave the Vols the minibreak again, and two points later, Reese served a winner for the set 7-6 (5).
In the second set, the Vols had openings in return games but were unable to string points together for the break. Baylor got the first break of the game when Reese lost his serve down 3-4 in the second set.
Baylor eventually won five games in a row, getting an early break off Libietis in the opening game of the third set.
No doubles team has won back-to-back NCAA titles since Stan Smith and Bob Lutz won consecutive titles for Southern California in 1967-68. Several schools have won back-to-back titles with different players.
The match was delayed more than four hours because rain forced play indoors.
