Bulldogs 7 Volunteers 0
I made the 2 1/2 hour drive from Nashville to Knoxville to see yesterday's Georgia/UT match. Great day for tennis with the temp in the high 70s and a minimal breeze. With it being the last regualr season match for UT I was expecting a bigger turnout. When these 2 play in Athens there's usually well over a 1000 on hand and sometimes upwards of 2500. There were maybe 400 people in the stands but I found out later that both UTs Baseball and Softball teams were playing at the same time so that probably pulled some folks that normally would have come to watch tennis.
Not a bad facility but all the seats are behind courts 1 and 2 so it's a little tough to follow some of the other courts. As you can see from the videos there's a lot of space between each court - probably double or triple what you'd normally see. Each court has its own set of lights so you get those shadows coming in.
I added some video in the links though unlike the Ohio State match I went to last month there wasn't any controversy in this one.
Doubles: All 3 doubles courts were blowouts.
1. #10 Mikelis Libietis/Hunter Reese (UT) def. #79 Sadio Doumbia/Hernus Pieters (UGA) 8-3 - Manny switched the doubles lineup and put Doumbia and Pieters together for the 1st time in almost 2 months. UGA pair led 2-0 then it went downhill.
2. Nathan Pasha/Ignacio Taboada (UGA) def. Edward Jones/Jarryd Chaplin (UT) 8-2 - Pasha/Taboada were paired up again for the first time in 2 months and played very well together. This win pushed their record together to 7-0. In my opinion they are Georgia's best doubles tandem so it was good to see them back together again. Against USC at the Indoors they were the only UGA doubles team not to lose - they led 7-6 when it was stopped.
3. Wil Spencer/KU Singh (UGA) def. Peter Nagovnak/Bryan Swartz (UT) 8-3. Spencer/Singh played well but UTs #3 team was not good losing for the 7th straight time. UGA tandem was up 7-0 and blew 2 match points receiving and then 2 serving for it before finally putting it away.
Singles: Tennessee has a very young team - starting freshmen at 1, 2, & 3. They have little depth so they're going to have to keep recruiting to improve for next year.
1. #9 Wil Spencer (UGA) def. #42 Mikelis Libietis (UT) 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 10-6
I spent most of my time watching this match. Libietis is very impressive for a freshman. You don't see too many players serve and volley anymore but that was primarily what he did. He's got very good hands and touch at the net. He has a big 1st serve that is probably up in the 120s. Only thing that wasn't as strong was his backhand - he hit a few good ones but seemed to just kind of slap the ball back most of the time. I thought Spencer played a very good match considering his record of late. There were no breaks of serve in the 1st set though each had a few break point opportunities.
Here is some video of the opening service game for each. During the 1st set Spencer tried to go over or around Libietis when he came to the net, in the 2nd set Spencer started hitting it right at Libietis and that seemed to work better. He was able to handcuff him multiple times. Here is some video of the
1st set tiebreak which Libietis won 7-3. Libietis
dropped to the court on match point in the 3rd set supertiebreak and had to take a medical timeout for a few minutes.
2. #28 KU Singh (UGA) def. #97 Hunter Reese (UT) 6-4, 6-4.
KU jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the 1st set and was serving to go up 4-0 before Reese got 1 of the breaks back. They stayed on serve the rest of the way. There were a few breaks in the 2nd set but Reese was never able to get the lead. Both players have similar games but KU was the more seasoned of the 2 and he won the key points.
Video of final few points of the match.
3. #24 Sadio Doumbia (UGA) def. Brandon Fickey (UT) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1
Not exactly a ton of great points in this one. There were 4 straight breaks to start the match before Sadio got the 1st hold. Fickey served the 1st set out in a lengthy service game which seemed to take a lot of energy out of him. The 2nd and 3rd sets weren't close at all. Fickey called for the trainer once to have his shoulder worked on and never got it going after that.
Here are the final 2 points of the match which ended on a Fickey double fault.
4. #39 Ignacio Taboada (UGA) def. Jarryd Chaplin (UT) 6-2, 6-4
Didn't watch much of this one. Chaplin didn't pose any threat to Nacho.
5. #52 Hernus Pieters (UGA) def. Edward Jones (UT) 6-3, 3-6, 6-4
This was a pretty good match. Pieters went up 2-0 in the 2nd set before Jones won 6 of the next 7 games to take the set. Pieters served for the match up 5-3 but got broke and then broke back to win it.
Here is some video of that 5-3 service game.
Here is match point along with match point in the Spencer/Libietis match. Pieters has won 7 straight and seems to be peaking at the right time.
6. Nathan Pasha (UGA) def. Taylor Patrick (UT) 6-1, 6-2.
It seemed like this court was a 1/2 mile away and with the score being so lopsided I didn't pay too much attention to it. As the score indicates, it was a blowout. Here is
match point. Tennessee went 5-16 in the #6 singles spot this year. I'm surprised they didn't let their only senior Bryan Swartz take a stab at this one. He couldn't have done any worse
