Ole Miss 4 Georgia 3
Tough loss yesterday for Georgia going down 4-3 to Ole Miss. The weather was sunny and 65 though the wind kicked up a little near the end of doubles and brought with it the smell of smoke from a controlled burn from a few miles away.
It was my 1st visit to the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center and I was impressed. Very nice tennis complex with stadium seating behind the 2 main courts and then you've 2 more courts off to the right and 2 more to the left. Here is some
video showing the layout. As you can see they have a nice big central scoreboard between courts 1 and 2 and they also have individual scoreboards behind each court. From a fan's perspective you could only really see 4 courts at once and during doubles if you're in the main stadium you really couldn't see much of court 3.
Doubles
Intros:
1: Jonas Lutjen/Nik Scholtz (OM) def. Ben Wagland/Hernus Pieters (UGA) 8-4: Reb pair outplayed Ben and Hernus in this one. The Ole Miss duo went up an early break which Ben and Hernus got right back but then they got broke again and never caught up. Both Ben and Hernus had a hard time putting overheads away and it cost them on several points.
2: Johan Backstrom/Stefan Lindmark (OM) def. Nathan Pasha/Garrett Brasseaux (UGA) 8-6: Rebel pair jumped out to a 5-1 lead before Pasha/Brass came back. Early on the Georgia pair had a really tough time getting serves in which led to the 2 break deficit. Pasha in particular double faulted a good 3 or 4 times. Lindmark had some excellent touch at the net.
Here is about a 5 minute sequence with Ole Miss serving up 6-5 in which Georgia has a break point but can't break through. It also has the conclusion at #1 dubs and then the Pasha service game at 5-7.
Here is Backstrom serving for the doubles point. There were a couple of really good points that ended with Brasseaux putting one into the net.
3: Austin Smith/KU Singh (UGA) defeated William Kallberg/Adriaan du Toit (OM) 8-3. Because of where I was sitting I didn't see any of this one. Georgia went up an early break and cruised. de Toit was making his Rebel debut in this one.
Losing doubles definitely hurt because with the point we win the match.
Singles - both teams did some shuffling to their usual lineups - Ole Miss swapped Kallberg and Lindmark at 3 and 4. Lindmark had been at 5 most of the season up until a week ago. Georgia really shuffled the deck by dropping Pasha from 1 to 3 and Pieters from 3 to 5. KU Singh was put back in at 1 which I thought was a little odd after being out a month. I thought he might get put in at 2 or even 3. The only rematch from their meeting in Seattle was at #6 singles between Brasseaux/Skogeng. Hindsight is always 20/20 but had Pasha played at 2 and Wagland at 3 and Pieters at 4 and Smith at 5 we probably win this one 5-2.
1: Nik Scholtz (OM) def. KU Singh 6-2 7-6 (2) - Scholtz broke KU to start the match and was a good bit sharper in the 1st set.
Here is some video of the opening 2 to 3 games at 1 and 2 singles. In the 2nd set KU played much better with fewer errors and led 5-2 but couldn't close the door. After Scholtz held to get it to 5-3, KU went down 0-40 on his service game and was broke at 30-40. Then with Scholtz serving at 4-5 KU went up 15-40 but couldn't get the break. I believe KU had another set point with Scholtz serving at 5-6. KU was overruled a few times on line calls and one was on an ace by Scholtz at deuce 5-6. I couldn't see if from my view point but the fans and the chair saw it good (JLyon, were you in the chair for this one?). Once it went to the tiebreak I went back up in the stands to get the TB on video but it was all Scholtz in the TB.
Here is that 2nd set tiebreaker. If KU could have pulled the set out it would have taken a lot of pressure off Austin because once this match ended everybody flocked down closer to court 4.
2: Jonas Lutjen (OM) def. Ben Wagland (UGA) 7-5 6-1.
Here is some video early in the 1st set on courts 1 and 2. It was a very even 1st set up until Wagland got broke serving at 5-5 and in fact I thought Wags was better in the set but Lutjen took it.
Here is video of Lutjen serving for the 1st set. Wags was up 15-40 and had a good opportunity at 30-40 but Lutjen had some nice touch on a volley. Wagland started to check out shortly thereafter with several near racket tosses. The 2nd set was not close at all.
3: Nathan Pasha (UGA) def. Stefan Lindmark (OM) 6-4 6-1. This was the 1st time Pash hadn't played at 1 or 2 all year and it looked like he read Manny's message loud and clear. Lindmark actually went up an early break in this one before Pasha started to take over. I didn't see a ton of this one due to my viewpoint between courts 2 and 5.
Here is match point for Pash.
4: William Kallberg (OM) def. Austin Smith (UGA) 1-6 7-6 (7) 6-4. I didn't start watching this one until it was 6-1 4-2 with Austin leading. I figured I'd get the finish off this match and Pasha's match at the same time. Unfortunately it didn't work out that way. After Kallberg held to make it 4-3, Austin was broken rather quickly but then he broke back quickly and was serving for the match up 5-4. He went down 0-40 and after getting 1 point back was broke. In that 3 game sequence Kallberg did a good job keeping it in play and Austin kept missing wide, long, and into the net. That same play continued into the tiebreak when Kallberg went up 6-1 and was serving for it then they did a role reversal and Austin started playing with more control and Kallberg got a little tight and started spraying shots all over the place. The pivotal point came at 6 all in the TB when Kallberg hit one that at 1st glance looked like it was going to sail long and that's what Austin thought too. But the ball nose dived right on the line and since Austin was out of position watching the shot instead of getting ready to return all he could do was hit a backhand shovel shot and stuck it in the net. When Kallberg closed out the tiebreak I did not have a good feeling about that 3rd set. Like I mentioned earlier once the Singh/Scholtz match finished everybody moved down there and was going nuts after every Ole Miss make and Georgia miss. Kallberg soaked it up and used the energy to his advantage.
Here is some video with Kallberg serving up 4-3 in the 3rd. I was pretty far away so you weren't going to hear me object to any line calls (chimes provided background music). Austin had a break point in this service game but couldn't get.
Here is the final service game of the match with Kallberg serving up 5-4. Austin was up 15-30 and then at 30-30 lost a long point that sealed his fate.
5: Hernus Pieters (UGA) def. Johan Backstrom (OM) 6-4 6-0. Pieters went down an early break and trailed 3-1 before he turned it around. This was the lowest spot in the lineup Pete had played all year. I watched the latter parts of the 1st set and Hernus was working Backstrom over from the baseline.
6: Garrett Brasseaux (UGA) def. Adrian Skogeng (OM) 6-1 6-2. Lopsided match from the get-go. Garrett really dominated Skogeng. Garrett's dad was about the only other Georgia supporter I saw there.
No time for Georgia to sulk over this one because they've got Mississippi State tomorrow in Starkville. We'll see if Manny keeps this same lineup or switches it up again. FYI, all the video was shot in HD so you can adjust the setting on youtube and it'll play it back in HD (may take longer to load)
