UAB Withstands Furious Winthrop Rally in Rock Hill, SC to Win 4-3

Lucas Dirube won a third set tie breaker at number three singles and Alabama-Birmingham withstood a furious rally by the Winthrop Eagles to win their match at Memorial Courts in in Rock Hill, SC on February 8, 4-3.

UAB players warming up prior to their match with Winthrop. A great day for tennis in South Carolina with clear blue skies and the temperature rose to 55 degrees.

Lucas Dirube of UAB with a return during the number one doubles match.

Peter Nagovnak and Dylan Comerford of Winthrop won the number ones doubles match for Winthrop 6-0, as the experimental NCAA rules were still being demonstrated. UAB won the matches on courts two and three and won the doubles point.

Yuta Hirokawa of Winthrop chases down a ball in the first set of his number one singles match versus Chris Helliar.

Chris Helliar with the backhand winner.

Helliar wins the match 6-2, 6-2 and UAB takes a 2-0 lead.

Steven Patrick of Winthrop drives a backhand return in his number two singles match against Rafael Rondino.

Rafael Rondino of UAB defeats Steven Patrick in straight sets 6-5, 6-2 and gives UAB a 3-0 lead. At this point it looked like lights out for Winthrop.

Winthrop storms back on courts four, five and six to tie the match at 3. At this point, court three looks like it will be easily won by UAB.

Dylan Comerford of Winthrop, after being down 4-1, storms back to tie the match at 5-5 and send it to a tie breaker.

Lucas Dirube of UAB held off Comerford in the tie break and UAB raised its record to 2-2 on the season. Winthrop fell to 1-5 on the season.

At the end of the match, I headed into Charlotte to see the Bobcats host the San Antonio Spurs in an NBA game. Charlotte lost a close one, 104-100 and fell to 22-29 for the season. A great day for sports in the Charlotte area.

#3 Georgia Wins a Thriller Over Columbia at ITA Kickoff in Athens, GA

In front of a full house at home at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Tennis Center, #3 ranked Georgia of the SEC beat Columbia University 4-2 in the second match of the ITA Kickoff on January 25. But make no mistake, this was a thrilling match that was probably a little too close for comfort for the Georgia fans and team playing the 43rd ranked Lions of the Ivy League.

Garrett Brasseaux, setting up for a forehand here, teamed with Nathan Pasha for the Bulldogs as they defeated Mike Vermeer and Winston Lin 6-5(3). This clinched the doubles point for Georgia after Eric Diaz and Austin Smith beat Eric Rubin and Bert Vancura of Columbia, 6-3.

After #12 Austin Smith of Georgia, hitting a backhand here, defeated Dragos Ignat 6-3, 6-3 at number two singles, Georgia took a 3-0 lead on the Lions. But the match was far from over.

#8 Winston Lin of Columbia took the first set over #21 Nathan Pasha, 6-4, at number one singles.

Pasha won the second set 6-3, but lost in a third set tiebreaker 6-5(4). Prior to that, Bulldog teammate Ben Wagland lost to Ashok Narayana, 6-5(5), 6-3. Georgia was now leading by a much closer 3-2 score.

Georgia head coach Manny Diaz kept his team focused as Columbia put the pressure on the Dawgs.

The Georgia tennis program has had great success over the years, but Columbia was not intimidated this day.

With the match score at 3-2 for Georgia and only courts five and six still in action, the Dawgs were getting squeezed. After winning the first set 6-0 at number five singles, Hernus Pieters of Georgia, getting ready for a forehand here, lost the second set 6-4. At the same time, Nick Wood of Georgia was in trouble. Wood lost the first set of his match to Mike Vermeer 4-6 and was trailing 1-3 in the second. Momentum was in favor of Columbia.

Wood, serving here, turned it around and won the second set in a tiebreak 6-5(5).

After the second set it did not get easier for Pieters. He played tough throughout the set and was able to get the match to a tiebreak. Once the tiebreak started, he took advantage of a couple of minibreaks and ended up winning the breaker 7-3, clinching the Georgia win after four thrilling hours. That was the first win of the season for Georgia. They are hoping another strong year will lead to a spot in the NCAA Championships in May, which will be hosted at this very same facility.

Wow ... two great matches to start the tennis season.

Stanford Tops Washington at ITA Kickoff in Georgia

Pac 12 teams Stanford and Washington traveled to Athens, Georgia for the ITA Kickoff and Stanford dominated in singles play and beat Washington 4-2.

Washington took the doubles point in convincing fashion, winning 6-3 on court one and 6-0 on court three. This image is from the action at number one doubles where Emmett Egger and Jeff Hawke of Washington defeated John Morrissey and Maciek Romanowicz of Stanford 6-3.

In singles, Stanford number one John Morrissey, hitting the backhand here, took out Max Manthou, 6-3, 6-5 (7-4). This win gave Stanford a 3-1 lead in the match.

Jeff Hawke of UW gave the Huskies their only singles win when he defeated Trey Strobel 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 at number four singles.

Robert Stineman of Stanford led Daffra Sanon, hitting a backhand here, 6-3, 5-4, before the match was abanadoned when Anthony Tsodikov of Stanford beat Viktor Farkas 6-3, 1-6, 6-2.

The match was played using an experimental rules format. The big rules changes for this experiment are using No-Ad scoring and using a tie break when the game score in a set is tied at 5-5. This was the case for both singles and doubles. I did not think it was a good idea and a number of people I talked with were in agreement. I don't know how you take deuce games out of the equation. It is an integral part of learning to grind through a match. The experimental rules will be used for the next month. Wow. Let's hope this bad idea is history soon. I can say that these rules did not impact the outcome of this match. Once the singles started, Stanford was clearly the stronger team this day.

Stanford is now 2-0 on the season, while Washington fell to 2-2.