Georgia Tech Ends Regular Season at Duke

I traveled to Duke University on Sunday, April 13 to see the Yellow Jackets close out their regular season against the Blue Devils. It was a sunny, windy day in Durham at Ambler Tennis Stadium. When the match started it was warm, but as the day went on it got cooler and cooler. Duke was coming into the match 8-12 and 5-5 in the ACC so I thought the Jackets had a great chance of winning this match. It turned out to be a really close one.

The match started with the doubles coming down to the number one position. GT won at number three, 8-6 and lost at number two, 4-8. On one, senior Scott Blackmon and freshman Ryan Smith were neck and neck with the Blue Devils' No. 50 David Goulet and Christopher Price. The match went to 8-8 and a tiebreak. It was a really intense match, for the players and the fans. The Jackets went up an early mini-break, but the Blue Devils got it back and even held on after facing match point and went on to win the match. As is usually the case with doubles, that would turn out to be a big point.

In singles the Jackets took an early blow when senior David North had to retire in the first set on number two, sending the Jackets down 2-0. That was unfortunate as North had been struggling all season through pain and was forced to retire in Winston-Salem against Wake Forest a few weeks ago. I was not sure what caused him to retire in this match, but it put the Jackets in a big hole they could not overcome. Duke then went up 3-0 when they won at six.

At number one, GT freshman Guillermo Gomez played a strong match against David Goulet and won it 6-2, 6-2. The crowd was very lively on court one and Gomez really had to stay focused to get the win. Then Scott Blackmon won in straight sets on number five over Alex Stone 6-3, 7-5 to make it 3-2 Duke. On number three, Eliot Potvin struggled in the first set losing 6-3. He really picked up his game in the second set and took Kiril Dimitrov to a tiebreak. Potvin went up an early mini-break but Dimitrov got it back and then distanced himself the rest of the way and won it in straight sets. It was a good effort by Potvin to get back in it. For a few moments I thought he was going to get it to a third set.

What a great way to end the regular season. This was my first visit to Duke and Ambler Tennis Stadium is in an area right near the football stadium as well as Cameron Indoor Stadium. The buildings on campus are very distinct with their stone exteriors. It's a great campus to visit. The Yellow Jackets finished the regular season 13-11 but a disappointing 3-8 in the ACC. They certainly have some good talent to work with and some good recruits coming in next season, so I hope they'll be able to learn from this year and come back strong in 2009.

Later in that week the Jackets lost in the ACC tournament in Florida to North Carolina State, 4-3, so they have been eliminated from NCAA post-season play. The same week, the Lady Jackets lost in the ACC tournament and are now waiting to see if they will host an NCAA regional.

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Davidson Teams Wrap Up Home Schedule

I was able to take in the last men's and women's home matches of the 2008 season last weekend at Davidson College.

On Friday, the women hosted Wofford and had a rather easy time with them winning the match 6-1. I was able to catch the doubles play and watched as the ones and threes each won by a score of 8-4. The twos had a much tougher time, losing 8-1. The Wildcats took the doubles point although they wouldn't need it as they went 5-1 the rest of the way. The result would be a lot different on Saturday.

The women and the men hosted Furman on Saturday. The women started the day and they were never really able to get on track, losing the match 7-0. The Lady Wildcats did end the season 17-5 and 7-2 in the Southern Conference. I only caught the last few matches they played this season, but they are a very competitive team and are fun to watch. There are some tough teams in the SoCon, so 7-2 is a nice conference result.

The men gave the Paladins a little tougher match, but they also lost by a score of 5-2. I was treated to an interesting match at number four singles. Walker Lyons of Davidson was matched up against Chris Motes. During the doubles match I noticed that a Furman player was wearing a Georgia Bulldogs hat. When I brought it up to the people around me I learned the player was Chris Motes, a transfer from Georgia, last year's national champions. I watched a number of Georgia matches last year, including the national championship win over Illinois, and I never remember seeing Motes play. Obviously the transfer made a lot of sense as he was going to have a tough time playing on that team last year and this year too, as they are still loaded and number three in the country.

As the first set was moving along between Motes and Lyons, Motes started losing his cool in the tight match. Motes was up a break and then started getting frustrated when Lyons stepped up his game. Motes became very animated as he lost his cool and began to shout and make hand gestures. At one point he waved his racket around like it was a fly swatter, obviously disappointed in his performance. When I talked some members of the Furman team during this episode they told me this was a standard routine with Motes. One of the guys even said, " it's Motes, we just learn to deal with it." Nice. Lyons went on to take the first set in a tiebreaker and then breezed through set two, winning the match 7-6, 6-1. Motes was a bit of a distraction, but not a big one. The rest of the Furman players stayed focused, taking four of the six singles. The only other Davidson win was at number six where Scott Myers beat Sawyer Duncan 6-4, 6-0.

The Wildcats finished the season 14-7 and 5-4 in the Southern Conference. Just like the women, they are an entertaining team to watch. They open play tomorrow in the Southern Conference tournament in Charleston, SC.

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A Doubleheader at Davidson . . . Yes, That Davidson

The Davidson women's and men's teams were in action yesterday on a rainy day in Charlotte. The women were hosting the Boston University Terriers, a team they had not defeated in three previous tries. Later in the day, the men were matched up against South Carolina State University.

The Davidson indoor facility is very nice, with four courts and a small set of bleachers on both ends of the facility, so you are up close on courts one and four. The main lobby also serves as a great viewing area above the courts with big windows that the happy Wildcat fans pound on when they like what they see. For the women's match, I sat next to the families of Kelsey Linville, Davidson's number one and Virginia Berry, the Wildcat's number two. They also played number one doubles together. The Berry's were visiting from Spartanburg, SC and they enjoy the college tennis game very much. Mr. Berry shared some good stories about college tennis legend Dan Magill, former head coach of the Georgia Bulldogs and the main force behind what is now the NCAA tennis tournament. I've met the coach a number of times and Mr. Berry's stories were interesting and provided another perspective on what I know about the coach.

The match was a good one. BU started off by winning the doubles point with wins at number two and number three. In singles, BU's Francine Whu played a great match at number one versus Linville. Her serve really set her up well and kept Linville off balance. She also showed great control with her consistently deep groundstrokes and ended up taking the match, 6-4, 6-2. Linville's father also knew Whu was tough to beat on this day. I saw Whu play last season against the College of Charleston and at that time she was playing at the number three spot, so she has really stepped up her game in the last year. At number two, Berry played a solid match in beating Vanessa Steiner 6-4, 6-4.

The match came down to the six position. Meredith Skeeters of Davidson, a senior from Greensboro, NC who also has the second-most wins on the team, defeated Danielle Abraham 6-4, 6-1. It raised her singles record to 13-2 and really showed she could deliver when her team needed her. Skeeters and Abraham played many long rallies and you could see that Abraham started to rush her shots more as the match went on, while Skeeters stayed with her game. At one point, as the crowd was cheering a nice point won by Skeeters, Abraham looked at the crowd sternly, looking for everyone to be quiet while she prepared to serve. I thought it was a little much, especially after having attended so many NCAA tournament matches where crowd enthusiasm is such a great part of the sport, and sometimes it is a little noisy when you have to serve. Deal with it.

So the women get their first win over Boston U. and run their record to 15-4 and are 9-0 at home. I expect they will be very competitive in the Southern Conference tournament in a few weeks in Charleston, SC.

The Davidson men started off strong against South Carolina State. In doubles the teams looked fairly well matched and Davidson ended up sweeping SCS, 3-0 to win the doubles point. On court one, Ethan Jaffee and Flaviu Simihaian of Davidson were able to take advantage of a break opportunity to win it over Radek Pivonka and Gabriel Meana 8-6. It was a good match. Once the doubles ended, I headed out for the day, but I learned later that the Wildcats won five out of six singles matches and won it 6-1. Davidson moved to 13-5 on the season, while SC State fell to 11-3.

Davidson has been a big story lately in Charlotte and all over the country. Last week, the Davidson men's basketball team was making its great run in the NCAA tournament. While they ended up losing to Kansas by two in the Elite Eight, they really turned out to be one of the best, if not the best story in this year's tournament. Yesterday there was plenty of talk in the stands about the success of the team and what the visibility meant for the school. As I walked on campus, many students were wearing their Davidson merchandise and you could tell they were really proud of their school. A number of the players on the women's team were talking about Stephen Curry's interview on NBC the night before with Conan O'Brien. The bookstore has all kinds of NCAA basketball shirts featuring the Wildcats accomplishments in each round. It was great stuff! What a great treat the basketball team gave the school. It was great to be on campus so soon after the the team brought so much national exposure to the school that is recognized as one of the top schools academically in the country.

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Georgia Tech Visits Wake Forest

When I left the house on Sunday morning March 30, I was pretty sure the weather conditions would force the men's tennis match between Georgia Tech and Wake Forest indoors. I was right. When I arrived at the indoor tennis center there were a number of cars parked outside and when I walked in the facility for the first time, the first person I ran into was Kenny Thorne, head coach of the Yellow Jackets.

Kenny and I spent a few minutes catching up. He asked about my new job and then we talked about how the season was progressing. Even though the team has struggled a little bit lately, it certainly has not diminished Kenny's enthusiasm or his optimism. He loves tennis and he loves his team and the GT program. He still has great hopes for the team this season and with the recruits he has coming in he has great aspirations for the program next year. He invited me to say hello to the team as they were warming up.

I talked briefly with senior David North. The team's former number one has experienced back problems over the last two seasons and has not played much. He said he was ready to play on Saturday although he would only be playing singles. David is from South Africa and he let me know that his good friend Kevin Anderson, also from South Africa, beat Novak Djokovic just a few days before on Friday, March 27 at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. He told me they played all the time in juniors in South Africa and they he probably beat Kevin 25 times or so. Anderson's win was a big one for sure. I know David was really happy for him although he hadn't had the chance to talk with him since the win.

I spent a few minutes with assistant coach Josh Hausman and then seniors Scott Blackmon and George Gvelesiani. Scott has been playing well this season, but George had not been in the lineup in the last few matches. I'd get to see them both play doubles and singles in this match as Scott was playing the number one position and George was in the number six position.

The doubles point was up for grabs when George and Guillermo Gomez won at number two, 8-3, while Scott and Ryan Smith lost at number three, 8-3. The GT ones ended up losing 8-6 in a tight match and the Jackets were down 1-0.

I stayed focused on the number one and number six matches. The Wake Forest indoor facility is very nice with eight courts, four on each side with a viewing area down the middle between the two groups of courts. Scott and George played directly opposite of each other. George had a tough time with Andrew Brasseaux, going down in straight sets 6-3, 6-1. Brasseaux's one-handed backhand was very effective and he ended up winning a number of points off of it. Scott also faced a tough match against Mariusz Adamski. Scott was playing tough in the second set but he did not have enough to beat Adamski, losing 6-3, 7-5. I spent some time with them after their matches and while they were disappointed they were also looking to bounce back.

On court two, David North was hitting some nice ground strokes to start the match, but he ended up twisting his ankle in the third game and retired after the fourth game, down 3-1. The Jackets did get two nice wins. At number three, freshman Guillermo Gomez lost the first set 7-6, bounced back in the second set 6-4 and won the third set tie-breaker 10-8. At number four, freshman Eliot Potvin won in straight sets 6-2, 7-6. I thought it was a great effort from the youngest members on the team and it helped disappoint the Demon Deacons a bit, as they were looking for a 7-0 sweep.

There was a nice crowd on hand to support the Yellow Jackets and the team showed a lot of class when they came over to thank all of us who came out to cheer them on. With the loss the Jackets fell to 11-9 and 1-6 in the ACC. They'll need a few good wins to be considered for the NCAA tournament.

The Yellow Jackets return to North Carolina on April 11 and 13 when they take on North Carolina and Duke. I have put the matches on my calendar and I look forward to making the drive over to Raleigh - Durham to support them.

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