University of Georgia Athletics
University of Georgia
Southern Intercollegiate Championships
Georgia Claims Singles, Doubles Crowns
September 27, 2010 | Men's Tennis
Sept. 27, 2010
ATHENS, Ga. --- Freshman Hernus Pieters captured the 17th Georgia singles title in Southern Collegiates history and later teamed up with senior Javier Garrapiz to take the doubles crown Monday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
Pieters defeated Alex Zotov of Vanderbilt, 7-6(4), 6-3 to win the Division II singles crown. He becomes the fifth Bulldog singles champion in the past six years.
Pieters and Garrapiz then defeated Georgia Tech's hard-serving duo of Juan Spir and Kevin King, 9-8(3) to win the Division I doubles title, the 19th Bulldog doubles title in tournament history. Georgia went blow-for-blow with Tech in today's final match, which finally made it outdoors as the skies cleared in Athens. After holding serve to take an 8-7 lead down the stretch, the Yellowjackets countered to knot it at eight all and the Bulldog team cruised to a 7-3 tiebreaker win to bring home the title.
"The match was hard - those guys are good and both have huge serves," said Garrapiz, who won his second Southern Collegiates title after taking co-champion honors in singles last season. "We played unbelievable and like we know how to play. It was our first time playing together and we're glad we won."
"It was a great match," Pieters said. "We knew they were good. It was great having [Javi] as my partner - he helped me through the tournament. This was a good match. It was great to win singles too and it was a great first tournament for me as a Bulldog."
Earlier today, Garrapiz dropped a close one to fellow Spaniard Guillermo Gomez of Georgia Tech, 6-3, 7-5, in the Division I singles finals, reaching the championship match for the second straight year.
In other Georgia action today, the doubles team of senior Drake Bernstein and junior Wil Spencer were bested by Spir and King in the Division I doubles semis, falling 9-8(3).
"I think our guys really grew up a lot during the course of the tournament," said head coach Manuel Diaz, a two-time winner of the Southern Collegiates as a Bulldog player. "We see now we have four good doubles teams. Javi and Hernus were good enough to win this match and our other team that lost in the tiebreaker just as easily could've gone the other way."
"We feel good and I thought we made a lot of progress, especially in doubles during the tournament. Overall today was another great day. It was a great day for Hernus winning both titles. We're just looking forward to the next couple weeks and we'll continue to work and see what we can do."
Today concluded the 43rd annual Southern Collegiates - the oldest fall tennis tournament in the nation.
The Bulldogs are next in action Oct. 2-4 at the Georgia Tech Invitational in Atlanta and Oct. 2-11 at the All-America Championships in Tulsa, Okla.
GEORGIA MONDAY RESULTS
- Garrapiz/Pieters def. King/Spir, 9-8(3), DI Doubles Finals
- Pieters def. Zotov, 7-6(4), 6-3, DII Singles Finals
- Gomez def. Garrapiz, 6-3, 7-5, DI Singles Finals
- King/Spir def. Bernstein/Spencer, 9-8(3), DI Doubles Semifinals
