University of Georgia Athletics
Pit Crew Paces Bulldogs
May 21, 2017 | Men's Tennis
By John Frierson
UGAAA Staff Writer
Where to start? Maybe the ending, which said so much about this Georgia men's tennis team and the program and community that supports it.
Serving for the match and a spot in Monday's semifinals of the NCAA Championships, Georgia's Jan Zielinski sent a serve up the middle against UCLA's Maxime Cressy and came in after it. No volley was needed.
The return went into the net and Zielinski's racquet went flying, just before his teammates swarmed around him in celebration amid the roars and applause of hundreds of faithful fans. The sophomore's 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 4 singles gave the 13-seeded Bulldogs a 4-2 win over the fifth-seeded Bruins.
A match that began Saturday afternoon at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex under a very hot sun, forcing many of the thousands of spirited spectators in Henry Feild Stadium to look for shade anywhere they could find it, ended right around midnight due to a five-hour weather stoppage. A scorching day turned into a cool, pleasant night.
The stands were packed for the first two hours of the match and a hearty 500-plus returned after the long delay, when play resumed a little after 11 p.m. The players and fans returned to where everything left off just after 6 p.m., with UCLA leading 1-0 overall after winning the doubles point.
"I think I can speak for the whole team: it was pretty awesome to see a lot of people coming in," Georgia's Walker Duncan said. "Everyone knew (the match wasn't going to restart until late) and we're just really thankful that we have such dedicated fans. For them to come out and support us like that was really special."
A five-hour delay is long for everyone, perhaps longest of all for Duncan — and his opponent, Austin Rapp. The Bulldog was serving for the match as the first rain drops fell and lost his first match point at 40-30. Now it was 40-all — either Duncan wins the match on the next point or Rapp gets the break to draw even and force a tiebreaker.
For the moment there was a third option: play was halted before the 40-all point and the critical moment would have to wait a long while.
Meanwhile, Georgia's Wayne Montgomery at No. 2 singles was in a similar spot. Serving up a set, 5-4 and 30-0, Montgomery also had to wait. At No. 6, Georgia's Robert Loeb was up a set and a break, leading 2-1 in the second.
When play was halted Zielinski had just won the second set to force a third, so the Dogs were more than holding their own against a UCLA team that had beaten Georgia, 4-3, back in early February.
But you never know what's going to happen after a five-hour break. Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said much of it was spent working on strategies and getting the players "mentally and emotionally" ready to pick up right where they left off in the afternoon.
"UCLA is an aggressive team and if we had taken our foot off the gas, they really would have run over us," Diaz said.
On the first point after play resumed, Duncan missed a volley wide. He and Rapp, tied 6-6 in the second set, headed for a tiebreaker. "I only had to go out for one point, but it turned into a tiebreaker," he said. Moments later, Montgomery closed out his match at No. 2, tying the overall match 1-1.
In the tiebreaker at No. 5, Duncan took the first three points and went on to win, 7-2, giving the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
At No. 6, Loeb remained in command and eventually closed out Joseph Di Guilio, 7-6, 6-2. Now the Dogs were a win away, but Nathan Ponwith was down in the third set at No. 1 and Emil Reinberg was down a set and in a tight, grinding second set.
No worries, though, because Zielinski was rolling at No. 4. Against the 6-foot-7 Cressy, who likes to attack the net at every opportunity, Zielinski opted to get to net as often as possible, as well. It was the strategy going into the match, he said, and it worked better and better as the match progressed.
"The strategy was just to try to take the net away from him and try to make him come up with the passing shot and hit as many balls from the baseline as he can," he said.
Serving at 5-2 in the third, Zielinski hit a crosscourt volley winner for 15-all. A great get on a half-volley at his feet later led to a backhand volley winner and 30-15. Then came a stretch forehand volley that Cressy couldn't return and three match points. He only needed the one.
In the end, three of Georgia's four points came from "the pit," the lower three courts in the stadium, where Nos. 4-6 play. The Dogs have historically been very strong at Nos. 4-6, clinching a lot of huge wins there. You can add Saturday's sweep of the Bruins on those three courts to the list.
"We came out with a lot of energy and everyone, Walker, Robert, we took care of the job in the pit," Zielinski said.
Back in February, when the Bulldogs lost five straight matches for the first time in program history, one was to USC, whom Georgia beat 4-3 on Thursday; another was to the Bruins, also avenged; fourth in the run was North Carolina, 4-2. Georgia will get another shot at the ninth-seeded Tar Heels on Monday.
All teams evolve during the season and this very young Georgia squad — two freshmen, three sophomores and a junior in the lineup — has come a long way in the past three months.
"This is a much more mature team than it was just a couple of months ago," Diaz said.
Saturday was a very long day with a very satisfying conclusion, and now the Bulldogs are back in the semifinals for the second year in a row.
John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
Players Mentioned
