University of Georgia Athletics
A Grand Finale For The Bulldogs
May 11, 2019 | Women's Tennis, The Frierson Files
By John Frierson
Staff Writer
The roars could be heard Saturday morning through the back wall of the ITA Hall of Fame — they brought goosebumps. They were the Henry Feild Stadium grandstand roars of yesterday and today, echoing through the Dan Magill Tennis Complex one last time.
In the final home match of its incredible (and ongoing) season, in the final match in front of that grand old grandstand, the top-seeded Georgia women's team survived a thorough test from No. 16 Michigan, winning 4-2, and advanced to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals next week in Lake Nona, Fla.
It was a fitting final match in front of that grandstand, erected in 1977, which has allowed countless Bulldog and tennis fans to observe and cheer and let out the mightiest of roars. Legendary Georgia coach Jeff Wallace, who normally played on the lower three courts during his Bulldog days, played in front of that grandstand in the NCAA tournament during his final season as a Bulldog, in 1984.
"I actually played on court 3 — I believe we were playing Arkansas and I got that one done, so that's one of my favorite courts," Wallace said, laughing.
Later in that 1984 NCAA Championships, during the singles tournament, a legend was truly born when Mikael Pernfors, the Georgia junior from Sweden, won the first of back-to-back NCAA singles titles — a feat that hadn't been accomplished in 20 years.
The following year, in 1985, in front of that same wood and metal grandstand, somehow even more packed than it was the year before, the Georgia men's team won its first NCAA team title, securing for its legendary coach, Dan Magill, the only elite accomplishment missing from his vast resume. And then the Bulldogs won the title on their home court again two years later.
In 1994, the Georgia women hosted the NCAAs for the first time. How'd that go? Well, the Bulldogs won the program's first team championship, in front of more than 3,400 barking fans. The image of Stacy Sheppard turning toward the crowd and jumping up and down remains fresh. And that team's star, Angela Lettiere, who didn't really want to bother playing in the singles event after a grueling run to the team title, she went out and captured her own NCAA title, too.
"I mean, '94, come on," Wallace said. "Beating Frank Brennan's mighty Stanford team (in the final), that was an epic battle and a great win for us."
Want some more? How about when men's coach Manuel Diaz, another Bulldog legend, captured the first of his four NCAA team titles, in 1999? Or what about 2007, when perhaps the most dominant and motivated Bulldog team ever, led by a big senior named John Isner, capped an undefeated season with a 4-0 shutout of Illinois in front of that grandstand?
Playing on court 1 that day were Isner and Illinois' Kevin Anderson, who more than a decade later would meet in the semifinals of Wimbledon last summer.
This grandstand and the thousands seated within were also witness to the brilliance and the tirades of a young John McEnroe, in 1978, when the Stanford freshman led the Cardinal to the team title and then captured the singles crown, winning a super-tight four-setter over N.C. State's John Sadri. Other American greats like Tim Mayotte, James Blake and Steve Johnson also played in front of that grandstand and its spirited crowds.
In 2012, Johnson, the former Southern Cal star, captured the second of back-to-back NCAA singles titles on court 3. In 2017, Michigan's Brienne Minor won the women's singles title on that same court. And Saturday, a little after noon, it was Georgia freshman Lourdes Carle that beat Minor 6-3, 6-3 at No. 3 singles, in an authoritative, masterful performance, one that put Georgia ahead 2-1.
On set point in the opening set, Carle chased down a drop shot and later won the point on an overhead smash, turning to the crowd and waving her arms, as if to say, "How do you like that?"
"I'm enjoying it so much," Carle said of her first NCAAs experience. "I love the environment here, I love to play on my court; I always say, No. 3 is my court, a place that I love to play with all the people, the fans. I'm so happy."
Carle, from Argentina, isn't exactly a student of NCAA tennis history, but she'd been informed before the match that her opponent was a former NCAA champion with plenty of game.
"I took this match like a challenge because she was so good. So for me, it was a good match for me to see where I am. I was super excited for that; I knew she was a really good player and that's why I was so excited in the match. I'm glad that I could play excellent and I gave the point to my team that we needed," said Carle, who improved to 18-4 in dual-match singles matches.
With the dual match knotted 2-2 and three matches still going, things were briefly tense, the issue potentially far from settled. Then, thanks to two clutch finishes by Meg Kowalski at No. 6 and Marta Gonzalez at No. 2 singles, the match was over.
After winning her first set 6-2 against Anca Craciun, Kowalski, the SEC Freshman of the Year, found herself down 5-2 in the second. But there's a reason the Chicago native has lost only one singles match in her Georgia career: she fights and scraps her way out of trouble.
From the 5-2 hole, Kowalski rallied and drew even, 5-5, only to get her serve broken again. Craciun served for the set but it was Kowalski rallying again, getting the break and forcing a tiebreaker. Craciun won the first two points before Kowalski reeled off seven in a row to win the match and put Georgia ahead 3-2.
"If I win and the rest of us lose, we lose. It's about the team. I just fought back and tried to out-compete her and out-play her and be solid at everything, and just give it my all," said Kowalski, now 23-1 in completed matches at Georgia.
Two matches remained, Gonzalez at No. 2 versus Giulia Pairone and Georgia's Vivian Wolff against Chiara Lommer at No. 4 singles, a match that was headed to a third set.
Not long after Kowalski prevailed, Gonzalez drew a roar from the crowd by going up 6-5 in the second set, having already won the first, 7-5. Needing to break Pairone's serve to earn the win and avoid a tiebreaker, Gonzalez got ahead and had several match points before the Wolverine missed wide, sending the Bulldogs to the quarterfinals and giving the crowd in the grandstand one more chance to stand and cheer.
"It feels so good playing the last home match ... I was so happy for (the fans) and I wanted them to see a good show, too," Gonzalez said.
The teardown of the grandstand will begin later this month and a new home stadium will be going up this summer. Hopefully, it too will have 40-plus years of memorable and magical moments played before it. But it will be hard to top all that's gone on in front of the venerable grandstand that so many of us have called home for so many years.
"The fact that Michigan was a great team and really challenged us, the fact that our fans were just epic and gave us a boost all throughout the match when we needed them, and the fact that it's the grandstand, the last time that thing will ever be there, it made for an emotional day for me," Wallace said. "It's fitting that we had to have a great crowd to get through this match and they helped us tremendously."
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
