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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Georgia Tops South Carolina 4-1 In SEC Tournament
4/17/2003 | Men's Tennis
April 17, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. - The 10th-seeded Georgia men?s tennis team advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2003 SEC Tournament with a 4-1 win against No. 7 seed South Carolina Thursday evening at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center in Oxford. The Bulldogs (9-13) will face second-seeded Vanderbilt Friday at 5 p.m.
"This was a great win for our team today," said head coach Manuel Diaz. "Our top guys, our veterans, did a great job leading the team today. They really took charge, and our guys came ready to play."
Georgia, which lost to the Gamecocks 5-2 on April 4, got on the board first by winning doubles matches at No. 1 and 3. The 14th-ranked duo of Bo Hodge and Nicolas Boeker won its sixth straight match at No. 1 with an 8-3 victory against Angelo Niculescu and Tom Eklund. The tandem of Stephan Timu and Will Glenn secured the first point with an 8-6 victory against Marcus Westman and Geraldo Knorr in the No. 3 spot.
"Steph and Will gave us a great clinching match at No. 3 doubles, and we came out strong in singles," added Diaz. "The last time we played South Carolina, we lost the first set in five of the six singles matches, and we really wanted to avoid doing that again. We got off to a much better start today."
Boeker gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 lead with a 6-4, 6-2 win against 47th-ranked Seth Rose at No. 2 singles. South Carolina (17-7) recorded its lone point as Westman topped Timu in straight sets at No. 3
Playing at No. 5 singles, Oconee Country native Jason Varela extended Georgia?s lead to 3-1 with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Eklund. Varela has now won three singles matches in a row and six of his last seven.
Sixth-ranked Hodge put the match in the books with a 6-4, 7-5 win against Niculescu in the top singles match. Hodge is the first Bulldog to hit the 25-win mark, and it was his 19th victory against a ranked opponent.
Freshmen Raian Luchici and Strahinja Bobusic had their matches suspended once the match was clinched.
"I think we won this match due to the leadership of our senior and junior, our top two guys in the lineup. They did a great job in doubles, and they did a great job of getting the younger players ready and focused to play," said Diaz. "Our team played South Carolina a really close match about 10 days ago, and we didn't win. We won the doubles point, but we didn't really perform the way we were hoping in the singles, and I think we were ready to make a statement today. We were ready to avenge that loss. That was the difference."
The Bulldogs return to action tomorrow, April 18, as they take on second-seeded Vanderbilt at 5 p.m. The Commodores had a first-round bye.
"Vanderbilt beat us as bad as anyone in the conference this season," offered Diaz. "That was early in the season, and hopefully we can do a much better job tomorrow."