Outstanding Season For Rebel Netters Ends In NCAA Quarterfinals

TULSA, Okla. -- The No. 5 seeded Ole Miss men’s tennis team saw its outstanding season come to a close in the NCAA Quarterfinals here Sunday, with a hard-fought 4-0 loss to fourth-seeded Georgia at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.  The match was much closer than the score indicated.

The Rebels end another championship season at 24-5, equaling last year’s record and making it their 10^th 20-win season in the history of the program.  Georgia (25-3) advances to face No. 1 Virginia (who beat Baylor 4-2) in the semifinals.

For the third match in a row, the Rebels lost the doubles to fall behind early, 1-0.  Georgia’s 17^th-ranked team of Nate Schnugg and Jamie Hunt knocked off fifth-ranked Jonas Berg and Erling Tveit 8-4 at No. 1.  Then Matthias Wellermann and Bram ten Berge dropped an 8-6 decision to UGA’s Luis Flores and Javier Garrapiz at No. 2 for the point.  The No. 3 match was tied at 6 when play was stopped.  Georgia has now won the doubles point in 15 of its last 16 NCAA Tournament matches going back to 2006 (the only loss won in the 2006 Championship match against Pepperdine).  This year they had only lost a match one time when winning the doubles point, and that was against Florida in the SEC Championships.

The Rebels fell behind even more, losing five of the first sets.  To their credit, they battled back and never gave up, making the Bulldogs earn the win.  ten Berge lost to Vitulli 7-5, 6-3 at No. 6, as Georgia went up 2-0. 

In a battle between two of the top players in the nation the No. 1 match came down to two breaks of serve.  Helgeson, ranked No. 4 in the nation, broke Tveit, ranked No. 22, twice to win 6-4, 6-4, making it 3-0 Georgia.

But the Rebels would not go away quietly.  At No. 2 singles, Wellermann down a set, (6-4) staved off match points against Schnugg, breaking back at 5-3 and holding serve to eventually force a second-set tiebreaker.  At 3-3 in the tiebreaker, Wellermann won four of the next five points to win it 7-4 and force a third set.  In the third set however, Schnugg jumped out to a big lead (3-0) and never looked back, winning 6-1 to clinch the victory and end the Rebels’ 12-match winning streak. 

Moments before Schnugg clinched, Rebel senior Robbye Poole erased several match points of his own, winning a second-set tiebreaker (7-5) against Georgia’s Luis Flores, to force a third set.

At No. 4 singles, Berg was locked in a tight battle, while sophomore Kalle Norberg was up 40-15 to stay on serve in the second set against the Bulldog’s Garrapiz.

“Georgia played a very, very good match,” head coach Billy Chadwick said.  “They were tough in doubles, especially at No. 1 doubles.  That is one of the best matches I’ve seen them play at one doubles, so they deserved to win that one.  They (Georgia) were making their serves and making their returns.   They were moving, and that was the difference in the doubles.  We’ve been very successful at one doubles and that was a position we felt like we could win.

“In singles they jumped on us early.  There were a couple of key matches.  We felt six was a key match that they won.  The rest of them were just really what you would call epic battles, up and down.  It goes down at 4-0, but it was a close, close match.”

The Rebels won their seventh consecutive SEC West title, captured the SEC Tournament Championship and hosted a regional for the eighth year in a row, advancing to the Elite Eight for the eighth time in the history of the program.

The season is not quite over for some of the Rebels, as they begin play in the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships Wednesday.  Tveit, Wellermann and Poole are in the singles, while Tveit and Berg will team up in doubles, along with Wellermann and ten Berge.

NCAA MEN’S TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS QUARTERFINALS TULSA, Okla.

 

#5 Georgia  4

#4 Ole Miss  0

 

DOUBLES

1. Hunt/Schnugg (UGA) def. Tveit/Berg (OM) 8-4

2. Flores/Garrapiz (UGA) def. Wellermann/ten Berge (OM) 8-6

3. Jakob Klaeson/Tucker Vorster (OM) vs. Helgeson/Vitulli (UGA) 6-6, sus.

Order of Finish: 1, 2

SINGLES

1. Travis Helgeson (UGA) def. Erling Tveit (OM) 6-4, 6-4

2. Nate Schnugg (UGA) def. Matthias Wellermann (OM) 6-4, 6-7(4), 6-1

3. Robbye Poole (OM) vs. Luis Flores (UGA) 5-7, 7-6(5), sus.

4. Jonas Berg (OM) vs. Jamie Hunt (UGA) 6-3, 3-6, 3-4, sus.

5. Kalle Norberg (OM) vs. Javier Garrapiz (UGA) 4-6, 4-5, sus.

6. Christian Vitulli (UGA) def. Bram ten Berge (OM) 7-5, 6-3

Order of Finish: 6, 1, 2

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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