ATHENS – Nearly five hours later, with a backhand that harmlessly billowed the net, the spell expired.
The Georgia men’s tennis team, fortified by Bulldog Nation and aspiring for an addition to the trophy case, met its fate Sunday night. The seventh-seeded Pepperdine Waves toppled the second-seeded Bulldogs 4-3 in an NCAA quarterfinal match at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
“Incredible,” Pepperdine coach Adam Steinberg said. “What a great college match.”
Said Georgia No. 1 singles player Wil Spencer, who lost in three sets, “It’s just painful right now.”
The four-hour, 45-minute match, begun in bright sunshine and completed under the lights in the dusk, was stuffed with drama that held the largely pro-Georgia crowd rapt.
The Waves (27-6) won the doubles point for the initial 1-0 lead, then lost the first three singles matches before rallying with the next two singles matches to tie the match at 3. At about 7:45 p.m., Georgia (26-3) faced simultaneous match points at both Nos. 1 and 3 singles, when losses in both would have given the team match to Pepperdine. However, Spencer at No. 1 and Sadio Doumbia at No. 3 won the points, forestalling the end of match for another hour.
The deciding point was left to the No. 3 singles court and two seniors, Doumbia and Pepperdine’s Alex Llompart.
In the third set, Llompart broke Doumbia, whose legs had been cramping since the second set, at 2-2, giving him the room for a 7-6 (2), 6-7 (2), 6-4 win. Llompart repeatedly attacked the net at the end, aggressive play that led to Doumbia giving out, his last stroke a forehand into the net. Llompart, who has won in the Davis Cup for Puerto Rico, called it the biggest win of his career.
“We take too much pride in our school, I care for my teammates too much to let them down,” Llompart said. “They got me through this one.”
Spencer’s pained sentiment echoed that of Georgia women’s tennis player Chelsey Gullickson, whose team fell in the quarterfinal round Saturday night to Duke.
Said Georgia coach Manny Diaz of the Waves, “They really owned the big moments.”
Pepperdine’s frenzied mob at match’s end, with Llompart hoisted in the air, spoke to the magnitude of the moment. In the past eight times that the Georgia men had hosted the NCAA tournament while also making the 16-team final event, they had ridden the wave of Bulldog Nation to at least reach the semis each time, including three national championships. Not in 2012.
Steinberg said it felt as good to beat Georgia Sunday as it did to beat the Bulldogs in 2006 for the school’s only national championship.
“It’s such an honor to play here,” he said.
Sunday’s other quarterfinal winners were No. 1 USC (4-1 over No. 8 Duke), No. 4 UCLA (4-2 over No. 5 Ohio State) and No. 3 Virginia (4-0 over No. 11 Stanford). The men’s and women’s semifinals will be played Monday with the finals on Tuesday.
Southern California continued its destructive path, polishing off Duke 4-1 in about 2 ½ hours, about an hour faster than the average. The Trojans (31-1) are chasing history, going for their fourth consecutive NCAA title, which has been accomplished only twice previously.
“It definitely feels close,” said USC’s Daniel Nguyen, who contributed wins at No. 2 doubles and No. 3 singles.
Duke (25-6) could not offer much resistance in its first quarterfinals appearance since 2001.
USC’s win sets up a delicious Monday of semifinals for those who appreciate Southern California rivalries and/or antipathy. USC and UCLA, separated by 13 miles, will face each other in both the men’s and women’s semifinals on courts almost 2,000 miles from Los Angeles.
The UCLA men are the only team to beat USC this season. On the women’s side, the fifth-seeded Trojans are one of just two teams to beat top-ranked UCLA.
