Surprise NCAA Championship Opportunity!

I’m excited. But I’m also stuck at work. Curses!

So people out there watching, please post score updates. They will be much appreciated.

... and ESPNU is showing some bull with some dude and chick reading off of cue cards and challenging each other to play sports that they don’t play.

Can we please wait a little longer to start the game? I want to see if the chick can dunk!

Or do you have to have ESPNU?

Other doubles look on serve.

... Georgia’s #1 doubles team won the Junior US Open or some nonsense.

2-1 Georgia, Texas serving.

Texas just broke again on court 1 to go up 4-0. Little pump of the fist, there.

4-1 Georgia serving.

You know, I came over here with the specific intent of tossing out a little bit of tongue-in-cheek smack-talk about tennis, but I don’t want to be mistaken for being serious and give the fine Longhorns fans a bad impression.

I will say this: we take our tennis seriously at UGA. Back when I was in school, when the NCAA championships were held in Athens year after year after year, we got fraternity block seating to the matches, sneaked liquor in, and barked about as madly as we always have for football games. I’m willing to bet that’s still the case.

Then again, we’re talking about a school where the program with the second highest average attendance (after football, of course), is women’s gymnastics.

Cheers!

You can hear the fans throwing out a little “Texas! Fight!” Let’s get it back!

Winning 6-3 and serving.

But Texas just finished up on court 3. We need one more doubles win before we move to singles play.

Texas broken on #1, Georgia back on serve. Score 5-4.

the doubles point is really important here with how many good singles players Georgia has.

... but they’re playing well and threatening to break back on #1. Tennis is such a mental game, this would be huge.

Now up 5-4 and serving.

Texas up 6-5 and serving on 2

Georgia serving to win their match.

Good news on 2, though, Texas just needs to hold serve to win, up 7-6.

WIN! Texas takes the double point with wins on 2 and 3, just like yesterday’s match.

Kutrovsky up 0-30 on 1.

Georgia’s number one is the guy that transferred from Texas, I’m pretty sure.

are the other guys playing?

Texas down a break on 4, 5 and 6

Now Texas is down on 3, 4, 5, and 6, and Helgeson broke back on 1.

Back on serve on 4

Georgia has a break lead on 3 courts, the rest are on serve.

Each singles match is best two-out-of-three sets.

All others down at least one break. Georgia took the first set on 4 6-1.

Damico at 2 has a break point to get back on serve.

Georgia just took the first set at 3. 6-3.

Kutrovsky breaks to take the lead on 1, leads 5-4 and serving for the set, but Helgeson and he have traded breaks the whole set. Damico just missed his chance to get back on serve.

Damico threatening to extend the set on 2, all other courts on serve.

Scoreboard having trouble figuring out who’s serving.

3-0 in the second set.

After a set on each court, here’s what we’ve got:
Texas up a set on 1, 5 and 6.

Second sets so far:
1: Down a break 2-0
2: On serve 1-0
3: On serve 1-0
4: Down a break
5: Yet to start
6: Up a break 3-1

back on serve on 1!

Corrie needs to win this set to extend the match.

If our guys who are winning can hold serve, it’s enough to win. This is exciting.

Texas team now up 2-0!

It looks like the nos. 1 are still trading breaks.

Conditioning/stamina is gonna decide this thing

This is so freaking close.

Yikes is right, hornbone.

Corrie sends court three to a third set!

Cramping or something. Battling like hell, though.

this thing could be 2 all in about 2 minutes

Texas leads 2-1 for the team count.

I think the coaches are counting on Dimi’s win and hoping for a win at #3 or #5. Line 5 is probably our best shot.

Team points now even at 2 all. Nerves anyone?

On serve (or on break?) at one, down a break at 3, just started on 5

We’re even in 2 and losing in 1. Yikes again.

not looking good on 3 and who knows with #1

You could hook up any one of these guy’s hearts to a generator and keep the city of Sacramento lit up for just shy of a week.

gotta hold here

because it will more than likely be the last match. If this thing splits 3-3, you don’t wanna look over to line 5 and find yourself down 4-1 in the 3rd. The start of this 3rd set is crucial, to get ahead or at least stay even.

Plus Kutrovsky lost his break lead on Helgeson on 1.

it can turn around in a hury though

Back on serve.

Dimi and Mihailovic better figure some things out and fast.

... I hope.

Ooops, there goes three. Corrie drops his, Texas needs to break on 1 right now and come back on 5.

that sure happended fast

no text, whills.

F.

And congrats to the Longhorns. What a run at the end.

And we were back on serve at #5. Ugh.

Great season for the Horns.

This is the highest level of competition. Georgia’s lost only 4 matches since the beginning of the 2005-06 season (three of them were during this “rebuilding” year, and the fourth was the 2006 championship).

Tough fight all around. Congratulations on the great run.

This is the kind of thing that will pay dividends down the road. We graduate 2 of our top six so it will be interesting to see if we can fill those spots with reserve guys or incoming freshman. In tennis, unlike many other sports, you can pluck a kid out of eastern Europe and put him in the middle of your lineup as a freshman. You don’t have to wait for him to mature etc. Schellenberg and Kane-West would be the top two reserves but they won’t be able to fill Barriga and Mahailovic’s shoes. Will need some freshman. We are sending a kid from our academy to play for the horns next year but he’ll need a few years to develop. Great job Horn Brain.