May 23, 2006

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PALO ALTO, Calif. - The Baylor Bears saw their season end with a heart-breaking 4-3 loss to undefeated and top-ranked Georgia in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships at Stanford University on Monday evening.

The fourth-ranked Baylor squad ended its 2006 campaign at 24-7 while Georgia extended its record to 30-0.

Baylor earned its three points by winning the doubles point and singles victories by Michal Kokta and Vladimir Portnov. When the Bears claimed the doubles, it was only the third time this season Georgia has not been victorious in doubles. Kokta and Lars Poerschke, ranked No. 23, upset Georgia's ninth-seeded John Isner and Luis Flores 8-6 to walk off the court first. Seconds later David Galic and Will Ward disposed of Georgia's Ricardo Gonzalez and Colin Purcell, 8-6. On court two, Matt Brown and Matija Zgaga were trailing 6-7 when play was halted.

Georgia took a 2-1 lead when Flores downed Zgaga and second-ranked Isner defeated No. 4 Poerschke at courts two and one, respectively. With their straight set wins, Kokta at No. 3 and Portnov at No. 6, gave BU a 3-2 edge. However, Georgia would knot it up when Purcell posted a straight set win over Brown.

Now the pressure was on Will Ward and No. 64 Matic Omerzel who were immersed in a marathon match, Ward's second in as many days. After a grueling match against Stanford on Sunday night, Ward was at an area hospital until 3 a.m. receiving intravaneous fluids. Ward lost the first set 7-6 and when all of the other courts were finished, Ward had a 5-4 lead in the second set. He would go on the win that set in another tiebreaker (9-7). In the final stanza Omerzel broke Ward's serve in the fourth game and went on to win the third set 6-3 and secure the win for Georgia.

"There's a reason Georgia's the No. 1 team; they're a great team and always going to be tough on any team they play They're a championship team with a championship coach (Manuel Diaz)," said head coach Matt Knoll.

"You have to believe that (playing late last night versus Stanford) was a factor today as the match wore on. That's what makes team tennis kind of neat though, because you look at some of the other guys that maybe had a chance to win their matches (versus Stanford) sooner and get us out of there an hour and a half earlier than we did. But, that's part of what makes team tennis and this tournament great, because Georgia didn't really have to break a sweat in the first two rounds. We had to work a lot harder and the reason for that is we're not as good as they are. We had to grind it out to get through the quarters and that has to be a factor," Knoll added.

#1 Georgia 4, #4 Baylor 3

Doubles
Order of finish: 1, 3

1. #23 Kokta/Poerschke (BU) def. #9 Isner/Ruiz (G) 8-6
2. #50 Flores/Omerzel (G) vs. Brown/Zgaga (BU) DNF
3. David Galic/Ward (BU) def. Gonzalez/Purcell 8-6

Singles
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3, 6, 5, 4

1. #2 John Isner (G) def. #4 Lars Poerschke (BU) 6-4, 6-3
2. #19 Luis Flores (G) def. #65 Matija Zgaga (BU) 6-4, 6-2
3. #29 Michal Kokta (BU) def. Antonio Ruiz (G) 7-5, 6-2
4. #64 Matic Omerzel (G) def. Will Ward (BU) 7-6, 6-7(7), 6-3
5. Colin Purcell (G) def. #124 Matt Brown (BU) 6-4, 6-2
6. Vladimir Portnov (BU) def. Ricardo Gonzalez (G) 6-3, 6-4