Saturday, May 19, 2007-Day Three
Men's Quarterfinals

With the exception of the massive upset of Illinois over Ohio State, the men's quarterfinals did not provide the same edge-on-your-seat excitement as the women did yesterday, but there were still some good matches.

The Virginia men have stacked their lineup with top players so much so that some of the best in the nation need to sit out when the six is reached. That certainly came in handy today against No. 12 Southern California. The fourth-seeded Cavaliers won the doubles point, despite So Cal's Jamil Al-Agba & Garrett Snyder taking the number three win. The lead didn't last long as Robert Farah (SC) defeated Marko Miklo (V) in virtually no time to bring the score to 1-1.

Treat Huey brought Virginia back up with a straight set victory over Dejan Cvetkovic and Somdev Devvarman took it at No. 1. At that point the crowd (which was mostly Georgia fans just cheering for the match to be over so they could see their team!) turned to courts 3 & 5 to see if it would be Dominic Inglot or Houston Barrick who would clinch. The latter went into a tiebreaker (not finished) and Dominic was the hero of the day

I was much more in fan mode than reporter mode for the Illinois-Ohio State match, but I can tell you it was an incredible effort clinched by Marc Spicijaric and supported by the Illini Net Nuts. For details on the 4-2 upset of No. 2 Ohio State by No. 10 Illinois, check out Colette Lewis' Zoo Tennis. There was no surprise, though, in the No. 3 Baylor defeat of unseeded North Carolina State. It was an incredible run for the Wolfpacks that ended today.

I think the only time I've seen such a huge, loud, cheering crowd close to the fans at the Georgia-UCLA match was at Shea Stadium.* The undefeated Georgia Bulldogs don't seem to even need the encouragement, nevertheless they certainly had the hometown support for every point. The Bruins held tough and put on quite an effort that included three tiebreakers and another three 7-5 sets. A 4-0 score can mean many different things and in this case it represented a close match that was clinched by senior leader John Isner over Ben Kohlloeffel -- 7-5,7-6(2).

We are back to the women tomorrow for quarterfinal action. The Georgia women didn't garner as much support as the men the other day. The weekend should make the difference and they are going to need the help against No. 10 California. Top-seeded Stanford is sure to be challenged by Audra Cohen and the Miami Hurricanes (9). I'm sure Florida (4) and UCLA (12) will also be exciting, but the matchup I'm most looking forward to is No. 6 Notre Dame vs. No. 3 Georgia Tech. Now that will be one to remember.

Until Tomorrow,
Marcia Frost

P.S. I can't be in Georgia without at least putting out some good thoughts for the Mets, who will be right here going against the Braves the next few days!

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