Georgia Tech Men FINALLY beat Georgia!!

Wow, a wonderful feat has occurred! For the first time in 23 years, the Georgia Tech men's tennis team has earned a win over in-state rival University of Georgia on February 12th, 2011 at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.

Clinching the match for the # 21 ranked Jackets was Dean O'Brien, a senior from Benmore, South Africa, playing at # 6 singles. After losing the first set, O'Brien pushed himself to another level to take the next two from Ignacio Toboada in front of a large crowd in Atlanta, GA. His victory made Tech come out on top with a 4-3 dual match score over the Bulldogs.

O'Brien after winning his match.

Imagine all the emotions Dean was feeling after clinching the huge upset over the #11 ranked team in the nation!

"I cannot explain the feeling that I have right now," said O'Brien. "It is indescribable. This team has been through a lot of stuff and to be the person to get the win, this was for the alumni, the old boys, for everyone, my teammates and my coach."

Georgia Tech's Head Coach Kenny Thorne was quite pleased with his team's success on the court that day as well.

"These seniors deserve it. They have put so much time and effort into their games and getting this team to gel and this is the fruition of it. All of the seniors need to hold their heads high. They took out Georgia in their senior year and that is something to be said. Georgia has a good team, you have to give them credit, and they fought. That was not a weak Georgia team that was a good Georgia team that we just beat."

After getting this huge upset over the Bulldogs, positive momentum has stuck with the Jackets, which was shown with their 4-3 victory over the Auburn Tigers. Hopefully this win will keep the Jackets in their winning ways and give them inspiration to dominate the ACC conference for the spring 2011 season!


                                        See Dean O'Brien after his thrilling performance:

              

Women Take Down #30 Iowa

The Lady Jackets continued their strong start on the young 2011 season, taking a 5-2 decision from the Iowa Lady Hawkeyes. The Lady Jackets improve to 2-0 on the season, while Iowa falls to 1-1.

Viet Ha Ngo had a stellar day for the Jackets, winning easily at #1 singles with a 6-1, 6-0 score. She also helped Tech grab the doubles point, winning at #2 with Jillian O'Neill by posting an 8-2 result.

Sasha Krupina striking a backhand.

Other winners for the Lady Jackets in singles were Caroline Lilley at #2, Jillian O'Neill at the 3rd position, and Lynn Blau at the 4th spot. All three of Tech's doubles teams won their matches, the closest score being at the first slot with Sasha Krupina and Caroline Lilley notching an 8-6 triumph over Sonja Molnar and Jessica Young.

The Lady Jackets will face #28 ranked South Florida in their next contest at home in Atlanta. Hopefully they will continue to succeed and conquer the Bulls to stay undefeated!

Lady Jackets Upset #9 Ranked Northwestern, Men Demolish USC Upstate

For their season opener, the #16 ranked Lady Yellow Jackets earned a huge upset win over the 9th ranked team in the country. Northwestern fought hard, but it was ultimately the Lady Jackets who proved to be the stronger team on the 23rd of January at the Bill Moore Tennis Center.

Junior Caroline Lilley.

Sasha Krupina and Caroline Lilley got the ball rolling with an 8-4 win over Linda Abu Mushrefova and Nida Hamilton at the #1 spot. Viet Ha Ngo and Jillian O’Neill followed in their footsteps and conquered in a tight 8-5 battle at the #2 doubles position to clinch the doubles point.

Winners in singles for the Lady Jackets were Caroline Lilley at #2, Jillian O’Neill at #3, Sasha Krupina at #5, and Elizabeth Kilborn at #6.

Coach Bryan Shelton seemed pleased with his team’s performance with the following quote:

“Overall, I am happy for the whole team. We did some things better than we did last weekend and we executed better. This is a good sign that we improved just over this past week.”

The men also had a strong opening day, winning in true fashion with a 7-0 score against USC Upstate.

All of the Jackets won their matches against the Spartans, only losing 21 games combined in the 9 matches played.

Senior Guillermo Gomez dominated at #1 singles.

Head Coach Kenny Thor appeared happy with the team’s success:

“I get excited when we do the fundamentals very well and I felt like that is what we did today.”

Welcome to My Blog!

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog on the Georgia Tech Women's and Men's Tennis teams. I hope you enjoy reading my updates each week on each team's results throughout the 2011 spring season. Feel free to comment if you feel inspired!

For readers who are not familiar with college tennis, I will provide some basic facts to help you comprehend the sport and rules better.

Georgia Tech is a member of the powerhouse Atlantic Coast Conference, commonly known as the ACC. The ACC is affiliated with the Division 1 sector of the NCAA, or the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Other institutions part of the conference include The University of North Carolina, Vanderbilt University, and Boston College.

In Division 1 tennis, there are 7 points possible for a team to receive during each match. 4 points must be obtained for a team to defeat their opponent. 3 doubles matches are played to start the competition. One team must win 2 out of 3 of those matches to earn the 1 doubles point possible. All doubles matches in the college format are played to 8 games, the winner being whoever gets to 8 and wins by at least 2 games. If the teams reach a tie at 8 all, a tie-breaker is played to determine the winning tandem.

After doubles play is completed, the singles competition begins. The team that won the doubles point has to win 3 out of the 6 matches to be victorious. The team that lost the doubles point has to work a bit harder and win 4 out of the 6 matches to come out on top.

Tennis is a sport played using sets. The first player to get to 6 and ahead by at least 2 games (two different times, or in two different sets), is the winner. If the score gets to 6 all in a set, a tie-breaker is played to determine the winner of that particular set. Set tie-breakers go up to 7 points. The winner of the set tie-breaker is the player who reaches 7 first and wins by at least 2 points. If the score ends up being 7 all in the tie-breaker, the series will continue until someone is ahead by 2 points. Some set tie-breakers have lasted very long, with some scores being 22-20 for the person with 22 points to win the set by a 7-6 margin.

Each game starts out at love, which is another word for 0. If a player wins the first point, their score goes up to 15. If they win the second point, their score is doubled and goes to 30. If they win the next point after that, they have a score of 40. If they are lucky enough to win the next point, they have won the game. If the score in a game gets tied to 40 all, the score is called deuce. If a player wins the deuce point, they have an advantage point, commonly known as "ad-in". The player must win their advantage point to win the game. If they don't, the score goes back to deuce. The first player to win the point when the have reached an advantage point for themselves wins the game.

I hope these explanations are clear and help explain the sport better. If you have any questions, feel free to comment or email me!