ATHENS, Ga. — The No. 25 Red Raiders entered their second round match up against the No. 11 Georgia Bulldogs the same way they entered the season, looking to compete. Although the Bulldogs bested the Red Raiders 4-0 in the match, Tech made Georgia earn every point.
The Red Raiders came out aggressive during doubles play, with the pairing Isaac Arevalo and Reed Collier, as well as, the tandem of Ilgiz Valiev and Dimitrios Azoidis, taking the Bulldogs to set tie breakers on courts two and three, respectively. Unfortunately, Tech’s efforts came up short, conceding the doubles point to the Bulldogs.
The action between the two, top 25 programs, did not slow down in singles play. On court four, Reed Collier got out to a fast start taking the first set from Blake Croyder 6-1. Dimitrios Azoidis kept pace on court five by taking the first set 6-4 over the Bulldogs’ Billy Rowe. Unfortunately, the deep roster of the Bulldogs and the rowdy home crowd proved too much for the Red Raiders to overcome. Although Tech was unable to take a point off of the Bulldogs, the Red Raiders demonstrated that they part of the match every step of the way.
“If you go back, starting in January, we had a rocky start between our guys getting some COVID then we had some opponents struggle with it.” reflected head coach Danny Whitehead. “We missed the ITA Kickoff and had a bunch of cancelations, really the first half of the season. There were a couple of moments where I was trying to act collected in front of the team, but there are a couple of moments earlier this year, I didn’t know which way the season was going to go. To see the guys, just keep going and what we ended up doing, particularly in the second half of the season was inspiring to me as a coach from what I saw my guys do this season. Very proud of the Red Raiders’ tennis season this year.”
RESULTS
#11 Georgia 4, #25 Texas Tech 0
Singles:
1. #15 Trent Bryde (GA) def. Parker Wynn (TTU) 7-6 (2), 6-2
2. #27 Tyler Zink (GA) def. Ilgiz Valiev (TTU) 7-5, 6-3
3. #19 Philip Henning (GA) vs. Franco Ribero (TTU) 6-2, 3-6, 4-2, unfinished
4. Blake Croyder (GA) def. Reed Collier (TTU) 1-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3)
5. Billy Rowe (GA) vs. Dimitrios Azoidis (TTU) 4-6, 6-5, 0-1, unfinished
6. Erik Grevelius (GA) vs. Isaac Arevalo (TTU) 6-4, 5-6, unfinished
Doubles:
1. #7 Trent Bryde/Tyler Zink (GA) def. #45 Parker Wynn/Franco Ribero (TTU) 6-3
2. Blake Croyder/Billy Rowe (GA) vs. Isaac Arevalo/Reed Collier (TTU) 6-6 (2), unfinished
3. Philip Henning/Erik Grevelius (GA) def. Ilgiz Valiev/Dimitrios Azoidis (TTU) 7-6 (3)
Match Notes:
Texas Tech 13-8; National ranking #25 Georgia 16-6; National ranking #11
Order of finish: Doubles (1,3); Singles (1,2,4)