Tennessee Bounces Ohio State in Men's Indoor Quarterfinals
©Colette Lewis 2009--
Chicago, IL--
On the day No. 2 seed Texas went down to No. 11 Stanford, there was an even more surprising result awaiting the fans at the Midtown Tennis Club, when No. 1 Ohio State, a finalist in the past two National Indoors, fell to No. 8 Tennessee 4-3.
Fortunately for the schedulers, none of the six singles matches went to three sets, but the deciding match, at No. 4 singles, was long enough to be one. Tennessee's Matteo Fago and Ohio State's Balazs Novak were the last two standing, and two hours into their match the possibility of a third set was very real. Fago had won the first set 6-3, but it was 5-5 in the second.
The turning point in the match came when Fago kept his calm after failing to convert two break points with Novak serving at 5-5. Down 15-40, Novak won three straight points to put himself one away from a 6-5 lead, but Fago showed no sign of frustration. He hit a forehand winner and a backhand winner, and was able to go for the lines, because Novak had been overruled twice and didn't have the luxury of calling a close one out. Fago converted his third break point when Novak's forehand went wide, leading to pandemonium among the Tennessee faithful, who were warned by the tournament referee to keep their remarks toward the Ohio State player positive.
After the changeover, Fago stepped to the line to seal the upset, and with a delicate drop volley winner on the first point, proved his nerves were intact. A forehand winner made it 30-0 and a good second serve produced a return error to make it 40-0. Another second serve, this one an ace, completed the upset and sent the Volunteers swarming to embrace their teammate.
Tennessee was down 1-0 after losing the doubles point, but won four of the six first sets to keep their hopes alive. Ohio State went up 2-0 when Steve Moneke won at No. 3, but JP Smith pulled Tennessee to within one with his victory over the nation's top-ranked player Bryan Koniecko, and Boris Conkic took down Justin Kronauge at No. 2 to pull even. The Volunteers took the lead when Matt Brewer made it 3-2 at No. 6, leaving courts number 4 and 5 to decide the match. Ohio State's Matt Allare won at No. 5 to put all eyes on Fago and Novak, which was 3-1 Novak in the second set, when all the other matches had been completed. For the Ohio State faithful, the match couldn't have been in better hands, as Novak had never lost a dual match in his two seasons as a Buckeye, but the first cut is the deepest, as the top ranked team and its fans can now tell you.
For the complete scores, visit the ITA results page.
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