UGA women’s tennis falls to A&M 4-1 in NCAA finals

When the NCAA Outdoor Tennis Championships went indoors, Georgia’s bid for another women’s tennis national championship went out the window.

The Bulldogs had the lead in two of the three doubles matches when play was first delayed and then sent to the indoor courts due to inclement weather at Oklahoma State’s Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Inside the noisy building before a decidedly pro-Texas A&M crowd, all the momentum switched to the Aggies’ side. A&M came back to get wins at Nos. 2 and 3 to claim the doubles point, then rolled at the top of the singles lineup for a 4-1 win to claim the title.

It was sweet revenge for No. 13 Aggies, who lost to No. 7 Georgia three times during the season, including in the SEC Tournament championship last month. The teams shared the SEC regular-season title with one-loss each to other teams. It was the first national title in program history for Texas A&M. They previously lost to Stanford in the 2013 finals.

Sunday night’s developments made for a disappointing end to what otherwise had been a magical run under Georgia first-year coach Drake Bernstein. The Bulldogs upset No. 2 Stanford in the quarterfinals, then rolled 4-0 over No. 6 Pepperdine in the semifinals to make Bernstein the first UGA women’s coach to reach a national final in his first season. The Bulldogs’ season ends with a 25-5 record.

There was a lot to criticize about the tournament setup. The men’s championship match between TCU and Texas did not start until 4 p.m. and went long before the Horned Frogs finally defeated Texas 4-3. That pushed back the start of the Georgia-A&M match more than an hour, then was delayed another hour due to rain.

Once inside, the Aggies took firm control on some of the slowest courts in college tennis. After taking the doubles point, A&M rolled to first-set victories at Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 5 singles and Georgia was fighting to extend the match the rest of the night. The Aggies pulled ahead 2-0 with Mary Stoiana’s win over Dasha Vidmanova in a second-set tiebreaker, 7-4.

Anastacia Lopata gave the Bulldogs hope with a quick two-set win, 6-4, 6-1, over Mia Kupres at No. 4 and Georgia’s Mai Nirundorn won her first set at No. 6 in a tiebreaker, 7-5. Then A&M’s Luciana Perez came back from behind to clinch No. 5 singles in a second-set tiebreaker, 7-2, over Guillermina “G.G.” Grant.

The Aggies proved too strong at the top. Mell Reasco also extended her match on Court 3 to a third set after dropping the first one. But she fell hard to Nicole Kearin in the third set 6-1 in the last frame to give the Aggies the clinching point. A&M’s Carson Brantstine also led Georgia’s Alexandria Vecic 5-0 in the third and it looked as though No. 6 singles also was heading to a third set.

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