Georgia’s Men’s tennis team played Florida State University in the second round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship at home, in Athens yesterday afternoon.
The Dawgs fell to FSU in the first portion of the meet, doubles. FSU took the point after winning 2 out of 3 of the matches. After going 1 and 1, the teams found themselves in a back and forth match with Hammish Stewart and Phil Henning leading the charge. The two did what they could, but couldn’t manage to pull out with a victory.
The Singles matches appeared to go by pretty fast at first. Four of the day’s duels were called in only 2 sets. Croyder, Stewart, and Henning made quick work of their competition, Croyder especially- going 6-0 and 6-1 in his two sets against Rihane of Florida State.
After going 3-2, the Dawgs found themselves in a tight place seeing Trent Bryde and Miguel Perez Pena play out to their third sets.
Perez Pena, a freshman seeing the opportunity to play in part to Tristan McCormick’s absence, was able to hold his own for a while but lost in the third set. Pena has shown improvement over the course of this season and should take on a bigger role next year.
Bryde was getting antsy out there, letting what should be positive plays turn negative. His ball found the net on multiple occasions. From the looks of it, it seemed like Bryde was about to seal the deal for the Dawgs, but after winning his first set and being 4-1 in his second, his opponent, Sebastian Arcila, wound up dragging them to a third after winning that second match 6-4. Bryde’s match was a nail-biter that wound up being the loss that would advance FSU to the third round of the 2022 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship.
Losing the doubles match played a big role in today’s final score. With it the Dawgs probably would have come up with a win much earlier in the day.
This brings an end to the Georgia Men’s tennis team 2022 season. Manny Diaz and his team should be back in similar contention next year. With an overall record of 742-184 before today, Coach Diaz definitely has the experience to bring the Dawgs back to the bracket sooner rather than later.