I had the good fortune of being able to watch the UGA match live and in person. It was a great crowd, a great tennis environment and the better team won the match. All you can ever ask of a team is to play their best. Coach Cass and the team picked it up a notch and gave it their best shot. In doubles UGA's number one rolled and showed why they're one of the top doubles teams in the country. I thought Newp and Lester came out tight and by the time they got into the match, UGa had already closed the door. Keith and Skube and Ante and Baurer took the UGA 2 and 3 teams to 8 set tiebreaks. For a few moment's it appeared that the Ags might pull a miracle and get the doubles points but UGA made the big plays when it counted down the stretch. In singles Newp played as fired up as I have ever seen him and gave the defending NCAA champion all he could handle. They were still battling with no clear outcome apparent when the match was stopped. With his win over Simon and the way he played UGA, Newp has laid a foundation for next year to be a quality number one. Lester played hard and made some great shots but UGA's Bo Hodge was just too strong and talented.Kalid played one heck of a match to win at number six to prove that our bottom half of the lineup can play with anyone. Ante's match was still being hotly contested at four when the match was concluded. Keith and Jarin also left it on the court in hard fought matches. It's a real shame Keith was set back with injuries this year. The Ags were outscored but they certainly had no reason to hang their heads.
I heard a UGA fan leaving the match say to a friend " That was one hard match" to which his friend replied "Yeah, those guys were really good".
And that pretty well summed it up.

To put a little perspective on the UGA number 1 doubles team, they just beat UCLA's number one doubles team 8-2. UCLA's doubles team was ranked number one in the country.

IMO newp and lester are a better dubs team than boeker/hodge. the two service breaks early killed us, and that has been what has killed us all year. next year ante and derrick win that match due to a little more experience and focus, and the double point might have gone to us.

newp and keith played possible their best singles matches all year. khaled was huge, and solidified my opinion that he is one of the top five six-position players in the nation. skube got done early and never could get back on top. same with lester, but he put up a little more fight. there's no doubt in my mind that ante wins the third set, and newp and from would have had a ton of momentum going into their third sets had they closed their second sets out.

i'm very proud of how the guys played all year. we are definitely going to miss keith and jarin next year, but hopefully our new recruits can fill their spaces. i'm very confident at another shot at the conference title and another chance to get back to the elite eight.

If the recruits for next are anything like this years, the team will flat out kill some people next season. Newp looked great at #1. Lester will move to #2 and should be very competetive there with added experience. Ante will improve and be solid at #3. Khaled, Derek, and one of the four freshman should solidify the bottom of the lineup. There is no reason each guy in our top 3 shouldnt be ranked next year. My concern is who replaces Skube and Keith in doubles. Again, we will need freshman to step up, but not as much as we needed them to step up this year. Watch for the Ags to go top 8 or better!!!

Gig 'em Coach Cass and Aggie Tennis!!!