Dominic Pagon Completes Perfect Singles Weekend with Win at No. 3 Georgia
Senior Dominic Pagon tallied a 7-6, 7-6 win over Borja Malo at the No. 3 singles position in W&M's match against two-time defending national champion Georgia.
Athens, Ga. (2/8/09) - Senior Dominic Pagon completed a perfect singles weekend with a victory in the William and Mary men's tennis team’s 6-1 loss to two-time defending national champion and No. 3-ranked Georgia at the Hopkins Indoor Courts on Sunday afternoon. The No. 61-ranked Tribe fell to 9-4 on the season with all four setbacks coming to teams currently ranked in the national top 25, while Georgia improved to 5-0 overall.
After claiming a victory at No. 21 Wake Forest on Saturday, Pagon followed suit with tiebreaker wins in both sets of his No. 3 singles match against the No. 3-ranked Bulldogs. The Kingston, Jamaica native claimed the opening set, 7-6, over Borja Malo, before the UGA player jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set. Pagon would not be denied though, rallying to take the second set and the match in another tiebreaker. With the win, Pagon improved to 9-3 in dual-match play for the Tribe, while also recording his 10th singles victory of the season.
In doubles, UGA took the opening point of the contest with wins at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions, but the top doubles match-up between nationally ranked foes went down to the wire. The Tribe pair of junior Keziel Juneau and sophomore Sebastien Vidal, which is ranked No. 52 nationally, came up on the short-end of an 8-7 tiebreaker, falling to No. 40-ranked Jamie Hunt and Nat Schnugg.
W&M returns to action with a pair of matches in College, Md., on Feb. 13-14. The Tribe battles No. 74 Maryland on Friday, Feb. 13, at 3 p.m. The Terrapins are 2-1 on the season, following a victory over Navy on Feb. 6. The College will close out the weekend against Big Ten foe Purdue at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14. The Boilermakers are 2-2 after 6-1 wins over Butler and Illinois State during the month of February.
#3 Georgia 6, #61 William and Mary 1
Singles
No. 1 - #18 Nate Schnugg (UGA) def. Keziel Juneau (W&M) - 6-2, 6-2
No. 2 - #35 Jamie Hunt (UGA) def. Marwan Ramadan (W&M) - 6-2, 6-3
No. 3 - Dominic Pagon (W&M) def. Borja Malo (UGA) - 7-6, 7-6
No. 4 - Josh Varela (UGA) def. Richard Wardell (W&M) - 6-3, 6-2
No. 5 - Drake Bernstein (UGA) def. Ilja Orre (W&M) - 6-3, 6-3
No. 6 - Christian Vitulli (UGA) def. Ben Wirth (W&M) - 6-4, 6-2
Finishing Order: 1, 5, 2*, 4, 6, 5
Doubles
No. 1 - #40 Hunt/Schnugg (UGA) def. #52 Juneau/Vidal (W&M) - 8-7
No. 2 - Malo/Vitulli (UGA) def. Pagon/Orre (W&M) - 8-3
No. 3 - Bernstein/Garrapiz (UGA) def. Pandit/Wardell (W&M) - 8-2
Finishing Order: 3, 2*, 1