Monday, 02/16/2009

Longhorns pick up a singles win from sophomore Ed Corrie, finish the 2009 ITA National Indoors at 1-2.

CHICAGO – No. 2 Texas (6-2) surrendered a tightly-contested doubles point and picked up a singles win from sophomore Ed Corrie in a 4-1 loss to No. 6 USC (8-1) Sunday afternoon in the consolation round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.

USC captured the doubles point in a doubles session that spanned just over an hour. Texas juniors Dimitar Kutrovsky and Josh Zavala and USC’s second-ranked duo of Robert Farah and Steve Johnson all held serve throughout their match at first singles until the final game, when USC broke Texas’ serve to claim a 9-7 win.

Trailing 4-1 at second doubles, Texas senior Miguel Reyes Varela and junior Olivier Sajous stormed back to claim the next six games to assume a 7-4 lead. The Trojans’ duo of Abdullah Magdas and Daniel Nguyen closed within 7-6, but UT finished off the match, 8-6. At third doubles, UT junior Jon Wiegand and sophomore Ed Corrie trailed USC’s Jaak Poldma and Andrew Kells by a 5-2 count before evening the match at five-all. However, USC broke Texas’ serve to take a 6-5 lead and held in the next game to assume a 7-5 lead. UT held serve and pulled within 7-6, but USC held serve in the final game to win, 8-6 and clinch the doubles point.

Corrie put Texas on the board with a 6-4, 6-4 win over USC’s 58th-ranked Johnson at third singles, but the Trojans finished off the match with straight-set victories at the second, sixth and first singles positions. Poldma defeated UT sophomore Kellen Damico by a 6-3, 6-2 count at the second slot, and Nguyen claimed a 7-5, 6-3 win at the sixth slot over UT’s Zavala. USC clinched the match at the first singles, where Farah dealt Kutrovsky a 7-6 (4), 6-3 defeat.

At the remaining singles positions, UT’s Sajous held a 4-2 third-set lead over USC’s Jason McNaughton at fifth singles, and Texas’ Reyes Varela trailed 2-1 in the third set to USC’s Magdas.

Texas resumes play on Friday, Feb. 20 when it hosts Lamar and Texas-San Antonio at the Penick-Allison Tennis Center.

ITA National Team Indoor Championships

Midtown Tennis Club – Chicago, Ill.

Consolation Round

#6 USC 4, #2 Texas 1

Doubles – Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3

1 #2 Farah/Steve Johnson (USC) def. #25 Kutrovsky/Zavala (UT) – 9-7

2 Reyes Varela/Sajous (UT) def. Abdullah Magdas/Daniel Nguyen (USC) – 8-6

3 Jaak Poldma/Andrew Kells (USC) def. Corrie/Wiegand (UT) – 8-6

Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 2, 6, 1

1 #7 Robert Farah (USC) def. #31 Dimitar Kutrovsky (UT) – 7-6 (4), 6-3

2 Jaak Poldma (USC) def. Kellen Damico (UT) – 6-3, 6-2

3 Ed Corrie (UT) def. #58 Steve Johnson (USC) – 6-4, 6-4

4 Miguel Reyes Varela (UT) vs. #64 Abdullah Magdas (USC) – 3-6, 6-3, 1-2, susp.

5 #84 Olivier Sajous (UT) vs. Jason McNaughton (USC) – 6-4, 1-6, 4-2, susp.

6 Daniel Nguyen (USC) def. Josh Zavala (UT) – 7-5, 6-3

POST-MATCH QUOTES

Texas Coach Michael Center

“I give a lot of credit to USC today. They came out and played a great match. We’ve learned some things this weekend, and we’ve got to get a lot better. We had a few good performances along the way, but we’ve got to improve quite a bit to get to where we want to be. It was good for us to start out with the win over Michigan. The last two matches showed us we have a lot of work to do.”