Top-seeded Bulldogs duo loses NCAA men’s final in tiebreaker

ATHENS — Freshman Robert Loeb and sophomore Jan Zielinski of the Georgia men’s tennis team fell in a thirdset tiebreaker against Oklahoma’s Andrew Harris and Spencer Papa in the NCAA men’s doubles championship on Monday.

The Bulldogs’ tandem, which was the No. 1 seed in the tournament, took the first set 6-4 in front of the home crowd at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex, breaking service in the first game.

However, the Sooners duo — seeded 15th — took the second set 6-2 before prevailing 10-6 in the tiebreaker.

“We were impressive in the first set,” Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said, “but we showed our inexperience a little bit and we became a little bit tentative. Robert never returned well today, but he’s been very strong in that area all year.

“Once Jan got broken (at 2-1), we kind of got swept. (Oklahoma’s) momentum and energy just warped us a little bit. I kept hoping we could make a little stand there, but we just seemed to never recover after that.”

The Bulldogs started the match with a break in the first game, taking a 1-0 lead on Oklahoma’s service game. Each game in the first set from then on was a service hold, and with Loeb serving for the set, Zielinski split the Sooner players with a shot at the net to put it away.

The second set also began with a Georgia break after Loeb and Zielinski trailed 40-30 in the game. They came back to win it and take another 1-0 lead.

Oklahoma got the set back on serve with a shot between Loeb’s legs to tie it at 2, and held the next game.

In the following game, with Loeb serving, Oklahoma jumped to an 0-30 lead, but Georgia took the next three points to make it 40-30. After Zielinski hit one long, Loeb put one into the net and Oklahoma went ahead 4-2.

The Sooners eventually won the second set 6-2 and the match went to the 10-point tiebreaker.

Oklahoma took a 9-4 lead before Georgia saved two match points on Zielinski’s serve, but the UGA pair was unable to break Oklahoma’s serve before falling 10-6.

Brienne Minor of Michigan and Thai-Son Kwiatkowski of Virginia won the women’s and men’s singles titles.

Minor became Michigan’s first tennis national champion, defeating Florida’s Belinda Woolcock 6-3, 6-3. Kwiatkowski, whose team won the men’s national title last week, took down North Carolina’s William Blumberg 6-4, 7-6 (5).