ATHENS, Ga. -- Homestanding Georgia defeated Tennessee 4-1 today to capture the 2001 NCAA Men's Tennis Championship at Athens in an all-Southeastern Conference final.

Today's match between the Vols and Bulldogs was the first time ever two Southeastern Conference squads squared off in the finals and Tennessee's first finals appearance since 1990.

"I'd like to congratulate Georgia," said UT head coach Michael Fancutt."Georiga obviously has a great team. They are an extremely well-coached team, a very disciplined team and a very deep team. All the credit goes to them. They deserve to be the national champions. Our goal was to win the tournament and so this is extremely disappointing for our guys."

Georgia (28-1) got off to a fast start at 2-0, winning the doubles point and the No. 6 singles match, but Tennessee, which finished the season 23-6, appeared to take control by winning three of the opening sets in singles play, including Mark Parsons (31) 6-1 win over Matias Boeker, ranked No. 5 nationally, at No. 1.

However, Georgia's Lesley Joseph rallied to defeat Peter Handoyo 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 and the Bulldogs' cliched the match when Chad Carlson defeated UT's Adam Carey 6-1, 5-7, 6-2.

The Vols' Mario Toledo, ranked No. 58, defeated eighth-ranked Bo Hodge 6-7(4), 6-0, 6-4 for Tennessee only scoring on the day.

"I was proud of my guys," Fancutt said. "I do not think that the crowd was as big a factor as I thought it would be. I am proud of my team for playing as well as they did under the circumstances. I think Georgia just beat us today."

Georgia's win today earned the Bulldogs their fourth NCAA title, the others coming in 1985, 1987 and 1999. Stanford, UCLA and Southern California are the only other schools to win the title since the team format was adopted in 1977.

Tennessee's Mark Parsons, Adam Carey and Peter Handoyo begin play tomorrow in the individual NCAA Championships. All three players will compete in the singles draw, while Carey and Parsons will also compete in the doubles draw.