April 11, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- The fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers clinched their first Southeastern Conference regular season title in 10 years Sunday with a 6-1 victory against South Carolina.

The Vols (22-1, 10-0 SEC) have secured at least a tie for the conference title. They can capture the regular-season title outright Saturday when they host Georgia at 3 p.m.

Georgia (17-5, 9-1) had entered Sunday undefeated in the SEC but lost 5-2 to sixth-ranked Florida (16-3, 8-1) in the afternoon. With the nine conference wins, only Georgia has a chance to tie for the championship with a Tennessee loss. Florida would have remained in the title hunt were it not for a home rainout against Mississippi State.

The good news is this: the Vols are in control of their final conference fate. It all comes down to Saturday in Knoxville.

"I think any time you win something that has `conference' or `tournament' in it and the possibility of sharing that title is pretty special, but for everybody in this program, the first preference is to win it outright," associate head coach Chris Woodruff said. "Through hard work we've put ourselves that position. I fully expect us to achieve our goal at the beginning of the year, which was to be the 2010 SEC Champions. Not shared."

Tennessee had not won the regular-season SEC Championship since 2000 and have now won eight SEC Titles.


On Sunday, Tennessee claimed the doubles point against South Carolina and picked up singles victories from freshmen Tennys Sandgren and Rhyne Williams before Fago clinched the victory for the Vols at 4-1. Senior Davey Sandgren and junior John-Patrick Smith both won in 10-point third-set tiebreakers to give the Vols a 6-1 victory.

"This weekend was really challenging and I thought the guys handled it very well to win at both places," Tennessee head coach Sam Winterbotham said. "I thought South Carolina today played really well in singles. They really came after us and challenged us. I thought the guys handled it really well to come back from that. It was much closer than some 6-1s we've had this year."

The Vols jumped out to an early lead by posting a trio of lopsided doubles scores. Fago and freshman Edward Jones were first off the courts with an 8-2 win over Chris Sheehan and Harry Menzies.

Davey Sandgren and Smith, ranked second nationally, followed a few minutes later with an 8-3 victory against 66th-ranked Diego Cubas and Pedro Campos, good for their 31st win of the season. The doubles win was the 100th in Smith's career as he became the third player in UT history to record 100 career singles and doubles victories, joining Byron Talbot and Shelby Cannon.

"That record is just impressive," Winterbotham said. "It's tremendous. We've had so many great players in the history of Tennessee, for JP to be up there amongst those, we're proud of him. We appreciate the fact that he keeps his head on his shoulders.

"He handles it great. He's a tremendous student. He represents us exactly as he'd hoped."

After the point was clinched, fourth-ranked Williams and junior Boris Conkic won 8-4 against Ivan Cressoni and Ivan Machado.

Tennessee won just three of the six first sets, and the freshmen Vols accounted for two of them. Williams and Tennys Sandgren, who were key players in the Vols' 4-3 win Friday against Florida, came through with the momentum once again.

Sandgren finished nearly 30 minutes ahead of anyone else, giving the Vols a 2-0 lead in a 6-1, 6-2 breeze past Alexander Kostanov to improve to 9-0 in fourth singles position in SEC matches this season.

Williams gave the Vols a 3-0 lead with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Ivan Cressoni at No. 3. South Carolina then earned its lone point of the afternoon when 79th-ranked Pedro Campos remained undefeated since January by dealing Conkic a 6-1, 6-4 loss.

Fago lost his first set to Machado 1-6 on court 5, but roared back in the final two sets 6-2, 6-2 to clinch the victory for the Vols.

Smith, ranked second, also dropped his first set 2-6 at No. 1 against No. 59 Diego Cubas but picked up a late break to win the second set 6-4. The match went into a tiebreaker and Smith won the match 10-8 to defeat Cubas for a second time this spring.

Davey Sandgren, who returned to the lineup following an ankle injury to Matt Brewer two weeks ago, improved to 4-0 in SEC matches at the No. 6 position. He defeated Johannes Pulsfort 6-1, 5-7, 1-0 (8).


Singles

1. #2 John-Patrick Smith (UT) def. #59 Diego Cubas (SC) 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (6)

2. #79 Pedro Campos (SC) def. #26 Boris Conkic (UT) 6-3, 6-1

3. #49 Rhyne Williams (UT) def. Ivan Cressoni (SC) 6-1, 6-4

4. #111 Tennys Sandgren (UT) def. Alexander Kostanov (SC) 6-1, 6-2

 5. Matteo Fago (UT) def. Ivan Machado (SC) 1-6, 6-2, 6-2

6. Davey Sandgren (UT) def. Johannes Pulsfort (SC) 6-1, 5-7, 1-0 (8)

Doubles

1. #2 John-Patrick Smith/Davey Sandgren (UT) def. #66 Diego Cubas/Pedro Campos (SC) 8-3

2. #4 Boris Conkic/Rhyne Williams (UT) def. Ivan Cressoni/Ivan Machado (SC) 8-4

3. Matteo Fago/Edward Jones (UT) def. Chris Sheehan/Harry Menzies (SC) 8-2

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (4,3,2,5,6,1).

Order of Finish: Doubles (3,1,2); Singles (4,3,2,5,6,1).