Story and photo by Ron Cioffi/USTA Southern
Download final results.
AUBURN, ALA. – Georgia Tech A held off a mixed doubles comeback by Vanderbilt to win the 2017 Tennis On Campus Southern Championship 26-24.
Vanderbilt came out of the first two doubles matches with a slim 10-9 lead. But Georgia Tech came back strong in both singles sets as Caroline Wakefield defeated Jennifer Huang 6-2 and Kentaro Baynes downed Luke Miles 6-4.
Facing a five-game deficit, Vandy's Stephanie Dudzinski and Coleman Cox battled back to take the mixed doubles into overtime. With just one more game needed to take the match to a supertiebreak, Vandy couldn't pull out the last game. Yellow Jackets Raymond Zhang and Jess Owen put away match point before the Georgia Tech team mobbed them on court 1.
The loss was probably most bittersweet for graduate students Dudzinski and Huang, who had won the 2011 championship when undergrads with Duke. Here is a story from 2016 about their TOC careers for two universities. Longtime Tournament Director Jeff Smith that, to the best of his knowledge, no player has ever won two Southern championships with two different schools.
The tournament drew 61 club teams from 37 colleges and universities in the USTA Southern’s nine states: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. It was the largest number of teams playing in the tournament history. Matches were played at four locations here and in Opelika, Ala., with tournament headquarters at the Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn.
Teams were vying for eight spots in the USTA Tennis On Campus National Championship, to be played April 13-15 at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.
Teams who earned national bids for their universities are listed below, with qualifying information. The schools win bids, not the teams.
- Georgia Tech A, Southern Alley champion
- Vanderbilt A, Southern Alley finalist
- Georgia A, Southern third-place
- Tennessee A, Southern Alley fourth-place
- North Carolina-Chapel Hill A, Southern Alley fifth-place
- South Carolina A, Southern Alley sixth-place
- Alabama, Southern Alley seventh-place and 2016 USTA Southern Tennis On Campus Club of the Year
- North Carolina State, Southern Rally finalist (Georgia Tech B was the Rally champion.)
- Auburn, 2016 USTA Tennis On Campus champion
Georgia Tech A - champion |
Vanderbilt A - finalist |
Georgia A - third place |
 Tennessee A - fourth place |
North Carolina-Chapel Hill A - fifth place |
South Carolina A - sixth place |
Seventh place & 2016 USTA Southern Tennis On Campus Club of the Year |
 North Carolina State B - Rally finalist |
Auburn A - 2016 USTA TOC champion |