Vols routed by Duke, 6-1; coach Sam Winterbotham cites 'immaturity'

Tennessee men's tennis coach Sam Winterbotham made a couple of lineup changes for Saturday's 6-1 loss to No. 10-ranked Duke at Goodfriend Tennis Center.

There may be more changes before the No. 20 Vols (4-3) take on No. 1 Southern California (7-0) on Friday at 3:30 in the ITA National Indoors round-of-16s in Charlottesville, Va.

Practices this week will determine what changes, if any, are made.

"We're going to go back to work," Winterbotham said. "We work, we're going to fight, we're going to put the guys in (the lineup) that are willing to compete, and right now we aren't getting that on six courts. We're getting guys that have immaturity out there, and that's going to kill them. It's going to kill them, it's going to kill us, and we need to have them just understand that."

Winterbotham didn't single out specific players who needed extra work after the loss to Duke (7-0).

"Everybody," the coach said. "There's no one out there that's doing everything right. We've all got to do better, and the coaches have to do a better job."

UT got its only point at No. 4 singles by freshman Hunter Reese after the match had been decided.

Reese, who normally plays No. 3, switched spots with sophomore Jarryd Chaplin and defeated Fred Saba 10-2 in a tiebreaker for the third set.

It was only a slight consolation prize for Reese.

"It kind of becomes a little more individual where I'm playing for myself because we had already lost," Reese said. "But at the same time, I wanted to get a win for us, and I didn't want to get swept. I definitely wanted to get a win for the team."

UT's biggest lineup change came at No. 6 singles, where freshman Peter Nagovnak of Austria replaced Taylor Patrick, a junior from Knoxville. Patrick is 1-3 at Nos. 5 and 6 singles.

"(Patrick) needs to do better," Winterbotham said. "Peter's working hard. We need somebody to go in there and do something. We've got to win at 6, so Peter's worked hard in practice. Taylor's been up and down, so Peter had a chance."

After the Vols lost the doubles point, they quickly lost two more.

Duke sophomore Chris Mengel, ranked No. 17 nationally, beat freshman Brandon Fickey 6-3, 6-1 at No. 2 singles for a 2-0 lead, and freshman Jason Tahir beat Nagovnak 6-2, 6-1 for a 3-0 lead.

"We go in (the locker room) after losing the doubles point and come out, there's a little bit of positive energy going on the courts," Winterbotham said. "But then on a couple of courts, we just get blown out, and that's a momentum killer when you really need to get the momentum."

Senior Torsten Wietoska of Germany clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Chaplin at No. 3 singles.

The Vols were coming off a 4-1 loss last Sunday to Illinois, which lost to Duke 7-0 two days earlier.

Reese said Saturday's performance was a slight improvement over the Illinois match.

"Not great, but OK," Reese said. "Better than Illinois, but not good. We've got work to do and we're going to get it done. We'll have a good week of practice and hopefully we'll get it together for Virginia (the ITA Indoors)."