Staff Writer
Twenty years ago today, on May 28, 2001, Matias Boeker joined the most select company in the history of men's college tennis. After leading Georgia to the NCAA team championship a week earlier, Boeker captured NCAA titles in singles and doubles — the triple crown.
In the modern era of NCAA men's tennis, since 1977 when the team tournament was added to the singles and doubles championships, only two players before Boeker had won all three titles at an NCAAs: Alex O'Brien in 1992 and Bob Bryan in 1998, both from Stanford. Nobody has done it since.
"Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's 20 years ago," Boeker said. "I wish I could go back — that's what I always think, that I wish I could go back and enjoy it one more time."
It was a special spring of threes for Georgia athletics. Back in late March of 2001, the swimming and diving team won its third straight NCAA team title, and a few days after the men's tennis team won its championship — the second in three years and the fourth overall — the women's golf team won it's first NCAA title.
"That was a great spring," said Jack Bauerle, Georgia's Tom Cousins Swimming and Diving head coach.
Georgia was hosting the NCAA Men's Tennis Championships, and the Bulldogs clearly looked right at home. The No. 3 seed in the tournament with a 22-1 record — the only loss a 4-3 defeat to Washington in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships — the Bulldogs knew they had a team good enough to win it all.
"I predicted we could win a national championship in 2002 when our core of freshmen in 2000 were juniors," said Georgia men's tennis coach Manuel Diaz, "so in a way it did surprise me that we won it a year prior to that. But halfway through the spring I knew we were ready."
After posting 4-0 wins in the first three rounds of the NCAAs, the Bulldogs edged Duke 4-3 in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Georgia blanked SMU, 4-0, and then took down SEC rival Tennessee in the final, 4-1.
"I do remember feeling relief when we won the team, going into the individual event. As a team, that was the big win," Boeker said. "The singles and doubles, it's always part of the dream, but I think once you win the team, you go into the singles and doubles a lot more relaxed. I definitely enjoyed the individual tournament more because we won the team.
"I didn't even think about a triple crown and how rare that is. I think I got more relaxed as the tournament went on because I kept winning."
In singles, Boeker was the No. 3 seed behind No. 1 Marco Baron of Mississippi State and No. 2 Alex Kim, the 2000 NCAA singles champion. Boeker won all six singles matches in straight sets, beating Virginia's Brian Vahaly 6-2, 6-4 in the final, but the matches were much closer than the scores, Boeker said.
"Matias was extremely smooth, he was gifted, and he was mentally strong," Diaz said. "And that year, that spring, he really came into his own — I mean, he became a great player."
Boeker, from Buenos Aires, Argentina, played at Georgia with his brother Nicolas, but the twins weren't doubles partners. Boeker and Travis Parrott had formed a formidable duo in doubles the year before, when the Boekers were freshmen, and were the No. 2 seeds in the 2001 NCAAs.
After surviving a three-setter in their opening round, Boeker and Parrot won four more tight straight-set matches to earn the national championship, beating SMU's Jon Wallmark and Johan Brunston in the final, 6-4, 7-5.
"Travis was phenomenal, he had a tremendous feel for the doubles court, and they really complemented each other," Diaz said. "They were both big and at the same time they were both quick, and they played very solid and disciplined doubles."
Parrott went on to play professionally for 10 years, enjoying great success in doubles, including winning the U.S. Open mixed doubles title in 2009 with partner Carly Gullickson, whose sister Chelsey had a great career at Georgia and won the 2010 NCAA singles title.
Before he gave pro tennis a shot, Boeker returned to Georgia for his junior season and won the NCAA singles title again. He is the only player to capture both the triple crown and back-to-back NCAA singles titles. Boeker was inducted into the ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 2017.
Bauerle doesn't really have a favorite among his seven women's national championships. Like his children, he loves them all equally. But the title in 2001 was in many ways the most special because of how it happened.
In runs to national championships before and since, Georgia has had multiple dominant swimmers and earned numerous individual NCAA titles. But in 2001, at the Nassau County Aquatic Center on Long Island in New York, Georgia won just one race, the 800-meter relay. The Bulldogs finished with 389 points and runner-up Stanford had 387.5.
"We had no right winning that championship," Bauerle said with a laugh. "It was the closest win in history."
In the meet finale, the 400-yard relay, Georgia had to finish two spots ahead of Stanford to capture the title. Everyone knew Texas was going to win the relay, Bauerle said, so it was just a matter of not only beating Stanford but needing another team to beat the Cardinal, too.
McClendon anchored the race for Georgia and closed with a record time of 47.75 seconds, earning the Bulldogs a second-place finish. Arizona placed third and Stanford fourth.
"I think that championship was super special. Every team shows a lot of grit but this one was, we had to push hard every single race, all the way down to the last race," said Maritza Correia McClendon, who was on the winning 800-meter relay with Stefanie Williams Moreno, Kim Black and Julie Hardt.
"I won't say it was a miracle, but we had to have these special scenarios happen for us to win. ... I was like, let me swim my heart out and finish this race the way I know I need to. And when we touched the wall, the entire arena exploded with cheer and amazement. It was such an awesome moment, and one that I will never forget."
The women's golf team's title run in many ways began a few weeks before, when it rallied from four shots back before the final round to win the SEC title. When play began going into the final round of the NCAA Championships, at the LPGA International in Daytona Beach, Fla., Georgia was four strokes back of top-ranked Duke.
"I really think that winning SECs was such a big confidence booster, such a big push going into that," Laura Henderson Matthews said. "We were all playing really well going into that week and we peaked at the right time."
Georgia shot a final-round score of 290, 2-over par as a team, and beat Duke by three strokes to win the championship. The counting scores were even-par 72s from Reilley Rankin and Summer Sirmons and two one-over 73s from Henderson Matthews and Angela Jarman Ornsby, with Whitney Christie's score not counting that day. Three of the four birdied the 17th hole to pull ahead of Duke and then all four players with counting scores parred the 18th hole to seal the win.
"How have 20 years gone so fast?" Jarman Ornsby said. "Ten years to me was like, Oh, it's just 10 years, but 20 years, that's a long time to go by that fast.
"We were all very competitive with each other, but in a competitive and supportive way. We all drove each other to be the best versions of ourselves in any given moment."
The same could be said for the men's tennis and women's swimming and diving teams. They all pushed each other and brought the best out of each other, and they all became champions during the same special spring.
Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men's Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files. He's also on Twitter: @FriersonFiles and @ITAHallofFame.
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Boeker Triple Crown Capped Special 2001 Spring - University of Georgia Athletics - Georgia Bulldogs
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