From GeorgiaDogs.com: [4] ATHENS, Ga. --- The No. 1-ranked Georgia men’s tennis team (21-0, 10-0 SEC) clinched its second consecutive Southeastern Conference regular-season championship Sunday in Athens as the Bulldogs took down Ole Miss (19-3, 8-2) by a 5-2 score. Junior Travis Helgeson (Overland Park, Kan.) won the match-clincher as he defeated Eric Claesson, 6-0, 3-6, 6-1.

The conference crown marks the 24th in Georgia’s history and the 11th under head coach Manuel Diaz. Including Georgia’s six SEC Tournament titles, the Bulldogs have tallied 30 conference championships, the most by any SEC team.

“I am really proud of our guys, they fought a great match today,” said Georgia Head Coach Manuel Diaz. “Ole Miss put up a great fight and really was dominating us at one point at the bottom three singles matches. They ended up winning at the four and six positions, but our guys at the top and Nate at the fifth spot really came through big for us. We played a great doubles point as well.”

Georgia took a 1-0 lead in the match for the 21st time in as many matches, sweeping doubles play for the fifth straight time and sixth time in seven matches. First to finish was the freshman tandem of Jamie Hunt (San Antonio, Texas) and Nate Schnugg (Medford, Ore.) as they defeated Jakob Klaeson and Robbye Poole, 8-3. Next to win was the 13th-ranked pair of senior Matic Omerzel (Kranj, Slovenia) and Helgeson as they topped Jonas Berg and Matthias Wellerman, 8-5. The No. 1-ranked duo of senior John Isner (Greensboro, N.C.) and junior Luis Flores (Xalapa, Mexico) then completed the sweep as they took down Claesson and Erling Tveit, 8-5.

In singles action, top-ranked Isner gave the Bulldogs a 2-0 advantage as he took down another Top-20 opponent, beating Tveit 6-1, 6-4. 17th-ranked Flores then made it 3-0 in Georgia’s favor as he dropped 84th-ranked Wellerman, 6-4, 6-1.

Trailing 3-0, Ole Miss picked up its first point of the match when Poole topped 43rd-ranked Omerzel, 6-3, 6-4. Helgeson then proved to be too much for Claesson, clinching Georgia’s win at 4-1.

“To tell you the truth I didn’t know the score other courts during my second set,” said Helgeson. “But after I lost that second set I glanced up and saw that ‘the pit’ (matches 4-6) was kind of struggling, so I just wanted to come out firing in the third set. I wanted to concentrate on grabbing those first couple of games. Luckily I was able to get it done quickly and it was not too close.”

With the match locked up in Georgia’s favor, Ole Miss picked up its second point at the sixth position as Berg took down No. 78 Hunt, 6-2, 6-4. Schnugg then pushed through a super-tiebreak win over Kalle Norberg, 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-7) to give Georgia the 5-2 victory.

The Bulldogs are back in action Thursday, April 12 against No. 4 Baylor at 5 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.