Nov. 8, 2009

New Haven, Conn. - Georgia Tech's Guillermo Gomez came up short in his bid for a national championship Sunday, dropping a thrilling three-set match to 16th-ranked and fifth-seeded Steve Johnson of Southern California in the finals of the ITA National Indoor Tennis Championships.

Johnson needed a tiebreaker in the third set to pull out the match, winning 7-5, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (3) at the Cullman-Heyman Tennis Center on the campus of Yale University.

"Johnson played a great match," said Gomez, the nation's fifth-ranked player. "I couldn't break him once. My chance to win was to fight every point, and that's what I did. I feel sorry I couldn't bring the national championship home, but I have to congratulate him.

Gomez, from Alicante, Spain, finished the fall season with a 13-2 singles record.