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Tennessee could have not scripted a better senior day Saturday afternoon for Australian-born Kaden Hensel, the lone senior on the men's tennis team.

Hensel pulled out a three-set victory that gave the No. 10-ranked Vols a 4-3 victory over No. 3 Georgia at the UT Varsity Courts and ended the Bulldogs' streak of 40 consecutive victories in SEC dual matches.

"This is by far the most unbelievable day I've had during my UT career," Hensel said. "To be able to clinch (the dual match) against the No. 3 team in the country is, I don't know, it's bloody brilliant, unbelievable."

UT (20-2, 9-2 SEC) had not beaten Georgia (20-2, 10-1) since the 2004 season. The Bulldogs, whose other loss this year was to No. 2 Ohio State, had not lost an SEC dual match since falling to Florida on April 23, 2005.

Georgia has won the last two SEC tournaments and enters next week's conference tournament in Fayetteville, Ark., seeded No. 1 with Ole Miss second and UT third.

"I told the guys, it wasn't just about this (Georgia) match," UT coach Sam Winterbotham said, "we've got to prove we can beat the best teams in the country if we want to win championships. Today we proved we can beat the best teams in the country.

"This victory is going to imbed the confidence needed to go all the way and we've got an opportunity next week to win a championship and we'll have an opportunity a couple of weeks later to try and win another (in the NCAA tournament)."

UT, which had four freshmen and a sophomore with Hensel in Saturday's lineup, took a 1-0 lead by winning two of the three doubles matches. The Vols are 18-0 this season when winning the doubles point.

"I knew (doubles) would be the key," Winterbotham said.

Georgia tied the match at 1-all when No. 36-ranked Jamie Hunt won at No. 4 singles and took a 2-1 lead when Josh Varela won at No. 6 singles.

UT freshman Matteo Fago won at No. 5 singles and tied it at 2-all. Georgia sophomore Nate Schnugg, ranked 11th, beat freshman Boris Conkic in three sets for a 3-2 lead.

That left the match hinging on the top two singles - No. 96 Hensel vs. No. 3 Travis Helgeson at No. 1 and UT freshman and No. 25 J.P. Smith vs. No. 75 Luis Flores at No. 2.

Ironically, at almost the same time, Hensel broke serve for a 4-2 lead in the third set, while Smith broke serve for a 4-3 lead. The Vols suddenly had momentum, each player up a break in the third set.

"I think doing that, it was pretty tough for (Georgia), to be in such a close match and to go down a break at the same time," Winterbotham said.

Smith won the next two games to win the match and tie the dual match at 3-all. All eyes turned to the deciding Hensel-Helgeson match.

Helgeson saved a match point serving at 2-5 when he hit the net cord and the ball dropped over and hit the line. He later held serve.

Hensel, serving at 5-3, fell behind 0-40 with three unforced errors before reeling off the next five points to win the match. It ended with a Hensel passing shot that Helgeson half-volleyed long.

"Even though we lost the doubles point," Georgia coach Manny Diaz said, "we put ourselves in position to win this dual match, and Tennessee just played a great match in third sets at 1 and 2 (singles), and they're deserving winners."