It was almost unthinkable that the thousands of fans lining the hillside surrounding the lower courts at Henry Feild Stadium could be so silent -- but it didn't last.

With a blazing passing shot by Joey Pitts, the hill exploded in joy. The Georgia Bulldogs -- kings of the comeback -- had captured their third national championship.

And the way this tournament had gone for the Bulldogs, stretching back to a pair of difficult wins in the regionals, it simply would not have been right for Georgia to defeat top-seeded UCLA Tuesday night by a score other than 4-3.

And, just as the Bulldogs' run through the tournament at times seemed preordained, it was also fitting that the Bruins provided the foil Tuesday night. UCLA, after all, was the only team Georgia had beaten to win a national title, in 1985 and '87 in Athens.

For the Bulldogs, their fans and 11th-year coach Manuel Diaz, who finally won a title in his sixth finals appearance, it couldn't have been set up any better.

Pitts, a redshirt junior who has battled back problems throughout his career, was the perfect hero. Just as he had the day before against Ole Miss, the Smyrna native and confessed lifelong Georgia fan dropped the first set before pulling himself together.

Playing UCLA's Jong Min-Lee, Pitts flushed the memory of a 7-5 first-set loss and roared to a 5-0 lead in the second, eventually winning it 6-3. At the same time, sophomore Michael Lang was engaging in the same act on Court 6, repeating his heroics from the semifinals.

Lang was crushed 6-3 in the first set by Marcin Rozpedski and trailed 4-1 in the second. But he psyched himself back into the match with some help from his friends, tying the set at 4-4.

Lang fought off one match point at 6-5 in the second, then forced a tiebreaker. Just as he had the day before, Lang captured it to bring on a third set. He never finished that match on Monday; it was suspended when Hisham Hemeda clinched Georgia's win. But Tuesday, Lang was right in the middle of it.

As Hemeda suffered his first singles loss of the tournament, falling in a three-set battle to Jean-Noel Grinda at No. 1, the crowds rushed from the stadium seats and lined up as deep as space would allow on the grassy hill to the back of the lower courts. They had plenty to cheer for; Pitts led his third set 2-0 when Hemeda lost, and Lang led 3-0.

Both players kept rolling and built their leads to 5-0 and 4-1, respectively, as the noise between points grew deafening. Pitts had two games in which to close out Min-Lee, but the UCLA junior held serve to make it 5-1, then broke Pitts to send it to 5-2.

Meanwhile, Lang traded games with Rozpedski, who was serving trailing 5-2. After a long game, Rozpedski finally double-faulted on match point, sending Lang into hysterics. Lang rushed to the bench next to Court 4 where his teammates were cheering on Pitts and climbed aboard.

Before long, the pressure got to Min-Lee. He double-faulted twice and sent a shot long to set up triple match point for Pitts and the Bulldogs. At 0-40, the pair traded shots in dead silence before Pitts finally unleased a forehand down the line that Min-Lee couldn't reach. It was over.

To Pitts, who carries a 4.0 GPA in biology, the situation wasn't about pressure -- ''I was actually having a blast,'' he said -- it was about making a lifetime of dreams come true.

''I'd done this in my mind probably 14 times in the last two weeks, I've clinched the NCAAs,'' he said. ''They say that you can't tell what's real and what's in your mind, so I think it worked.''

And with his performance, along with that of Lang, sophomore Chad Carlson (who won in straight sets yet again) and the Georgia doubles teams, the Bulldogs stood at the top of the tennis world after two years of championship-match disappointments against Stanford.

All acknowledged that this team was far from the most talented in Georgia history, but through whatever combination of tangible and intangible, the Bulldogs came out on top.

''I don't know if next week we'll be the best team in the country,'' said Diaz. ''But this week we certainly proved it.''