As part of the USTA College MatchDay series, the fourth-ranked Georgia men’s tennis team travels to Lake Nona, Fla. to play at the USTA National Campus on Thursday and Friday.
GAME NOTES
Dates: Thursday, Feb. 8th (2 p.m.) and Friday, Feb. 9th (7 p.m. ET)
Location: USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, FL
Live Stats: CLICK HERE
Twitter Updates: CLICK HERE
Watch: (Feb. 9): Tennis Channel
On Friday at 7 p.m. ET, the Georgia-Georgia Tech matchup, one of six College MatchDay events, will take place in front of national audience on the Tennis Channel. The half-dozen matches are the first series of live college tennis programming that the Tennis Channel has ever aired. Veteran tennis broadcaster Leif Shiras and Tracy Austin will be on call for the broadcast, alongside former world No. 5 Jimmy Arias, who will serve as the sideline reporter.
Before the College MatchDay event, Georgia will face Florida Atlantic on Feb. 8 at 2 p.m. ET, also at the USTA National Campus, which is the only off-campus arena in the nation primarily devoted to college tennis.
CLICK HERE for the complete match notes for the USTA College MatchDay for the UGA men’s tennis team.
USTA COLLEGE MATCHDAY
College MatchDay serves as one of USTA’s vehicles to promote collegiate tennis. College MatchDay will play host to 14 teams at the 12-court USTA National Campus at Lake Nona in Orlando, Fla – which is the only off-campus arena in the nation primarily devoted to college tennis. Last year, the Florida-Florida State match was the most highly attended regular season match in college tennis.This year, College MatchDay features Florida-Florida State, Georgia-Georgia Tech, Oklahoma-Texas A&M, UCF-Michigan, Florida-Texas and UCF-South Florida matchups.
TECH REMATCH
Georgia and Georgia Tech players will face off for the second time in 2018, this time between Florida state lines. The first time, Georgia participated in the MLK/Georgia Tech Invitational from Jan. 13-15, winning nine contests over the Yellow Jackets, which did not count as a dual match. The Bulldogs started the day with two 6-0 wins in doubles from the tandems of Jan Zielinski and Robert Loeb (15-5) and Nathan Ponwith and Alex Diaz (1-1), followed by a 6-2 victory from Walker Duncan and Wayne Montgomery (10-4). In singles, Paul Oosterbaan recorded his third consecutive win since overcoming an injury last season, while Diaz won his second-straight match in the first action of his career. Ponwith, Zielinski, and Loeb also posted singles victories.
GEORGIA-FLORIDA TIES
Florida Atlantic University head coach Ricardo Gonzalez is a 2007 graduate of the University of Georgia, where he played tennis under current Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz. Gonzalez was a senior captain of the 2007 national championship team, which also included first-year associate head coach Jamie Hunt. Along with the national title, the FAU head coach collected three SEC Championships and an NCAA final appearance in his tenure at Georgia. This is the first time he has faced his alma mater as head coach.
DIAZ ENTERS 30TH SEASON
Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz enters his 30th season at the helm of the program. In addition to four National Championships, two National Indoor Titles and 41 total SEC crowns, Diaz’s teams have finished ranked in the top-10 in 26 of 29 seasons, including the last seven years.