Georgia-Florida rivalry gets NCAA tennis spotlight
ATHENS -- The Georgia-Florida rivalry will take center court at the NCAA Tennis Championships on Friday night.
The Bulldogs and Gators will meet in a men's round-of-16 match that figures to rouse the crowd at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. The match is scheduled to start at 6 p.m.
Georgia is 50-18 all-time against Florida in men's tennis but 0-2 this season. The Gators are the tournament's No. 6 seed and the Dogs No. 11.
"It's going to be tough," Georgia coach Manuel Diaz said. "There are no secrets, that's for sure. We know their players; they know our players. It's a good rivalry, and it should be a great match."
Among those watching will be players from the team that won the first of Georgia's six NCAA men's tennis championships. The 1985 team is in town for a 25th-anniversary reunion.
Georgia lost to Florida 4-0 in February at the ITA National Indoors and 5-2 in April in an SEC regular-season match in Gainesville. Georgia is 19-7 and Florida 21-4 this season.
"In the last match down in Gainesville, we ... had match points at No. 4 singles [but lost], and we lost a real close three-set match at No. 3," Diaz said. "So it's going to be a battle.
"I think in order for us to win we're going to have to make it a long night. Right now, our team is not going to come out and blow people out. ... We're going to have to outfight them and hang in there. That's what we had to do against Florida State in the round of 32 [last weekend]."
The Georgia-Florida winner will advance to Sunday's quarterfinals against the winner of Friday night's match between Oklahoma and No. 3 seed Texas. Former Georgia player John Roddick is in his first season as Oklahoma's coach.