ATHENS – Georgia men’s coach Manny Diaz spent part of his day Saturday trying to rustle up as much intelligence on quarterfinal opponent Pepperdine as he could. The teams have not played since 2008, when the Bulldogs defeated the Waves en route to their most recent national championship.
“I’m somewhat familiar, especially their top three players,” Diaz said. “We’re going to do a little bit more homework on their bottom three players.”
That mostly meant talking to coaching colleagues who have faced Pepperdine. After Georgia eliminated North Carolina on Friday night, assistants went to the adjacent courts to watch the end of the Waves’ win over Tulsa. The team practiced at the indoor facility in the afternoon and was considering a movie in the evening, though that was perhaps not the main priority.
“The biggest activity they do is eat,” Diaz said. “Eat and sleep and get their rest.”
Duke vs. giant
The Duke men get the match of their season in the Sunday quarterfinals, a matchup with top-seeded USC. The Trojans, the three-time defending national champions, have won their three NCAA tournament matches by a combined 12-0.
“It’s a great opportunity to play the top seed and three-time defending champs in what I believe is the best venue in college tennis, the stadium courts at UGA,” Duke coach Ramsey Smith said. “We feel like we have nothing to lose.”
The No. 8-seed Blue Devils have some history on their side. USC is 83-6 in the past three seasons, but 1-2 against Duke over that span. The Trojans rifled through the Blue Devils 4-0 en route to winning the national indoor championships in February.
“I feel like our guys are playing with a lot of belief right now,” Smith said.
Pac-12 championships
The four quarterfinals Saturday had two matchups between Pac-12 teams (Stanford-USC and UCLA-California) and two between the ACC and SEC (Duke-Georgia and Miami-Florida).
“I understand the rankings, that it worked out this way — four California teams were ranked in spots that were going to keep us in the same bracket,” UCLA coach Stella Sampras Webster said. However, “it’d be nice to play some teams that don’t know us and we don’t know them.”
In the stands
In the cheering section for UCLA were the parents of Carling Seguso — former women’s tennis star Carling Bassett-Seguso and four-time doubles Grand Slam champion Robert Seguso.
“She’s like the loud, outspoken one,” Seguso said of her mother. “My dad’s more the one who’s just there as the calm one on the sideline.”
Her coach has a famous tennis relative, too. Pete Sampras, winner of 14 Grand Slam singles titles, is Sampras Webster’s younger brother. Pete endowed a women’s tennis scholarship and also did fundraising for the program when his sister took the job.
Home again
Stanford’s Mallory Burdette, from Jackson, will stay in Athens for the NCAA singles and doubles tournament that begin Wednesday. Burdette is the No. 5 seed in the singles tournament and is part of the No. 2-seeded doubles team with Nicole Gibbs. Burdette won the NCAA doubles title last year as a sophomore with Hilary Barte.
“It’s just good to see my family and be back in my home state,” Burdette said.
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