Of the 32 men’s and women’s tennis teams left in the NCAA championships, half hail from either the ACC or SEC. Of those 16, four belong to Georgia and Georgia Tech.
For the first time, both sets of Bulldogs and Yellow Jackets teams have made it to the round of 16, where play begins Thursday at Stanford for both championships.
While it’s old hat for the Georgia men’s team — which has made eight consecutive trips to the round of 16 — and fairly new ground for the Tech men, which hasn’t been this far since 1994, it’s not to be taken lightly by anyone.
“When you get there year in and year out, you sometimes take it for granted,” Tech women’s coach Bryan Shelton said. “Being knocked out in the second round last year, we certainly didn’t take this for granted this year.”
The Tech men have reached the NCAA tournament eight of the past 10 years, but are in the round of 16 for the first time since 1994. The Jackets are stocked with seniors, including ACC player of the year Guillermo Gomez.
No. 15-seed Tech has a rough draw. On Thursday, it will play two-time defending champion USC, ranked No. 2 in the country.
The Tech women are back in the round of 16 for the sixth time in seven years. Tech, which won the national title in 2007, is the No. 14 seed and will play third-seeded Duke on Friday. Shelton said that for two weeks after the ACC tournament, the team did nothing but doubles drills with good reason. They’re undefeated when they’ve won the doubles point and haven’t won when they’ve lost it.
The Georgia men carry a heavy pedigree into their Thursday round-of-16 match with No. 11 seed Duke. The sixth-seeded Bulldogs have won six NCAA titles and reached the finals in three of the past five years, winning twice. The Bulldogs have been boosted by three transfers, including Wil Spencer, the 18th-ranked player in the country.
"I feel like we're in great shape," Georgia men's coach Manny Diaz said Wednesday from Stanford. "Our guys are ready to go and hopefully we can play a peak match [Thursday]."
The Georgia women dropped just two sets last weekend in ousting Marist and Alabama in first- and second-round matches last weekend in Athens to make the round of 16. They’ve made the quarterfinals 10 of the past 13 years with coach Jeff Wallace, the nation’s winningest active women’s tennis coach.
If the eighth-seeded Bulldogs can defeat No. 9-seed California in the round of 16 on Friday, a potential matchup looms with top-seeded Stanford, the defending champion and winners of 44 consecutive matches. The Cardinal have won 181 consecutive home matches, the longest for any team in any Division I sport.
