University of Georgia Athletics
No. 8 Georgia Hosts LSU Saturday
March 17, 2011 | Men's Tennis
March 17, 2011
ATHENS, Ga. --- After climbing to its highest ranking of the season at No. 8 this week, the Georgia men's tennis team is looking to build on a strong weekend of SEC competition with wins at No. 23 Vanderbilt and No. 11 Kentucky when it hosts No. 44 LSU Sat., March 19 at 1 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
The Bulldogs are winners of seven straight matches and one of only three SEC teams still unbeaten in league action. LSU visits Athens at 5-8 overall and 2-2 in conference following last weekend's 5-2 loss to Mississippi State and 4-2 win over Ole Miss in Baton Rouge. The Tigers play No. 16 Michigan Thursday at home before traveling to UGA.
Live scoring and the Georgia Tennis Live Chat will be available on Georgiadogs.com for the match, in addition to streaming video of all six courts at no charge.
"LSU is coming off a great victory against Ole Miss this weekend and they have a deep and talented lineup," said head coach Manuel Diaz. "Our guys are excited about our good road weekend and hopefully we can continue to build on this momentum that we have right now. The guys took a couple days off early this week and came back energized. We're looking to keep building."
GEORGIA VS. LSU: Georgia is 41-14 all-time vs. the Tigers, most recently capturing a 5-2 win on March 28, 2010 on the road.
LOOKING AT THE TIGERS: LSU stands at 5-8 (2-2) with the split vs. the Mississippi schools over the weekend.
Georgia and LSU share two common opponents thus far in 2011. Both schools fell to Ohio State, Georgia by a 6-1 score and the Tigers 7-0. Georgia defeated Auburn 4-0 while LSU lost 4-1 to AU. The Tigers are No. 44 in this week's ITA team poll, while individually Neal Skupski is No. 91 in the rankings and the doubles team of Skupski and Sebastian Carlsson is No. 12.
Statistically, Carlsson and Olivier Borsos lead the team with 16 wins. Skupski has played primarily at No. 1 for LSU, going 4-6 there and 9-13 overall. Julien Gauthier and Stefan Szacinski are each 12-11 overall. Carlsson and Skupski and 20-7 in doubles and the only LSU team in double figures as the Tigers have utilized 17 different combinations in 2010-11.
GOING STREAKING: Georgia's current seven-match winning streak ties their longest of the 2010 season, when the Bulldogs won seven in a row between Feb. 27 and March 14.
Before that, Georgia's longest winning streak was 11 straight from March 8-April 24, 2009.
With four straight wins to open the SEC schedule, Georgia joins Tennessee and Florida as the only three undefeated teams in league play, all from the tough Eastern division. At 14-2 (4-0), the Vols lead the SEC East while Georgia is just behind with a record of 12-3 (4-0) and Florida is in third at 11-3 (4-0).
LAST TIME OUT: Trailing 3-1, the Georgia men's tennis team won the final three matches to beat 11th-ranked Kentucky 4-3 Sunday at the Boone Tennis Complex.
Winners of seven straight matches, the Bulldogs improved to 12-3 overall and 4-0 in SEC play. UGA beat the Wildcats (13-5, 2-2) in similar fashion a year ago, rallying from a 3-0 deficit to beat UK 4-3 in Athens. The win came after Friday night's 6-1 victory over Vanderbilt on the road in Nashville.
With his win at No. 3 vs. the Wildcats, Sadio Doumbia improved to a team-best 27-6 including an 11-1 mark in dual matches. Drake Bernstein -- who clinched Sunday -- has now won six straight matches and is 24-6 overall, and for Wil Spencer it was his team-leading 13th-win over a ranked opponent.
Freshman Hernus Pieters clinched his team-best fourth match vs. Vandy.
IN THE RANKINGS: The Georgia squad moved up one spot to No. 8 in this week's edition of the Campbell/ITA Rankings released Tuesday. It marks the Bulldogs' highest ranking since coming in at No. 8 last April.
Tennessee is No. 1 this week followed by Virginia, Southern Cal, Ohio State, California, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia, Illinois and Duke to round out the top-10.
Individually, Georgia has three players in the top-50: Wil Spencer is No. 13, Javier Garrapiz is 25th and Sadio Doumbia is 48th. In doubles, the tandem of Garrapiz and Hernus Pieters is ranked 10th, Doumbia and Ignacio Taboada are No. 32, while Spencer and Drake Bernstein are ranked 47th.
FOLLOW ALONG WITH THE BULLDOGS IN 2011: The Georgia men's tennis team started a new tradition in 2011 of keeping a "live chat" for all home matches. Sports Communications staff will keep a running blog of all the action while fielding fan and media questions along the way.
Participants have the option of signing up to receive an e-mail reminder when the chat begins for that match. The chat will also be available for the post-season.
ON DECK: Georgia stays home to welcome non-conference opponent Louisville for a mid-week contest on Wed., March 23 at 4 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex. SEC play resumes Saturday as the Bulldogs head to meet Arkansas for a 1 p.m. start in Fayetteville, Ark.
