University of Georgia Athletics
Men's Tennis Travels To ITA National Indoors
February 15, 2012 | Men's Tennis
Complete Match Notes 
| Tournament Central
Feb. 15, 2012
ATHENS, Ga. --- The fourth-ranked University of Georgia men's tennis team (6-0) will travel for the first time this dual match season when it heads to Charlottesville, Va., to take part in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship set for Feb. 17-20 at the Boar's Head Tennis Club, hosted by the University of Virginia.
The No. 4-seeded Bulldogs' first round match will come against 13th-ranked California on Fri., Feb. 17 at noon. Depending on win or loss, Georgia would then face either No. 5 Florida or No. 12 Pepperdine.
Live scoring and the Georgia Tennis Live Chat will be available on Georgiadogs.com just before first serve as long as the Bulldogs are in action. All teams are guaranteed three matches at the event.
"Our first opponent, Cal, is a great team," said 24th-year head coach Manuel Diaz. "They won a very tough regional to get to the final 16 site. They come very well-prepared having played the top team in the country in USC and some other good teams like UCLA and LSU. They are a seasoned team this early in the year, and I'm sure they'll be a tough opponent for us. We are coming in playing well and we'll be ready. Wil [Spencer] has been given the green light after missing two matches, and that makes us a better team. We're looking forward to a great match Friday."
"The ITA Indoors is one of our biggest target competition," Diaz said. "It will reveal for everyone where we are and what's in store for the season, and what we can expect to see at the NCAA Championships later this spring,"
GEORGIA AT THE NATIONAL INDOORS: Georgia has won two National Indoor titles (2006, 2007) and has reached the finals another six times (1982, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2009). In 2007, the squad also went on to win the NCAA championship that May.
Last season Georgia lost its first-round match-up to Tennessee in Seattle before rebounding to capture wins over Louisville and No. 7 Stanford.
The Bulldogs punched their ticket to the prestigious 16-team field by winning the Athens ITA Kickoff weekend Jan. 29-30 with wins over TCU and Virginia Tech.
LOOKING AT THE GOLDEN BEARS: Georgia is 2-3 all-time in the limited series with Cal, most recently earning a 4-0 shutout of the Golden Bears in the first round of the 2001 NCAA Tournament, which the Bulldogs went on to win. Prior to that, the teams hadn't faced one another since 1991, also in the NCAAs. The Bulldogs' last loss to Cal came in 1990, incidentally coming in the National Indoors.
No. 13-seeded Cal enters the tournament at 4-2 on the season and is making its first appearance at the National Indoors since 2004 after winning its Kickoff weekend by taking down LSU and San Diego.
Cal's lineup is led by senior Nick Andrews and juniors Carlos Cueto and Christoffer Konigsfeldt. No. 42-ranked sophomore Ben McLachlan holds the Bears' only singles ranking. McLachlan and Cueto form the 27th-ranked doubles team in the country while Andrews and Konigsfeldt hold the No. 5 doubles ranking as a team.
Cal is coached by Peter Wright in his 19th season in Berkeley.
LOOKING AT THE FIELD: In addition to the Bulldogs and Golden Bears, the field is comprised of top-seeded and top-ranked Southern Cal, second-seeded and host Virginia, Ohio State, Florida, Kentucky, Baylor, UCLA, Stanford, Duke, Texas A&M, Pepperdine, Texas, Auburn, and Tennessee.
Stanford leads all teams with 12 indoor titles as well as in finals appearances (16).
LAST TIME OUT: The Georgia men's tennis team blanked Georgia Tech, 7-0, at the Lindsey Hopkins Indoor Facility on Tuesday to improve to 6-0 on the season and dropping the Yellow Jackets to 4-5.
Georgia has now defeated Georgia Tech 25 times in 26 tries dating back to 1989 and improved to 51-2 in the series since 1969, going 58-9 all-time in the series. Georgia won doubles for the sixth time in a row and got the clincher from Ignacio Taboada at No. 3 singles.
HOT START: Georgia has started out the season undefeated at 6-0 - four of which have been 7-0 shutouts - for the fifth time in the last seven seasons and first since 2009.
Georgia has won doubles in all six matches, going 14-2 so far in doubles while posting an impressive 34-2 ledger to date in singles.
Four players - Sadio Doumbia, Hernus Pieters, KU Singh, and Ignacio Taboada - are all 6-0 in singles on the early season.
MIXING IT UP: After a 2010-11 season in which the Bulldog doubles lineups were solidified early on, head coach Manuel Diaz has done some shuffling of his teams in 2011-12. After the fall season and three dual matches, Diaz's Bulldogs have gone with 21 different doubles team combinations out of a total of 66 possibilities.
SPENCER'S RECORD WATCH: Georgia senior captain Wil Spencer is off to another spectacular start in 2012, winning his first three singles matches and standing second on the team with 21 victories on the year. Spencer sits just seven singles wins shy of reaching 100 for his career - having played his first two seasons at Texas A&M and his final two at UGA. Spencer's combined career record at the two institutions is 93-39.
Seven more wins would make Spencer just the 15th player in UGA history to win 100 singles matches, a feat that was most recently accomplished by Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz last season.
ON DECK: Georgia will return home from the National Indoor Tournament to open the outdoor portion of the 2012 season (weather permitting) vs. regular non-conference opponent and border rival Furman on Mon., Feb. 27 at 2:30 p.m at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex.
