Top-ranked Georgia heads to Orlando for NCAA championshps

ATHENS – The No. 1-seeded Georgia Bulldogs left Tuesday afternoon en route to Orlando, Florida for the conclusion of the 2019 NCAA DI Women’s Tennis Championships.

The field is set for the championships at the USTA National Campus as the final eight men’s and women’s teams that advanced through the super-regional round last weekend travel to Central Florida for a chance to win a national title.

Two practice days await the Bulldogs (26-1) prior to facing No. 8-seed Vanderbilt in the NCAA Quarterfinals Friday at 5 p.m. The match will be televised live on the Tennis Channel, which will carry more than 50 hours of live action throughout both the team and individual competitions.

The match between the Commodores (19-7) and the Bulldogs will mark the third meeting this season. First, Georgia edged VU, 4-3, in the quarterfinals of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships back in February when the Bulldogs made their run as Indoor Champions. The second meeting was the regular-season finale in which Georgia won 4-1 to keep its record unblemished and win the program’s 10th Southeastern Conference regular season title outright.

“First off, I’m super thrilled for this team,” Jeff Wallace said. “They’ve played great all year and have worked very hard to be where they are. We call it doing it the ‘Georgia Way,’ which encompasses a lot, but we are one of those eight teams that have a shot. We’ve had two close matches with Vanderbilt and I know they will be going into the match with the mentality of you can’t beat a team three times.

At the same time, we’ve done that in other years whether at the Indoors, regular season, SEC Tournament, or what have it. We know it can be done, but we have to get to work and be ready. It’ll be a great battle and we just need to play for each other. I think this team is really ready.”

The NCAA Quarterfinals appearance is the second in as many years for Georgia and the 15th trip since the NCAA field expanded to 64 in 1999. The Bulldogs aim to make their first semifinals since 2015 and first finals appearance since they last won it all in 2000.

KRISTIN M. BRADSHAW