It should be a fabulous Friday of college tennis and if you happen to be in close proximity to Athens (GA), Columbus (OH), Winston-Salem (NC), or Nashville (TN) I suggest you find a way to make it over to campus and watch some great high-level tennis.

If you can’t make it out in person then at least make sure you take advantage of the free live streaming video that Georgia, Wake Forest, and Ohio State will be offering up for the matches.

I think we’ll see at least 1 upset in the 4 big matches though I’d be surprised if we saw more than 1.

FYI, the number beside the player’s school is the player’s Universal Tennis Rating as of today’s (3/5) date and the numbers beside that are the player’s dual match record for this season.  For more details about UTR check out their website.

#10 Texas A&M (6-1) at #4 Georgia (9-2) – 2:30pm est – A year ago Texas A&M handed Georgia its only regular season conference loss when the Aggies won 4-1 in College Station but this year they’ll be in Athens and most likely playing outdoors. Georgia is 8-3 in doubles but 6-0 since they changed pairings before the National Indoors while Texas A&M is a perfect 7-0 and in fact the Aggies have only dropped 1 individual court. This will be the first time this season that Texas A&M has ventured away from home while it’ll likely be the 1st time this year that Georgia has played a whole match outdoors at home.  There won’t be any individual rematches from last year and the only pairing that will have met before at the collegiate level are Adams and Pasha at #3 – they split matches back in 2013.  Doubles is too close to call so I’ll look at the singles matches. 


Projected Singles Lineups

#1 singles – Shane Vinsant would likely be 5-1 in dual match play but he’s had 3 matches get halted due to the team clinch with Vinsant having big leads in each. Austin Smith ended a 2 match losing streak by winning 2 of 3 last weekend and he was up a set in the 3rd one when the Bulldogs clinched.  If this match were in College Station, with the swirling winds, I’d go with Vinsant but with it being in Athens I think Smith gets it done or is at least leading if it doesn’t finish.  

#2 singles – Jeremy Efferding has been on a roll lately with the Aggie senior winning 8 of his last 9.  Last weekend was the first time he played at #1 in a conference dual since his sophomore year but he’s back at #2 this week despite beating Kentucky’s Beck Pennington 1 & 0 (also was on the verge of splitting sets with UT’s Libietis). Wayne Montgomery was just named SEC Freshman of the week for the 3rd time this year after going 1-0 last weekend with another match that didn’t finish.  Montgomery has won his last 3 matches that finished with all those coming at #1.  I like the Georgia freshman in straight sets in this one.  

#3 singles – Harrison Adams has definitely hit a rough patch lately with the Aggie junior having dropped 7 straight with all but the last one against a ranked opponent.  In 5 of those 7 losses Adams dropped a set by a 6-1 score so he hasn’t been too competitive either.  Nathan Pasha has won 5 straight though he did trail in last match against Auburn before the match was stopped due to the clinch.  I would be surprised at a result of anything other than Pasha in 2.  

#4 singles – Arthur Rinderknech had had a great start to his collegiate career by starting off 8-1 including 6-1 in dual match play.  He hasn’t yet beat a ranked opponent but he’s knocked off several bigger names so far – Ohio State’s Kevin Metka, Oklahoma’s Spencer Papa, San Diego’s Jordan Angus, and Tennessee’s Luis Valero. Ben Wagland has been a little up and down this year alternating wins and losses but he’s yet to win 2 straight.  I think Rinderknech is playing a little too well right now to drop this one so I’ll take the Aggie freshman in 2  

#5 singles – AJ Catanzariti is riding a 3 match winning streak which includes a win over Oklahoma’s Alex Ghilea while Nick Wood has dropped 3 of 5 but he did win in straight sets his last time out against Auburn’s Dante Saleh. I think Wood plays better this time around and pushes this one to a 3rd set before it gets halted due to a clinch.

#6 singles – Max Lunkin is undefeated in dual match play including a win over Oklahoma’s Jose Salazar although he was trailing in 2 other matches that went unfinished.  Paul Oosterbaan has won 3 of his last 4 and was up a set in last match against Auburn’s Joseph Van Dooren before the match was halted.  I think Oosterbaan has the upper hand in this one and wins in 2.  

Texas A&M has the firepower to take out Georgia but I don’t see it happening in the Dawgs backyard. Prediction:  Georgia 4-1

#12 Virginia (7-2) at #20 Wake Forest (8-3) – 4pm est – Both teams are coming off losses with Virginia falling to Baylor while Wake went down to Texas.  The biggest question mark in this one is who’ll suit up for the match. Virginia had 2 notable absences from its lineup last week in ITA #1 Thai Son Kwiatkowski and Alex Ritschard while Wake had it’s #1 Noah Rubin out.  If Rubin misses this match as well I don’t see Wake scratching up a point anywhere in singles because Virginia is more experienced and stronger in every other spot.  Virginia has won 124 consecutive matches against ACC teams and I look for the streak to go to 125.  Prediction: Virginia 6-1

#11 Florida (6-3) at #14 Vanderbilt (10-3) – 5pm est – This will be the 3rd time in the last 11 months that these teams have played in Nashville with Vandy winning the regular season meeting indoors 4-3 and Florida winning 4-3 outdoors in the SEC Tournament semifinals.  None of the individual match-ups will be repeats so last year’s slate is wiped clean away.  Vandy is 8-3 in doubles while Florida is 5-4 with both teams going 1-1 in doubles last week with each losing the point in a tiebreak.  Vandy made a switch in the singles lineup and has moved Danny Valent up from 4 to 3 while dropping Kris Yee down from 3 to 4.  Florida has also swapped its 3 and 4 by moving Orkin up and Watson down so we’ll get the same match-ups at 3 and 4 just in reverse order.  

Projected Singles Lineups
1. #46 Diego Hidalgo (UF 14.03 – 7-0) vs. #9 Gonzales Austin (VU 14.46 – 11-1)  
2. #103 Maxx Lipman (UF 13.73 – 2-5) vs. Rhys Johnson (VU 13.42 – 4-5)
3. #80 Elliott Orkin (UF 13.84 – 5-3) vs. Danny Valent (VU 13.67 – 10-1)
4. Gordon Watson (UF 13.73 – 4-4) vs. Kris Yee (VU 13.58 – 3-7) 
5. #123 Chase Perez-Blanco (UF 13.30 – 5-1) vs. Suresh Eswaran (VU 12.81 – 7-4)  
6. Oliver Landert (UF 13.13 – 4-4) vs. Baker Newman (VU 12.86 – 1-5) 

Other possible players: Josh Wardell (UF 13.11 – 0-1), Jordan Belga (UF 13.05 – 2-1), Jeff Offerdahl (VU 12.65 – 2-1)

The only court where I’d consider Vandy the clear favorite is at #1 but I think Florida is the favorite at 2, 4, 5, and 6. Orkin/Valent is too close to call at 3 with Valent having won 14 of his last 15 matches, though none were against ranked players, while Orkin has won 8 of his last 11 with the all 3 losses coming to players ranked inside the top 65.  I think the odds are stacked in Florida’s favor in this one so I’ll take the Gators.  Prediction: Florida 4-2

Projected Singles Lineups