Spring Break
Women's tennis fights for SEC top seed
MANIK K. GUPTA
Issue date: 4/17/09 Section: Sports
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After clinching a share of the SEC regular season crown last weekend with a 5-2 victory over Kentucky, it might appear that the SEC champion Bulldogs have little to play for heading into their final regular season dual match.
But, that isn't the case, said the head coach of the second-ranked Bulldogs, Jeff Wallace.
"There's still so much to play for. It's exciting that we've clinched the [SEC] regular season, but we want to be the No. 1 seed at the SEC tournament. And, we want to work hard on keeping our seed high for the NCAA Tournament," Wallace said. "It's always nice to be conference champs by yourself than having to share that title."
One team that could look to share that title with the Bulldogs (19-2, 9-1 SEC ) and earn the No. 1 seed at the 2009 SEC Tournament next week is the No. 13-ranked Tennessee Volunteers, which will host Georgia tomorrow at noon in Knoxville, Tenn.
The Lady Volunteers (15-4, 8-2 SEC), winners of their last five dual matches, have never won an SEC title in school history, but a win over the Bulldogs could change all that. And that bears heavily in the minds of the Georgia players.
"Tennessee's going to be exciting because if they beat us, they could end up tying us for the [SEC] title and we don't want that at all," junior Yvette Hyndman said. "[The coaches] are telling us that [Tennessee's] going to have a big crowd on Saturday and to be prepared because they've never won a championship before and so they're really going to be trying to beat us. So, we want to stay focused for [this] match."
After the Bulldogs secured their eighth SEC title in program history last Sunday, Wallace dispelled any notion his team could suffer an emotional hangover in the regular season finale.
"I think our players are the type of players that are committed to being emotionally, and physically, and mentally, and every way shape and form ready every time they take the courts," he said. "We've talked a lot about that. That's our mission. That's our goal, and we just have to look at this as if it's another match like the last one. I don't think there should be a letdown at all. They are going to have a great crowd. The first thing is we've just got to keep it about tennis. We got to not let anybody in the stands get under our skin. We've just got to stay focused and rise above all the hoopla as far as the crowd going crazy. I think if we go up there and keep it simple and just do what we've been doing, good things will happen to us."
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