Tennis

Image: SI

Orson Charles, the Plant High School TE/WR has chosen to play his college football at the University of Georgia.

His choice ends a solid month of intense speculation since most other senior high school prospects chose colleges on February 5th, national signing day.

Charles figures to be a match-up nightmare with great speed and quickness to go along with his traditional TE frame.

All I got to say is… HOW ABOUT THIS 2009 RECRUITING CLASS? Where are we now? Top 5?

RELATED LINKS:

• Charles ends wait, signs with Bulldogs – Athens Banner-Herald
• Orson Charles is a Dawg – Bernie’s Dawg Blawg
• Orson Charles picks Georgia over Tennessee and Southern Cal – AJC
• Orson Charles picks UGA – Georgia College Football Examiner
• UGA’s other TE recruit Arthur Lynch, glad for addition - AJC
• Tampa TE Orson Charles Signs With Bulldogs – GeorgiaDogs.com
• Charles Picks UGA! – TotalUGA

Neither UGA Tennis squad was able to prevail in today’s ITA Indoor Championship finals. The men fell 4-1 to Virginia while the women came up short against Northwestern.

Manuel Diaz sees a silver lining in the losing effort:

“I can’t say enough about our guys, it was anybody’s match on every court, and they gave a championship effort,” said Georgia coach Manuel Diaz. “A lot of the experts said we might be in for a down year but we showed we can compete with anybody in the country. I’m not saying it’s going to be smooth this year but we definitely have the kind of guys who will fight hard every time out. We’re ahead of schedule, and I like how we’ve got a close-knit group.”

Ladie’s coach Jeff Wallace on his squad’s loss:

“We ran in to the top-ranked team that played a solid match today, and I’m still proud of our team for making it to the finals,” said Georgia coach Jeff Wallace. “We learned a lot and what we need to work on for the rest of the year. This was a good experience for the team. We had the right mindset coming up here, and this was a great showing.”

Both teams surpassed expectations and did the Bulldog Nation proud. I imagine both squads will be in the hunt for their respective national titles.

Image:rivals.com

The Georgia Tennis Dogs continue to saw through the competition at the ITA National Indoors in Chicago. Georgia defeated Stanford 4-2 to advance to the finals vs. Virginia.

The Women’s Tennis team is matching the success of their male counterparts. They defeated second-ranked California to advance to the finals of the ITA Women’s National Team Indoors in Madison, Wisconsin. They’ll play undefeated and top-ranked Northwestern in the final.

The Tennessean provides a fresh look at the misadventures of young Lane Kiffin.

Rivals lists ten things it loves about College Football.

Take a look at this great video of the last moments of Georgia’s unlikely win over Florida on Saturday. It’s shot from seats very close to the floor and gives you a great feel for how jubilant the crowd was after the much needed victory.

The Road to Copacetic notices a lot of love being directed toward one Matthew Stafford from ESPN. Complete with all the Stafford video from it’s draft coverage.

Great recap and insight from the most recent LOST episode at The Stuff of Legend.

Rodney Garner explains why it may seem like Georgia is slow to offer in-state kids.

Oh, and this is a couple days old, but Josh Fields reached a deal with the Seattle Mariners. Some believe that Fields may get called up by the All-Star break.

Furman Bisher doesn’t know why in the heck Georgia has enlisted the help of a search firm. I mean, really! Why doesn’t Damon Evans just fly out to Norman and knock on Jeff Capel’s office door? Yeah, that’d go well. Furman is pretty out of touch with the modern goings on of these fancy pants athletic departments with their keyboard phones and all.

In all of the hubbub over weekend recruiting visits and the news that Bobby Knight was interested in Georgia basketball job, the news of Georgia’s 4-2 victory over Washington to advance to the Sweet Sixteen of the ITA National Indoors.

Unlike the previous two matches Georgia had to come from behind after an early setback:

Washington (4-2) grabbed a 1-0 lead by winning the doubles point over the Bulldogs (3-0). The team point came down to the No. 2 match where Derek Drabble and Patrik Fisher edged Josh Varela and Christian Vitulli 8-6. The Huskies No. 1 team of Martin Kildahl and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan won 8-4 while the No. 3 Bulldog tandem of Drake Bernstein and Javier Garrapiz won 8-3. It was the first time Georgia dropped the doubles point this season.

The match was clinched by the solitary Bulldog senior, Josh Varela.

“It was a total team effort today,” said Georgia coach Manuel Diaz. “After Washington won the doubles point, we knew what we had to do and everybody hung in there. Josh is a perfect example of a kid who came to Georgia to be a part of something special. He didn’t come in with a high ranking like some guys, he’s worked hard and gone from being like our eighth or ninth guy as a freshman to now winning big matches like today. He has a tremendous competitive spirit.”

Up next for the Tennis Dogs is a trip to Chicago to compete for the National Team Indoor Championships held February 13-16.

Georgia cruised to another victory in it’s quest to become ITA National Team Indoor Champions. The most recent victim was the South Carolina Gamecocks.

Third-ranked Georgia will face 36th-ranked Washington Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex for a trip to the ITA National Team Indoors.

The Bulldogs (2-0) blanked No. 51 South Carolina 5-0 Friday while No. 36 Washington defeated No. 55 Indiana 6-1 in the first day of the ITA Kickoff Weekend here at the Hopkins Indoor Courts. The winner of the Bulldog-Husky match will earn as spot in the 16-team field at the ITA National Team Indoors slated for Feb. 13-16 in Chicago. The Gamecocks will face the Hoosiers in a consolation match Saturday at 9 a.m. Admission is free for both matches at the Hopkins Indoor Courts.

So, just one victory and it will be on to Chicago.

RELATED: UGA living legend, Georgia sports oracle and the first baby born at Athens Regional Medical Center, Dan Magill, has a piece in the Banner-Herald about recently signed Georgia tennis recruit Borja Malo.

Georgia’s defending national champion men’s tennis team, which was hit hard by the graduation of All-Americans Travis Helgeson and Luis Flores, has recruited one of South America’s top players, Borja Malo of Santiago, Chile.

Given where we are in the football recruiting process, this part stood out:

Coach Manuel Diaz said Malo started school Thursday.

That’s fast! I guess recruiting isn’t always a glacial process where, after essentially a year long recruitment, it may still be another couple of years a kid sees the field.

Instant gratification FTW.

That headline will never get old. If you grew up a Georgia fan in the shadow of Death Valley during the apex of the Danny Ford era you will never tire of hearing of any Georgia victories over the Tigers.

Yes, I’m talking about the 7-0 UGA Tennis victory over the Tigers yesterday, but since we don’t line up against Clemson that often in football anymore, I’ll take it just the same.

The score certainly looks like a bloodletting but Coach Diaz warns us it wasn’t all pinwheels and cotton candy:

“It was a lot closer than the score indicated, and you hear that a lot, but we lost the first set in three of our matches and were pushed to the limit,” said Georgia coach Manuel Diaz. “We fought through it and beat a good Clemson team. I thought Nate did a great job at No. 1 singles and Jamie reacted well to the pressure at No. 2. He had some lapses but came back after dropping the first set, kept his composure and won the match.”

It will be a long shot for Georgia to repeat the success of the last two seasons but the accomplishment of back to back National Championships should not be overlooked by any ‘Dawg fan. It is a special accomplishment by coaches Diaz and Glenn.

Going to see the Tennis Dogs is free and they will be back in action on Friday.

The Bulldogs, who now have won 48 straight home matches, return to action Friday at 2 p.m. when they play host to South Carolina as part of the ITA “Kickoff Weekend.” Georgia is one of 15 sites around the country where teams will look to qualify for the USTA/ITA National Team Indoors (Feb. 13-16 in Chicago, Ill.).

Go check the Tennis Dogs out!