Manuel Diaz Good Quotations

We had a very good day today. Our top two doubles teams played very well and our singles was very consistent once again, especially at the bottom of the lineup.

Our guys are playing well right now. Having said that, I think we are coming up on the toughest part of our schedule. We have three matches in a row on the road and we need to be playing our best tennis of the year. It's going to be a major challenge, but I think we have a good deal of momentum and confidence going into it. Hopefully we can come out and play to the best of our abilities.

Overall we did a good job today. I'm really pleased with the way our guys focused in singles play. My only concern was that we were a little sloppy at our No. 2 and No. 3 doubles and we can't afford to do that in our next match. We just need to keep taking care of winning the doubles point and continue to be strong in singles. I know that the guys are aware that we can still be better.

We beat a very good Ole Miss team today. They came out and took it to us in doubles. Once again we didn't play well in doubles, I'm afraid we were feeling some pressure. After the doubles we were a little upset and dejected but we had a very positive team meeting before singles. I challenged the guys to show us what they were made of. You can't win every match 7-0 or 6-1, you have to win the close ones too. We knew it wasn't going to be easy but its worth going after. I am so proud of the way they competed. These are the moments that matter and you remember forever.

We're excited to finally get outdoors. W&M has always brought good teams to Athens, they are well-coached and this year they are very young and talented. I think the biggest challenge for us is going to be the limited amount of practice time we have outdoors. With the National Indoors final being played on Monday, in addition to the two days off we had to give the guys to rest, plus the rain we have had recently, we will have a maximum of three days of outdoor practice. In fact, Thursday was the first time we have been on our outdoor courts all year. It will take some time to get adjusted.

Tennessee is a young and very talented team. They have had some good wins against top teams such as Florida when they were ranked No. 5 in the country. Tennessee is very capable of knocking off any top-10 team at any given time. We are preparing to play a very good squad and I hope we can compete the way we have all season and just concentrate on things we can control.

This match is traditionally a very tough one. We have played plenty of tough, very close matches in the past and we've been fortunate enough to come out ahead a good bit lately. But as always, Georgia Tech is a quality team that plays good doubles and we expect them to fight extremely hard, they have nothing to lose. Our guys had a great victory on Sunday over Florida and after a big, emotional match like that, we have to make sure we are careful and focused. We certainly want to avoid a letdown.

I'm very proud of our guys. The conditions were not ideal today, it was very windy. Some of our guys were able to take care of business and some struggled. It is a great feeling to clinch at least a share of the conference but not as satisfying as it could be if we are able to pick up one more win. We have a tough match on Sunday though, I'm sure Ole Miss will have a good crowd and their players will be fired up. I really want to see our guys come out and be aggressive. If we can compete well, then we have a chance to make ourselves very proud.