Coach Bryan Shelton enjoys playing in front of the home crowd. He enjoys the energy and the school’s tennis fans.
“It’s kind of a validation that they’re doing good things and the people want to come out and see the tennis,” he said. “Not only to watch, but to get that involved. What a great college atmosphere.”
And after losing to Georgia on Sunday and snapping its six-game home winning streak to start the season, Florida (7-6, 2-2 Southeastern Conference) looks to push its SEC record over .500 against two conference opponents this weekend.
Florida will take on Auburn (14-5, 4-1 SEC) on Friday at 5 p.m. at the Ring Tennis Complex, followed by a match against Alabama (9-9, 2-3 SEC) on Sunday at 1 p.m.
"I think the biggest thing is to just get better. We’ve been working to get better and we feel like we’re now competing at a pretty high level, but we have to get better so we can execute under pressure," Shelton said. "Those were the things that really held us back from winning the match against Georgia — when the pressure was at its greatest, we played too defensively."
Heading into the fourth of five-straight home games, the Gators also have newly ranked players in the mix.
Three players are ranked in singles, including freshman Elliott Orkin (No. 82), senior Spencer Newman (No. 85), and newly-ranked Gordon Watson (No. 106). The only ranked doubles teams is the Watson and Orkin duo at No. 11.
Florida leads the series against Auburn 36-15 all-time; however, the Gators fell to the Tigers 4-0 in the last meeting on Mar. 24, 2013.
Florida has been 5-0 against Alabama since 2009. In their last meeting, Watson recorded a win against Alabama's Philippe Tsangarides at No. 5 singles in a match the Gators won 4-1.
Shelton's team is also looking to play better against high ranked teams. All of the Florida's six losses have come against teams ranked within the top 12 including No. 1 Ohio State, No. 3 UCLA, No. 4 Southern Cal, No. 10 Georgia, No. 11 Notre Dame and No. 12 Texas A&M.
"This weekend, we’re looking forward to getting back out there and playing aggressively on those big points of the match and seizing those opportunities" Shelton said.
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Elliott Orkin attempts to hit the ball during his singles match against UNF on Jan. 22.
