#1 Georgia dominates #4 Auburn 4-0

0:00Welcome to No Add, No Problem, a podcast devoted to college tennis and growing the game. Check us out on Twitter, at JTweetStennis, and Instagram, at No Add, No Problem. I'm your host, John, let's serve it up. Hey everyone, we are coming to you right after the number one Georgia Bulldogs took out the number four Auburn Tigers 40. We are coming to you live just a few feet from the Dan McGill, tennis complex. I am joined by Adam Drucker, Adam, this is our third in-person podcast. I think we've done one each year, almost in Athens, so it is great to see you in-person again, and I'm so glad to be doing our third in-person podcast. I know, it feels like every year we've had like a slightly different setting, you know, the first year was in Airbnb more downtown than we were on site.

1:00We actually recorded it in the Lindsey Hopkins indoor tennis facility last year, and then now we're at another Airbnb, like you said, just a few feet away from the courts. It's really exciting the fact that, you know, this is becoming an annual tradition. I'm certainly, you know, very, very grateful the fact that you come to me, and I don't have to fly all the way out to San Francisco to watch the Stanford or, you know, and Cal, some other team up there. So I really appreciate you coming to me, but, you know, it's, it was a great match today, definitely one that is certainly going to underline some, maybe, maybe be an inflection point for some of these teams that there were some very real questions we had for both, and I think we got some pretty strong answers. Yeah, I mean, coming into this match, of course, a match that we previewed, these two teams have played once before in the indoor semi-final, and it was a match that Auburn didn't have and Merna refought. The number four player, they still won doubles, and they had match point against this Georgia team. So you came into this match thinking, all right, yeah, we're in Athens, not in a neutral

2:01site. They have Merna. This could be a match that, if Auburn wins, then you're maybe looking at this Auburn team saying, oh, they're the clear number one. Like we were sleeping on them a little bit just because of that semi-final loss. So that was what was at stake here today. And I did come to you, Adam. I flew from SFO to Atlanta, red eye. Now I'm not complaining because I have a great time when I come to Athens. I'm literally staying like feet from Dan McGill. I enjoy it. I'm looking forward to being back here in May. But this match did not give me my money's worth, Adam. I have to say this was a four-o dismantling of Auburn. And it started in doubles. This is an Auburn team that has not lost a doubles point all season. Georgia, good crowd, great crowd, vocal crowd. You have the spike squad out there. You have Noah who is loud and boisterous, really ramping up the crowd.

3:05So it was good crowd. Now it wasn't packed. Like I've seen better crowds. But the thing about the Georgia crowds is they're so engaged regardless of how many people are there. So they feel on top of you, too, in these doubles points. So doubles early on, it felt a little back and forth, particularly at two doubles. Because you have Mert and Dalek there at two. And they were down three-one. And you and I were watching that match behind court, too. And they came out slow. They came out playing two back a lot. Did you see early on, and then how did they win the next five games? Yeah, early on, I think that they were really just kind of getting their bearing straight. We saw a couple of double faults from Mert. We saw just not really going after the first serve, kind of also the first serve percentage wasn't super high for both of them. It was a really kind of jostling for position. And then we saw a complete flip the script. We saw Mert and Dalek really start to move forward as a team, be aggressive, let their

4:10ground strokes really drive the intensity of the play. And then we kind of saw a refought in Okutoi get a little bit passive. And when they did go for something big, it was always spraying. It just felt like their margins were all all over the place. And that in these tight situations, we saw a fair bit of like 30 all do's. And it really just felt like they just could not capitalize on the big points in that whether it was the crowd, whether it was just missing a few important points here and there. They just could not string the points together. Yeah, there was some big misses on big points down in those final five games for sure. It did feel like Mert and Dalek started slow. You know, maybe they were nervous. And then ultimately started to play doubles that looked more like the doubles you would expect to see from an instantly doubles champion in icicle, Mert. You do want to see her hit the serve more in doubles. She was cranking it a little bit more in singles. But yeah, I think a surprising from Okutoi and refought who you had commented, they'd only lost one match.

5:11And that was a retirement. So they've been so solid for this Auburn team, really all of their pairs have been so so solid. I mean, we just seen Bowers and Kairu Tenova lose their first match what last weekend. And that match ultimately goes unfinished. But that was a back and forth match at number three, Georgia gets the win at number one with Lapada and Paxidia freshman, one of the freshmen who doesn't play in singles, but she absolutely is embracing college tennis. She is just like this little energizer bunny. She's not little. I know. Yeah, definitely not little. She's, you know, like five, ten, you know, she's a big girl. But she's just this energizer bunny on the core. You see her making like Raphael and Adolfis pumps at like three all, you know? It's like this, like, yes, it's a, it's a big point, but definitely you're thinking like, oh, did they, did she just win the set or something? And it's just like she is all about loving the action. And it's like with the doubles, that's the kind of, you know, momentum driver you need.

6:14And it's the fact that, you know, they've transitioned this team from number two in the doubles line of two, number one in, you know, now they're two and oh at that, at that position. And I think it really speaks to the, the other teams on the court that when you see Paxidia being so vocal and so animated in her expressions, it really communicates that every else. And she has great hands. Yeah. Great hands at net. Yeah. And sometimes maybe not in the right position, but she has good enough hands that like it goes over. It's an interesting mix with La Pada because La Pada is the senior, the veteran, but just the calm, steady stoicness of La Pada mixed with this energizer bunny that you said, both on and off the court, make for a fun mix. And certainly in theory, La Pada's steadiness from the back court. Sometimes a little shaky, but in Paxidia up at net is where they would thrive. They ultimately get the win at number one over DJ Bennett and Ava Espicito, who I think

7:15are undefeated unless they lost a South Carolina. But in dual match play, I don't think, I don't think they did lose. I'm not able to remember. Yeah. So either way, I mean, all of these doubles teams from Auburn have had sterling records. That's why they never dropped a doubles point. And when we were pre doing this match, right, this is what would have had to happen, where you just feel like Georgia takes the energy of the crowd and wins a doubles point. Like you saw them do in person against LSU on these same courts. It big takeaway from this match overall is that this team in particular, the freshman in particular on this Georgia team really embrace both college tennis and playing in front of these fans at the Dan McGill Tennis Complex. I mean, you saw it from you see it from Patrick and doubles, and then you see it from Denise Dileck and singles, I mean, she is like, you know, she lost the first, she got bagel in the first set and then you see in the second set as people are, you know, really getting behind her.

8:16She's throwing her arms up, she outhomping them up, you know, at several different points during that second set. And it's just, you know, you just never would expect the freshman to come in here and just get such limited match play early on in January at home. Their first match at home was in February that they're actually really embracing this. Coming into these big matches, they're not, you know, getting too nervous in front of the stage and they're really letting the fans lift them out of the holes that they're in and, you know, drive them forward and to rattle them up is just, yeah, normally that's the senior move. That's the senior move. That's something that takes getting used to. But these freshmen are something different. And there's an art too because you need to figure out how much of it is helping you versus either distracting or taking too much of your energy. And she certainly fed on that with her come back in that second set. I mean, she lost the first eight games of that singles match. We'll get into singles, but that truly was a huge takeaway. I mean, sprinkling in some big picture takeaways, like it's going to be so hard to beat Georgia

9:19at home in the NCAA's, give him what we saw today. Here's a world where to your point, you have four freshmen in the lineup. None of them are American. So they might have less familiarity with college tennis. And I think you made a really good point earlier that sometimes it takes a season or a few years for players to really figure out how to incorporate the crowd. That's not the case for these freshmen. It is so clear how much better they play at home in front of these fans. And at NCAA's, they're going to have stands behind four through six. It's not going to be standing room only. So some like Grava is going to benefit from that. Don will benefit from that. So really impressed by the doubles point start there. So the question was, will Auburn be able to rebound? Will they be able to put up a fight after dropping their first doubles point on the road? First doubles point loss of the season? The answer was no. As pretty quickly, Auburn gets down.

10:23Now we'll talk about the Ogatoi thing because she was one of the bright spots. She was at eight straight games, flawless tennis in that opening set. I mean, just breathtaking winners from everywhere, like the ball striking between both of these players is already top notch. But back and forth, like just fantastic from Ogatoi, would you see in the first set but then how did it things turn around a little bit? Yeah. Angie was really just kind of really feeding off on the pace she found the rhythm so quickly. And the big problem that Denise was having, Dileck was having was that she was giving the same ball to Angie every time. And Angie was like in full free flow state. Like it was just winners from every corner. And I mean, while the rallies are beautiful, the winners are beautiful. This is beautiful tennis to watch. It's just one way traffic. And it wasn't until, you know, Angie, I think got a little shaky on the serve. Got a little shaky, you know, started spraying a few balls. And then all of a sudden the crowd is really getting loud, you know, Dileck. It's on the scoreboard.

11:24Yeah. Because it's the sort of thing where it's like you get one game and everyone's getting behind you and everyone. Yeah. I mean, so what's interesting is we would so next, these matches next to each other, you know, Ogatoi Dileck was a pretty much a mirror of what was happening on March, high roots in Obas Court. And even though Mert was winning, anytime you turn Mert went a point, being up a lot, crowds, man, do you get some, you get, you get a cheer. But anytime Dileck went a point, it was like a roar. It was a roar. And so it was just, everyone was so locked in on trying to, you know, get her back into this match. And she just really kind of rode that and rode that, you know, getting back up from two zero down in that second set, winning four straight to get to four two, then had the wobble. Ogatoi served for the match at five four, Dileck breaks back, and you know, this match goes unfinished at six five in the second, but really just a testament that even if you bagel one of these Georgia freshmen, they are not out of this match.

12:25And you talk about those two matches that were next to each other, court two and court three, because in the way that Dileck, a freshman fought back in that second set, Karutanova, a senior of Auburn did not. Now these two players have played each other a handful of times, at least four, at least four. And as funny actually after the match, I saw I second-gradulate her on the win. I said, you know, you're starting to get some revenge. She was like, for what? And I was like, well, haven't you like lost to her before? But in her mind, like she won that indoors match. So like, I mean, she probably doesn't remember those other matches, but a one in one victory from Icicle Mert today, who was incredibly solid. I don't think she really missed a ball, just good ball striking from her, but you noted maybe not the most engaged Karutanova we have seen. I mean, these two have battled, battled each other, and that was not the case today. No, not at all. I mean, Karutanova, it was just the errors were puzzling, the energy.

13:30She wasn't trying to dictate play, and when she was, it was kind of like, okay, that's one really good point, followed up with like this really just kind of not, it's just, yeah, puzzling. There's puzzling mistakes. And she would play some good points here and there, but it was really not stringing them together to win games. I mean, and what was kind of really interesting is we've seen this Karutanova indoors roar. She when she would win games and win a big point to win a game, you would see her beef super vocal to the bench and really use her to look at her teammates to give, to get that energy. And today, it was just, there was nothing, there was, it was like there was nothing there. It was just back to the back of the court, to the other side, and this, you know, rinse and repeat, and that match was over. Yeah, it felt perfunctory. Yes. And you bring up a good point about like her roaring, there wasn't much roaring from a Auburn period actually, like I'm trying to think up and down the line up, like Angie was in it, right? She was feeling good about herself for certainly those first eight straight games.

14:34And even in the pit, I mean, Rafat was, we'll get there in a second. I mean, maybe Bowers a little bit, but that court force so hard though, yeah, with the wall there and the kind of just slightly, you know, sunken, sunken, like courts are, it's like she can't communicate any energy to one through three, she only communicates a few to five and six. And so even if you heard, you could, even if you may have heard her on the top, it's like, nobody yet, one and two and three are not hearing her. Yeah. I mean, so outside of the score lines, as I'm reflecting on it, that was notable. Yep. That there was, did not feel like a lot of fight from this Auburn team. And certainly that carried to know the loss one and one at the two spot, I think that was the first match. Yep. Off the court. So that put Georgia up 2-0 and then immediately following that, you had Emma Dong, freshman at five, take out Merner Rafat at, and that was two and two.

15:36Two and two. So I think I was most impressed by Emma Dong in this match. And not to say she's the best player or anything, but like I was, my baseline understanding of her increased so much more after seeing her in person. That's one of the reasons why I like to go to these matches in person and travel because you just see so much more in person than you can on a stream. I think also, biously, I'd probably seen more of Daelic, you know, it indoors and grave a little bit more of the upper spots, but Emma Dong is an athlete. Like she has way more pop than on all her shots than I thought she did. She is an incredible counter-puncher, but only when she needs to be, like she's aggressive, it's just that her defense is fantastic. She can come to net, like she has an all court game. Oh yeah. And the serve. She pops up. The serve is insane. Yeah. Great kick serve.

16:37I mean, it's just the variation of what she can do within a single point is off the chart. Yeah. I mean, this girl as a freshman, the potential is really kind of yet to be seen because it's just we don't know what what the cap is, considering she has the best record on the team as of right now still and bringing in this performance against Murrothat, who has had a really great record at four, you know, they lost her down. She'd only lost one match all season and it was Audrey Spencer at indoors. Well, that was Emma Dong, but Murrothat, oh yeah, had only lost one match, that was her first match back after the indoors injury. So both of these players, when you think about a four or a five player, they're on the very short list of best four slash fives in the country, I mean, Dong has it made her way up to four, but Murrothat has was a bit of four and then they flip powers up there because powers hasn't lost all season. We expected this match to be bar murder. We expected to be a war. And it was one way, one way traffic. I mean, Murrothat, I was watching that match a little bit closely and Murrothat was having to come up with some, you know, having to paint lines to end points and doing that time

17:40and time and time again, it just mentally, it starts to wear and Murrothat is a fantastic ball striker from the baseline, but transitional wise coming in, she's not able to close out the point efficiently against someone like Emma Dong who's just going to, you know, counter punch in ways that you, it's, you know, in ways that you don't, it's just so hard to, you know, unless you see it, it's just so hard to put into words, just so many balls back. But if you leave it short, that heavy forehand is whipping you in all sorts of directions. But it's not like she's a, oh, lapata counter punch. No, it's just that what is noticeable about her is, okay, she likes to stay on her front foot. She's aggressive. She has a heavy forehand. It's just that the moments when she does play defense, it's, it's, it's, it's impressive. It feels comfortable. It feels, it feels very, you know, natural. I don't know. One of the phrases that Grusken uses way too often, but is like fluid in the outer thirds. I'm like, she is fluid in the outer thirds, like she is such a good mover. I, I was so impressed with her and ironically, while she is playing the lowest of the three

18:45freshmen in the lineup, she definitely has the most versatile game. Yes. And so I came away, I, we were saying, how does Rafat win points? Like, it's going to be so tough for someone to beat her at five, and I almost want to go back and watch the Audrey Spencer win because, like, how? Yeah. Maybe also she's better outdoors, even though she's from Canada, but so that was two and two. Okay. So Georgia wins one and one at two, two and two at five with them, like, minutes of each other. Back to back. Yeah. So they go up three. And now there was a moment, there was a brief moment at them. You and I were standing down there in the pit, and it was clear that Georgia was going to go three, but you had tie breaks where you had still first sets that ultimately became tie breaks at four and six, where you had grave versus hours at four, which is a rematch of the indoors match. And then you had spasito versus Rojas at six, also a rematch of indoors.

19:46If Auburn were to take both of those, I was trying to make the case that at least they're in it, at least they take three first sets, rather than if they were to drop both, then they lose five. What happens? You see those sets, you know, and for, I'll be ahead for what it's worth, you know, Bowers rolled through the tie break against Graven, Graves served for that first set twice at five four and at six five, not able to get it done there, which was credit to Bowers. She tried to bring it back into this, but spasito let a break pretty much the entire first set until it got to that tie break, you know, and then Rojas, like a dagger, one that six five point after spasito double-faulted at five all to give the set point opportunity to Rojas. And then we look over, right, is that's all happening, and we see that DJ, you know, who was at two one serving, or it was like three one serving doose had gotten broken to go down the double break at part one, and it was just kind of like, it's just a matter

20:46of time. You feel at this point, you know, even if, you know, spasito takes that first set tie break, you're still looking at DJ who's going to have to overcome 40, 50 ball rally lapata, who at that point, you know, had four one up in the second set feels like she's she's she you're going up against a confident low pot, you're going to have to hit her out. It wasn't for one at that point. I did feel like if Auburn took both of those tie breaks and you wins it three. Yep. It felt feasible that DJ could win that match. I mean, I watched the first four games of that match, and then I had to leave because it definitely was not the best tennis of the six matches. And I'm here for good tennis, but there's no reason DJ couldn't have won that match. And so that was the singular moment. And it lasted for about two minutes, because ultimately, Bowers does take that tie break, but Rojas takes the tie break. And that felt like by the end, once those high breaks had ended, then I think lapata

21:47was starting to issue she mount the steam mount exactly mount that second set. And so then it was like, like, this is going to be there's no coming back from this. Greater Bowers. Similar player, like they're in the same camp of players, like really great ball strikers, like movements not their strong suit, but not a lot of enticing rallies in this match. Lots of winners. Lots of winners or just air, just like air, just like a spray or it's a beautiful winner. It's just like you're looking at the end result of this match would be like 45 winners to like 60 on force airs. And then like the other match player would have like 45 winners to like 55 on force airs. And it's like, yeah, that's that's the tail of the match. Yeah. I mean, you you made a really good point is sorry to keep putting your words back on the hub, but you say it's off-pub. We got to say it on like, I don't think you can really play well against your Ava. It's so hard.

22:47Explain why it's there's no rhythm. The ball goes, you know, paper length, paper width above the net, and it's come this thing so low and it's being driven so hard because she's just constantly hitting down in the ball because she's like six foot one. And you're just constantly having to generate pace back and up. You're having to create lift to get the ball back over the net, but get ahead of short because she will just, you know, she'll put she'll hit you off the court. So you have to get some depth on it, but you're also not able to really build like any sort of rhythm of like, okay, I'm, you know, hitting from the from ways tight. I'm like, oh, I can, you know, change direction here. It's always like you're hitting, your knees are always on the ground just lifting the ball up every time. And it's just, you can't vary the pace at all. She's hitting so hard. It's hard to put spin on the ball. It's hard to slice it. You're pretty much all you can do is just redirect. And that's pretty much what Bowers is having to do is just kind of tolerate the shots and either Grava would miss or Bowers would miss. And that was it. Yeah.

23:48It was kind of like pinball back and forth with each other. I would love to see a dong versus Grava because I'm trying to think about what something that could disrupt Grava. It's like, well, the heavy top spin, but also the angles, right? And using that that spin to like pull her, you know, expose the limited movement is particularly side to side is just not a very strong mover. But Bowers doesn't have that like heavy forehand like pull her off the court like that. So it was a credit to Bowers for digging in kind of like win ugly a little bit of that first set. It ultimately didn't matter, but it was critical if they were to count, amount to come back as we talked about. She was able to get over the line now. That match ultimately goes unfinished, kind of midway through that second set. Rojas Espacito. It is clear. Espacito has made a huge jump from last season. We saw it in the fall. You know, she's in all American now, but what have you seen from her particularly between last spring and this bring because she's a different player.

24:50I think she's really steadyed herself in that the point does not need to be finished in other under eight shots. I think we saw her so much last season while it was effective a lot of the time when she had a decent record there last season. I think you saw her more this year, be able to be okay with okay. They hit this really will be ball high up. Let's reset the point. Let's rebuild. I can fire a winner when I'm in the balls at the right height this time. And we saw against Rojas, you know, restart some points, rebuild the point, and then find the right shot to go for again instead of having to try and hit this really high, crazy highlight winner as hard as she could. It's just steady yourself that she can have the ball tolerance to build points rather than just rush for them to finish. It feels a lot less anxious watching her. Oh, you mean you're less anxious. Yeah. That's what I was going to say. I'm less anxious watching her. I remember the SEC semi-final when they played A&M and did it come down to her and down to her in some tentative.

25:51Okay. Yeah. That was just anxious on anxious. And that was anxious on anxious, I was very anxious because it was like, you know, there are some players when you watch where you're not worried they're going to miss. But with Espicito it was like, uh-oh, she just made two in a row like, are we going to make a third? Like it was really you on your edge of your seat. And now you don't feel that way. Like sometimes you're like, oh, I think she might go too big here, you know, and she'll mess it. But it's the rally ball that you're not as worried about anymore. And the backhand is a lot more clearance over the net, which is great. But she falls to a little bit in that tie break, Rojas becoming the much more comfortable in Athens. She takes out first set and then that two goes unfinished because ultimately it is Lopada at that top spot who wins in straight sets over DJ Bennett. This was a match between two former NCAA singles finalists. You had, uh, Lopada make it in the spring of 2024.

26:54She actually doesn't play in the fall of 2024 and DJ Bennett ends up making the final that year. She loses to Lopada former teammate, Dasha Vidmanova, of Georgia, I think it's fair to say that neither of these two players are playing at the level they were at when they reached the NCAA final. Lopada gets through this in straight sets. This was a three set match it indoors. What did you see from both players today? I think Lopada was really has the idea of how to play DJ outdoors here in Athens. I think she just challenged DJ to say, all right, are you going to hit the winner past me? The ball tolerance for Lopada was there in this match. So what? She just made a lot of balls. I don't think it was actually she made a lot of balls, but I think she was much more comfortable with also getting enough depth on them depths. And as I remember and Drake will definitely, you know, remember, like definitely be telling Lopada this is in the match where DJ plays Dasha, the heavy forehand to DJ's forehand and

27:58backhand and really just kind of the cross court forehand rally, the heavy ball up there. DJ does not have a does not easily flatten that out. She really likes to put heavy back on heavy and Lopada and Dasha were like, deal. And then you'll never like winner. You're going to pull the trigger because ultimately DJ is the kind of player that as the rally builds, she's definitely looking for a way to end the point. DJ wants to be aggressive at the core, whereas Lopada is more like, I'm okay. I'm okay sitting here and being in these extended rallies, pushing you back and, you know, taking hit balls over, uncomfortable walls over the shoulder. And then ultimately, give me something short, I will try and come in and do something with it. And I think Lopada really just kind of tightened the bolts, knew who she was playing against, knew that also I'm sure like you like you had mentioned that DJ had said some comments coming into this match, the UGA team, the comments were like, I think we're the best team in the country. Yes. And that they were out for revenge in this match because Auburn had lost to Georgia at indoors.

28:58Yes. I'm going to put John's words on the pod here. John? No. No, because that was not on the record for sure. Okay. Yeah. Which, you know, you definitely, from me stalking the UGA's team, Instagram and everything, they wanted people to be at this match, particularly. So it feels maybe like they might have heard some of the buzz that Auburn was bringing. And I think Lopada was certainly going to be up for this match and knowing that she's beaten DJ before is comfortable with what she's going to have to, you know, bring in this match. And then also being at home, I think she really just out, out tough to DJ. I think DJ just really kind of at us after a certain point in that first set, you know, making lots of errors and the more that the more errors that are mounting for DJ, I think she was getting in her head a little bit more like how am I going to win points? You know, I'm coming into the net. I saw her miss a swing volley after she had built the point so well. And it's that kind of mistake that, you know, I think those build on top of each other in this match.

29:59And Lopada really just starts to be like, okay, make you hit that, you have to hit the winning shot against me. Yeah. I mean, the star of this match was not good from either of them. It was, it's just not that great. And I was thinking like, gosh, Lopada is playing right now like how people might have maligned her a little bit like in the years, like, oh, you should just like get back balls. And then she was missing and early on, I was like, oh, like neither one of these players are playing their best and then I felt like she settled in a little bit more throughout that match. And it was interesting. When I talked with Drake post match, you know, Lopada and Mert were the heroes in that indoor match. Mert saves a match point against Kevin over. She goes on to win. Lopada comes back. She beats DJ and he explained it that that felt like a carry over to this match. And he particularly used the word like execution. So like the game plan that they both had that started to work at indoors is what they carried over into today's match. And so that kind of affirms your point around like Lopada can have has a playbook against

31:03DJ. And it's interesting. You know that about kind of the high and heavy to the DJ for him. It just, it didn't feel like DJ was really able to penetrate the court. And it felt like a lot of her shots land pretty short in the court. But whether it's the serve, just not a lot of free points off the serve anymore, the ground strokes, not penetrating, it's tough. I think DJ is best when she's on her front foot and when she's inside the baseline taking time away. And I think she's not doing that enough right now. I think when she was in winning and you know getting the NCAA final, it was about you were just watching her hit winners because she was really just bullying player side to coming in taking so much time away. And now it seems like she's almost okay sitting, you know, a few feet behind the court, still ripping the same way. But just with a lot, it's just not by the time it gets over there, there's so much more time. There's so much more time for the, however, her opponent is to get settled, hit a deep,

32:06you know, heavy shot back. And then she's just not getting the same sort of short ball rewards that she was before because she's not taking as much time away from her opponents. Yeah. And that's what I would have liked to see in that second set, it's like, just rip it. Like, you know, what do you have to lose at this point? Is it fair to say that her backhand is her better shot? I think her backhand is more compact than stable. Yeah. But I think DJ's problem with the backhand is she's not super comfortable changing direction. I think she can really, you know, drive the backhand so well, either consistently downwind or completely crowned. Yeah. She likes the backhand down the line. I thought like she actually had a few winners in the backhand online, she's stepping in on that front foot. Yeah. The forehand is definitely a little bit more, it's a lot heavier, but that's the problem is that she's not able to flatten out that forehand as easily from the very back of the court. She can do it on a short ball, but at the baseline, you're not seeing her just crank a forehand winner. No. And yeah, it doesn't, doesn't penetrate the court.

33:07Like Emma Dong's forehand has more whip on it and more kick when it lands than DJ's had today. You know, tough match for DJ and Lopada, as you mentioned, this could be an inflection point. So ultimately, forehand, fore, Georgia, dominant win in those three singles matches. What's your takeaway about this Georgia team? This Georgia team, like you said, is just going to be so hard to beat here. We all, I mean, we were penciling this as fourth rematch, like we were expecting theatrics, we were expecting a lot of, you know, a lot of, just a lot of drama. And it felt like doubles were like, okay, you know, Georgia won the doubles point. There's a little bit of drama, a little bit because Georgia snapped this streak. And then it was like singles was like, wow, the, it's, if I was going to be at anxious at any point watching this match, wondering what might happen, yeah, there was not a single moment in the singles where it felt like Auburn was in any sort of driver sheet. No.

34:08And I think that just goes to show that any team that's going to come in here, you're going to have to be, you're not going to come and play any single singles position, or even doubles and say, we favor ourselves outright versus Georgia, this Georgia team will compete everywhere. And what doesn't matter what the form is, you know, Murt came in this match two and five or two and seven by that, two and seven or two and five or whatever it was, whether it's like this past weekend at Texas, you know, where she lost twice was in that record, but, you know, not a good record. What's one of one today against Kairu Tenova? Well, Pada also has our shaky record, you know, wins two and three, three and two today against DJ Bennett. It's just like at home, different beast, but whatever reason though, one and two against Auburn, they're now four, no, and those two players, the pot and Murt have the worst record on the Georgia team right now, but they're able to get wins against Bennett and Kairu Tenova at one and two. It makes me think like, do we need, if you're Auburn, like does Okatoi need to move up

35:11to two? Like maybe give Murt a different look there, like you have to try something at this point because those are brutal, brutal spots. Now, if Auburn were to have one doubles, does this match play out differently? You assume Georgia still takes the three singles matches they won? Does Angie win it? Sandy win that match at two, sorry, three. I think she probably does, you know, as long as she finishes it in that second set, I think she does. I think she's just playing such beautiful tennis, and the crowd isn't really going to bother her at all. No, no, no. She's super stoic. She's just out there playing tennis. Yeah. Bowers, Grava, it would that one is like, probably you probably still lean Bowers, I'm taking the first set. Now, one, three straight sets against Grava. Yeah. And you'd probably say that when it gets tight, when you know when the going gets tough down there, Bowers is going to tough it out and win that match. Then it comes down to Espicito, Rojas. And given what we saw, I think Espicito get nervous in the big moment against Rojas.

36:16When the score is close and Espicito and with Espicito in that tie break, she, she faltered and Rojas certainly did not. Certainly, you know, at home, I think Rojas is very, is a little bit more clutch. Yeah. But this did come down to a three all decided and that was the one you would certainly favor Rojas, but I would favor Rojas against Aaron Pierce and Vanderbilt and we saw how that turned out. Yeah. But that's again, these are away matches. I mean, Rojas got bagled in two against Matilda at Texas and then, you know, losing in three sets to Aaron Pierce. But it's like, look, at home, undefeated, and it's, and it is like she's not losing sets at home. It's weird. Here's as a senior and she was, we didn't have this home away thing for her last year. No, we didn't. And so that's where it's kind of like, you know, how we came into this being like, what are we going to get from Rojas because, you know, it was really particularly shaky. You know, that past weekend, we were like, oh, she got bagled and, you know, only one

37:17two games in that match against Texas and what are we going to get? And then at home, you know, wins, looks, looks fine against Florida, beats Dobner Robo comfortably. And then, you know, wins this, wins that tough first setting against Espicito, a player that she had, you know, lost four and four, routinely two at indoors. Like, so it's really just, she's there for the big matches at home. She's there. And luckily, all her big matches are going to be at home. Yeah. I mean, other than the SEC's, right? And so big stock up for Georgia, hard to be stock up for number one team in the country. But you felt like, were they the number one after they lost a Vanderbilt on the road? They lost to Texas on the road, but this was a huge win for them. I think we talked about it. There's a world where Auburn comes in and wins this match and is like, no, we are actually the number one team. This was a big statement win for Georgia. Takeaways for Auburn, who right now is sitting at number four in the rankings. Auburn, they have to forget. They got to put this behind them.

38:18This is great experience for them for NCAAs. At least they're not going to have this sort of kind of dud. You think in May. If these teams play in May, they're going to say, we played Georgia here. You know, we got our behinds and it cannot be worse. It literally cannot be worse. Also, look, we're owe and two against this team. We have almost beaten them. We have nothing to lose in this match. We came in last time and we might have put a little bit of a chip on our shoulder. We had something to lose there because we kind of, we, we kind of put something up there. We got to put a little piece of ourself up there. And now they're going to come into NCAAs in May and just be like, we want to win. And look, if we have to play this Georgia team at home, who cares? Like, this is the last match of the season. It might as well put it all out there as best you can. They need, again, we talked about that. They need to put the pressure on Georgia, right? Georgia is the number one team. You are expected to win on stabilized. How embarrassing if you don't win NCAA is at home, right? Now that's the attitude you need.

39:19This Auburn team, there was a big delta in passion in this match. And you are not going to win NCAAs flat. Yep. You're going to get your ass kicked like you did today. And if you're losing in a match and you win a point, where is you need to be giving, sending energy to your teammates? It doesn't matter if you're down, 602, 304, you let them know that you're still trying out there. And giving up, it's like, even if things aren't going right, you have to sign up to them that you're like, I'm going to try my best to stay out here as long as I can. And regardless of the score line, I care about you guys winning. Yeah. You know? It did not feel like that. I mean, it just, players got down and it was, yeah, silent. Yeah, it was not, but it's also kind of the first time they've been in that position. It's the first time they've lost doubles, right? But they need some experience, you know, for sure, because that is what is going to win you an NCAA title, you, so like I'm stuck down, for sure, on this Auburn team, just the flat affect.

40:20I'm really starting to think more about it, like that, that's tough. You need more fight in these matches. Now you look ahead at the Auburn schedule. They have Mississippi State and Alabama, you expect them to get those, then they get the Texas school. So that match against Texas A&M and Texas, the first kind of weekend of April, that's huge for them. So that is right now they were sitting atop the SEC undefeated. Now they've taken their first loss, see how they do against Texas and then they close with Vanderbilt before SEC's, which is in Oklahoma. So it's totally possible that this match looks different on the neutral court, but the big dance is in Athens. So Auburn definitely has, you may be able to point to this match, you know, if they are able to go on and win the title, but it will mean they'll have to learn a lot from this match. Yeah, I think this match could totally be character building for them. It's whether they let it be for that for them and so whether they take it that way, and I think that they're going to have to do a lot of, you know, looks in the mirror and

41:24say, like, look, that match was what it was, it does not define us, but it will teach us what we need to do by May if we want to be a championship winning team because we can't have performances like that. Luckily, they'll have more chances. Like we think about that Texas and I'm Texas swing on the road, again, you know, this is, you know, Georgia went one-on-one and that's swing. And certainly if Auburn's going to be want to be a championship winning team, they got to be one, they got to be as good or better than what Georgia did. And Georgia was probably lucky to go one-on-one because there was no Amare in that Texas and that match. Exactly. I think Auburn should really just try and go in there and be like, look, they should be thinking about, we've never beaten Texas A&M at Texas A&M, college A&M, whatever, they should think about that and be like, this is like, we just want to go in there and like, let's like, they have all the pressure, you know, they have to be able to build this underdog story for themselves because realistically, this is the first year really that they're,

42:24this is the first year of the reaching program high, but like they, the pressure is not, should not be there for them. They should not be conditioning themselves that, like, they have to be championship, like they're, that they're like the favorite to win, the championship, they should be like, where are the dark horse? Yes. Not a single player on that Auburn team was alive. The last time Auburn went into Athens and beat Georgia. 1996 was the last time that happened. That's what they should have been focused on of like, we're going to go in here and we're going to be the team to make history, not, we're the best team. Yep. And so again, lots more to see from how this Auburn team responds from this and now Georgia has some case evidence to say, no, we got to show up every day, like how we showed up against Auburn. Ultimately, it is for all match from Georgia, a statement win from the Bulldogs in Athens. Some final thoughts.

43:25I hope we get more performances like this from Georgia and I hope that Auburn, you know, takes us on the chin and really learns from this because I think that these two teams, I think Auburn still should really recognize also how much talent they do have on that roster. We, this, they can still have that. We can still have this 4-3 match in an NCAA semi-final final like this. I want to see Auburn at full strength play this UGA team like how they did today at full strength. And I want to see that like clash of the Titans here and you know, you know, I didn't see it today. Well, luckily, they're still time, you know, because next time that they, you know, if there is a next time that they play, it will, you know, probably be here if it's not, if it's not SEC's or again, you know, they might still play twice. You know, if we will at least get to get, we'll probably get another another crack out watching this match back and we'll, you know, see if there's any growth. We will definitely see my final thoughts.

44:26This is the host for NCAA's I have some notes. We need more concessions, a lot more food and drink options here in Athens. Like hot dogs, just hot dogs and like that. Well, they and the line is so long, I don't even get food here, but we need way more food options, like significantly more. Also the lack of shade at this facility is really hard, particularly after now coming from Oklahoma State, Baylor, they have the shade options. Now, USDA, it got nothing, but that's tough because like it was, we should have met, it was gorgeous day, by the way, and uncharacteristically warm. It was like 83, 84, which was like 19 degrees higher than the average. So it was a warm day, it was good prep, but in two months, now we're like 95, so lack of shade option is definitely tough for us, fair skinned people. And yeah, obviously they're going to build the stands for four through six, but that's

45:26always tough. It's kind of got to go out and around and, but, you know, the Georgia fans, they show up. So you hope Georgia women, Georgia men are in the hunt, certainly, should be a good NCAA, is because I'll be back two months. So a 4-0 victory for Georgia, they knock out Auburn Targ, Auburn Tigers, and we'll see how these two teams end up, this could very well be your NCAA final. So if that happens, let's hope it's a little closer, but Adam, always good to see you in person, good to record these in person, shout out to Georgia, great hospitality, like it's nice to come and be welcomed like, like they do to us. So it always feels nice to be here in Athens and it's been a good trip so far. So wish me luck at TSA tomorrow, I've seen horror stories from Atlanta, but that is our recap of Georgia versus, I was about to say A&M, that was the, that was the best one we saw.

46:28Georgia versus Auburn, and we'll be back with the recap of all the other action that is happening across the country. We see you Michigan women. So with that, thanks everyone, and we'll chat with you soon.