No road to a conference championship is ever easy, especially when playing five freshmen.
With the No. 17 UF men's tennis team hosting two of the Southeastern Conference's and nation's best this weekend, the opportunity awaits for this young team to show it can contend right away.
"It would give the Gators a chance to be in the hunt for an SEC Championship with the majority of the team freshmen, which would mean a lot to all of us," UF coach Andy Jackson said.
UF (7-3, 2-0 SEC) will take on No. 14 Tennessee on Friday at 3 p.m. before entertaining defending national champion No. 3 Georgia on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Because of the Gators' rigorous non-conference schedule and two road conference wins, Jackson believes his team is prepared for the challenges.
"I think that we're as ready as we can be," he said. "We have been severely tested. We are sort of scarred from having played a lot on the road. … So we're as ready as we can be and be freshmen.
"We'd be more ready next year, but we can't wait until next year."
This weekend will undoubtedly be the toughest string of conference matches UF will face.
The Gators are 5-1 at home this season, including wins over No. 7 Illinois and No. 16 Florida State, but their coach said they will have some leeway to protect the home court in these matches.
"I think that's crucial (to win at home)," Jackson said, "but having won twice on the road, where most teams don't hardly win at all, it does give us a little bit of breathing room and enables us to realistically say, 'If we can split, we can stay in the race this weekend.'"
Winning the doubles point has been a boost for UF as of late.
Since being swept off the doubles courts by the Seminoles, the Gators have won three of the last four doubles points. The Volunteers (11-1, 2-1 SEC) have lost only one doubles point all season, so something must give.
"We played much better against Vanderbilt and Kentucky in doubles, and I feel like that not only can we maintain that, but we could improve that," Jackson said.
Sunday's match against the Bulldogs (11-1, 2-0 SEC) will be UF's biggest test of the season.
The Bulldogs defeated the Gators twice last year, once in Gainesville, 6-1, and again, 4-0, in the NCAA Round of 16.
The Bulldogs have seven upperclassmen on their roster who were on last season's national championship team and will hope to use their experience against the Gators' lack of it.
"(Georgia has) one of the two or three best chances to win the NCAA," Jackson said. "Whatever it will take to beat Tennessee, it will take more to beat Georgia."
The UF women's tennis team is in a similar scenario to the men, only it will play on the road instead.
The No. 5 Gators will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to battle the No. 17 Volunteers on Friday before heading to Athens, Ga., for their showdown with the No. 3 Bulldogs on Sunday.
UF (8-1, 2-0 SEC) fell to Georgia (9-1, 2-0 SEC) twice last season, including the conference tournament final. The Gators and Bulldogs shared the regular-season SEC crown.
