Billy Pate Quotations

He's a great player and an interesting guy. He's not like a lot of guys, out there screaming and yelling. He's passive and quiet, one of the most humble guys you'll meet. He never loses his cool and always gives us a fighting chance.

(This tournament) could serve as (a momentum builder). We certainly would like it to. We've got a lot of tough matches ahead but we have to be able to capitalize on our opportunities.

This event continues to be strong. This is one of the strongest fields in recent years. Ten or 15 years ago, the tournament drew more of the higher ranked teams. But there is so much depth in college tennis today. When teams are ranked in the top 50, they're good teams.

This may be the best team they've had. They're underrated, but we knew they would be a good team. They lived up to their end. We got off to a bad start in singles, and our No.1 and No. 2 were off the court way too fast.

It was a close match and could have gone either way. It's difficult to beat a good team like Auburn twice in a week. It was 3-1 with three matches still left playing, yet we knew that we had to find a way to win one of them. For a while I wasn't sure where it was going to come from.