The seventh-ranked Florida men’s tennis team posted a 4-0 victory over UC Santa Barbara Friday at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex in the opening round of the ITA Kickoff Weekend.
The Gators will face either Troy or North Carolina State at 1 p.m. on Saturday with a trip to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Feb. 18-21 in Seattle, Wash., at stake.
“Santa Barbara did a good job preparing for this match,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “We played OK, and we got through. We need to play better tomorrow, but our commitment to getting through the match was good. Now we have a chance to play in our first championship match, and hopefully it’s not our last. We’re excited to play.”
Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) posted a quick win on court three to give the Gators the early edge in doubles, while courts one and two both went down to the wire. UCSB fought off a late surge by Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) to win court two in a tiebreaker. However, the Gators wrapped up the doubles point minutes later as Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) and Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) served out the match for an 8-6 victory.
Lacroix then led the charge in singles, winning 10 of the final 11 games to close out Benjamin Recknagel on court one, 6-3, 6-0.
“In the beginning, it was a little windy, I didn’t know the guy I was playing and he was playing well,” Lacroix said. “But we all tried to show we were ready to play for a long time, and they backed down a little bit. I got used to his game, and he backed down physically and mentally.”
Slilam also cruised to a straight-sets victory on court four, topping Taylor Chavez Goggin, 6-2, 6-2, in just under an hour. The clinched followed soon after from van Overbeek, who also finished strong, winning 10 of the final 13 games on the way to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Mathieu Forget on court three.
Being a tournament match, the remaining matches in action were abandoned once UF clinched. Of note, freshman Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) made his Gator debut after enrolling in January and held a healthy 6-2, 4-3 lead on court six at the time the match was abandoned.
#7 Florida vs. UC Santa Barbara
ITA Kick-Off Weekend
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
Jan. 28, 2011
Doubles
1 – *(11) Lacroix/Slilam (UF) def. Goggin/Konigsfeldt (UCSB) – 8-6 (1:08)
2 – Forget/Recknagel (UCSB) def. Bangoura/Butz (UF) – 9-8(4) (1:06)
3 – Federhofer/van Overbeek (UF) def. Jurgensen/Therp (UCSB) – 8-4 (:38)
Order of Finish: 3-2-1
Singles
1 – (4) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) def. Benjamin Recknagel (UCSB) – 6-3, 6-0 (:48)
2 – Alex Konigsfeldt (UCSB) led (28) Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) – 6-3, 3-1 (DNF)
3 – *(52) Bob van Overbeek (UF) def. Mathieu Forget (UCSB) – 6-3, 6-2 (1:03)
4 – Nassim Slilam (UF) def. Taylor Chavez Goggin (UCSB) – 6-2, 6-2 (:57)
5 – Billy Federhofer (UF) led Max Glenn (UCSB) – 6-1, 1-3 (DNF)
6 – Spencer Newman (UF) led Philip Therp (UCSB) – 6-2, 4-3 (DNF)
Order of Finish: 1-4-3
*Clinching court
