Sunday, February 13, 2011

Men's Tennis Edged By Illinois On The Road, 4-3

The seventh-ranked Florida men’s tennis team suffered its first loss of the season, dropping a closely-contested 4-3 decision on the road to No. 16 Illinois at the Atkins Tennis Center on Saturday. The Gators drop to 6-1 on the season, while the Illini improve to 5-2.

 “We fought hard and came up a little bit short,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “I felt like we played an OK match. We played indoors tonight, which helps us prepare for the ITA Team Indoors in Seattle. We feel like with Illinois’ lineup, they’ll be a top-10 team this year. So we lost to a very good team on the road, but it still hurts.”

UF took the doubles point behind wins on the top two courts, including an 8-3 victory by Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) on court two and an 8-6 court one win by 11th-ranked Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) and Nassim Slilam (Paris, France). That win marked Lacroix’s 91st career doubles victory, moving him into sole possession of second place in UF history, just two shy of tying Nathan Overholser’s career mark of 93.

In singles action, the Gators stretched their lead to 3-0 as Bangoura and Slilam both posted dominating 6-2, 6-1 victories on court two and court four, respectively. But the Illini came back with a trio of victories that evened the count at 3-3. The outcome then rested on the No. 1 singles court, where Lacroix bounced back from a set down to win a second-set tiebreaker against Dennis Nevolo, 7-5, to force a deciding third set. However, Nevolo posted a 6-0 third set to claim the match for Illinois.

The Gators next compete in the ITA Team Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash., Feb. 18-21 along with 15 other top teams from around the nation.

#7 Florida vs. #16 Illinois
Atkins Tennis Center
Urbana, Ill.
February 12, 2011

Doubles
1 – *(11) Lacroix/Slilam (UF) def. Hamui/Souza (UI) – 8-6
2 – Bangoura/Butz (UF) def. Hoh/Roth (UI) – 8-3
3 – Abdelnour (UI) def. Federhofer/van Overbeek (UF) – 8-6
Order of Finish: 2-1-3

Singles
1 – *(11) Dennis Nevolo (UI) def. (4) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) – 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-0
2 – (28) Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) def. KU Singh (UI) – 6-2, 6-1
3 – (111) Johnny Hamui (UI) def. (52) Bob van Overbeek (UF) – 6-2, 6-4
4 – Nassim Slilam (UF) def. (121) Abe Souza (UI) – 6-2, 6-1
5 – Roy Kalmanovich (UI) def. Billy Federhofer (UF) – 6-3, 6-1
6 – Stephen Hoh (UI) def. Spencer Newman (UF) – 6-3, 6-3
Order of Finish: 2-4-3-5-6-1

*Clinching victory