The 10th-seeded Florida men’s tennis team opened the ITA National Men’s Team Indoor Championship with a nail-biter of a 4-3 win against No. 7-seed Stanford at the Seattle Tennis Club on Friday, marking the 400th victory of head coach Andy Jackson’s career as a men’s tennis head coach. The Gators improve to 7-1 on the season and advance to the event’s quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.
The outcome of the match rested on a third set at No. 1 singles between Florida’s ninth-ranked Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) and Stanford’s seventh-ranked Bradley Klahn, the defending NCAA singles champion. With UF holding a 3-2 edge, Lacroix went down a break early in the set as Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) tried to force a third set on court three against No. 64 Alex Clayton. When Clayton pulled out the equalizer for Stanford, the outcome looked bleak for the Gators. But Lacroix was able to rally from a 2-1 deficit, winning five of the final six games to claim the decisive set, 6-3.
“We’re very excited about it, and we felt like we beat a good team,” Jackson said. “It was similar to the match in Illinois last week that didn’t go our way, but this time we were able to break through. Playing that match at Illinois was a big help because now we’d been in this situation before. Alex played a great match against the defending NCAA champion and his toughness at the end really carried us through, so we can’t wait to play in the quarterfinals tomorrow.”
The win also gave Jackson a career 400-170 combined record, with 180 wins for the Gators following 220 at Mississippi State.
“It is something that means something to me. I’m proud to reach that milestone, and exactly one of those 400 came against Stanford so it was good to get this one.”
The Gators got on the board first with the doubles point, as Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) posted an 8-5 court two victory before Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) earned the clincher, 8-6, on court three.
Federhofer was first off the singles courts for UF, winning 6-2, 6-2 against Matt Kandath at No. 6. Denis Lin then gave Stanford its first point of the night, topping van Overbeek on court four, but Bangoura pushed the UF advantage to 3-1, taking a 6-4, 6-2 win over No. 52 Ryan Thacher on court two.
Stanford refused to go away, as Greg Hirshman posted a court five win against Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) and Clayton defeated Slilam to set up the final fireworks between Lacroix and Klahn. Lacroix is now 2-0 in 2010-11 against Klahn, having also defeated him on Nov. 5 in the Round of 16 at the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
The Gators will face either Southern California or Duke in Saturday’s quarterfinal at 3 p.m. Eastern. The USC-Duke match was still in progress as of 8:30 p.m.
(10) Florida vs. (7) Stanford
ITA Men’s National Team Indoor Championship Round of 16
Seattle Tennis Club – Seattle, Wash.
Feb. 18, 2011
Doubles
1 – (11) Thacher/Klahn (Stan.) def. (15) Lacroix/Slilam (UF) – 8-3
2 – Bangoura/Butz (UF) def. Kelly/Clayton (Stan.) – 8-5
3 – *Federhofer/van Overbeek (UF) def. Hirshman/Lin (Stan.) – 8-6
Order of Finish: 1-2-3
Singles
1 – *(9) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) def. (7) Bradley Klahn (Stan.) – 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
2 – (43) Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) def. (52) Ryan Thacher (Stan.) – 6-2, 6-4
3 – (64) Alex Clayton (Stan.) def. Nassim Slilam (UF) – 7-6, 6-4
4 – Denis Lin (Stan.) def. (74) Bob van Overbeek (UF) – 6-0, 6-3
5 – Greg Hirshman (Stan.) def. Spencer Newman (UF) – 7-6, 6-0
6 – Billy Federhofer (UF) def. Matt Kandath (Stan.) – 6-2, 6-2
Order of Finish: 6-4-2-5-3-1
*Clinching court
