The No. 7 University of Florida men’s tennis team posted a dominating 7-0 win over UCF on Friday at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex, improving to 5-0 on the season as two players picked up their first career dual match victories.
“We’ve had a difficult week, and I thought it was extremely good for us to play because obviously we’ve got a huge match [at Florida State] on Sunday,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “I think it’s going to help us on Sunday that we were able to play today. As the match went on, we played better and better, so I’m encouraged and looking forward to playing the Seminoles on Sunday.”
The Gators seized control of doubles on all three courts quickly, and the first win came from Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and Michael Alford (Tampa, Fla.), 8-3, on court two in Alford’s dual match debut. Fourth-ranked Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) and Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) sealed the doubles point for UF on court one a minute later with an 8-5 win against Joe Delinks and Blaze Schwartz. Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) completed the Gator sweep on court three.
With Lacroix’s doubles win, he moves into a tie for No. 2 all-time in UF history with 90 for his career.
Florida jumped out to a lead on all six singles courts early and never looked back, with van Overbeek picking up his 11th straight singles win, a dominating 6-1, 6-0 performance against Leonel Vivas. Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) then picked up his first career win at No. 6 singles with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Delinks. Newman broke his opponent in the first game of the match and never faced a serious challenge after that.
“My focus was there,” Newman said. “Just staying focused and getting that break kind of set the tone for the match.”
The clincher came from Federhofer on court five, who posted a straight sets victory against Mitch Thams, 6-1, 6-2. Adding to the day of firsts, it was Federhofer’s first career clinching win. Slilam, Lacroix and Bangoura then completed the UF sweep.
The Gators next travel to Tallahassee to take on Florida State Sunday at noon in the Gators’ first road match of the season.
#7 Florida vs. UCF
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
Feb. 4, 2011
Doubles
1 – *(11) Lacroix/Slilam (UF) def. Delinks/Schwartz (UCF) – 8-5 (:45)
2 – Alford/Bangoura (UF) def. Brunskog/Dolgovykh (UCF) – 8-3 (:44)
3 –Federhofer/van Overbeek (UF) def. Romano/Thams (UCF) – 8-5 (:50)
Order of Finish: 2-1-3
Singles
1 – (4) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) def. Blaze Schwartz (UCF) – 6-1, 6-4 (1:20)
2 – (28) Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) def. Claudio Romano (UCF) – 6-4, 7-5 (1:40)
3 – (52) Bob van Overbeek (UF) def. Leonel Vivas (UCF) – 6-1, 6-0 (:44)
4 – Nassim Slilam (UF) def. Erik Brunskog (UCF) – 6-0, 7-5 (1:23)
5 – *Billy Federhofer (UF) def. Mitch Thams (UCF) – 6-1, 6-2 (1:10)
6 – Spencer Newman (UF) def. Joe Delinks (UCF) – 6-2, 6-1 (:51)
Order of Finish: 3-6-5-1-4-2
*Clinching point
