The 15th-ranked Florida men’s tennis team dropped a 4-3 decision against Southeastern Conference Eastern Division rival No. 14 Kentucky on Friday at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. The Gators move to 12-6 this spring and 5-2 in SEC play, while UK improves to 19-6 and 4-3 in conference play.
“We’re disappointed to lose because we fought hard and played well enough to win,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “The major reason we didn’t was the good play of Kentucky and tactical mistakes by us towards the end of the match, but we did well in giving a great effort.”
UF took early control of courts one and two in doubles and never looking back on the way to winning the doubles point for the 13th time this season. The Gators’ court two pair of freshman Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) got Florida started with an 8-4 victory over 51st-ranked Alberto Gonzalez and Tom Jomby, It marked Butz and van Overbeek’s second win over a ranked opponent in seven career matches together, improving to 6-1 as a pair.
The No. 53 duo of sophomore Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and senior Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) wrapped up the doubles point for Florida two minutes later with an 8-4 win of their own against No. 64 Brad Cox and Eric Quigley.
Singles action proved to be back-and-forth for over two and a half hours until the final strike of the ball. UK landed the first blow, with Gonzalez defeating van Overbeek on court four.
Soon after, both teams tallied another point with UF junior Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) defeating Cox on court three while Kentucky’s Alex Musialek topped Bangoura at the No. 2 position.
Lacroix found himself in an early 3-0 hole in the first set in his top-10 showdown against the seventh-ranked Quigley, but battled back to put Florida up, 3-2, with a 7-6(4), 6-3 win, breaking serve at 4-3 in the second set before serving out the match.
“I wasn’t moving well early,” Lacroix said. “But I tried to take more time by putting some air under the ball and making him play more balls, and it worked well because he wanted to play shorter points. I just needed to stay aggressive.”
That left a pair of freshmen on the courts for Florida, and Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) fought hard to dig out of a 4-1, two-break deficit in the second set. He tied Anthony Rossi at 5-5 in the second before Rossi scored another break and served out the match on court five, 6-4, 7-5.
The outcome then fell to court six where Butz split the first two sets with Jomby. The UK freshman went up a break early in the third set, but Butz pulled back even at 4-4 and took the match into a tiebreaker before Jomby pulled out a 7-4 win in the breaker.
The Gators have now played five straight matches to a 4-3 decision and nine overall this spring, holding a 4-5 record in those contests.
“That experience can make us worse if we get discouraged by it or it can make us better,” Jackson said. “It’s my job as the coach to use it to make us better. I need to do a better job of that because we made some of the same tactical mistakes at the end that we did against Ole Miss.”
In a season full of milestones for Lacroix, the Gator senior took another step up the UF record books with his 198th and 199th overall career wins, moving into second place in school history and trailing only the 208 victories by Justin O’Neal (1997-2000 letterwinner).
The Gators will look to get back on track and Lacroix will shoot for win No. 200 on Senior Day this Sunday against Vanderbilt at 1 p.m. The Commodores come to Gainesville with an 11-7 record and a 2-5 SEC mark after winning at South Carolina today. Admission to Sunday’s match is free.
#15 Florida vs. #14 Kentucky
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
April 1, 2011
Doubles
1 – *(53) Bangoura/Lacroix (UF) def. (64) Cox/Quigley (UK) – 8-4 (:50)
2 – Butz/van Overbeek (UF) def. (51) Gonzalez/Jomby (UK) – 8-4 (:48)
3 – Musialek/Rossi (UK) def. (80) Federhofer/Slilam (UF) – 8-3 (:58)
Order of Finish: 2-1-3
Singles
1 – (10) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) def. (7) Eric Quigley (UK) – 7-6(4), 6-3 (1:46)
2 – (51) Alex Musialek (UK) def. (43) Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) – 6-3, 6-4 (1:35)
3 – (84) Nassim Slilam (UF) def. Brad Cox (UK) – 7-6(5), 6-2 (1:35)
4 – (100) Alberto Gonzalez (UK) def. Bob van Overbeek (UF) – 6-4, 6-4 (1:27)
5 – (104) Anthony Rossi (UK) def. Spencer Newman (UF) – 6-4, 7-5 (2:23)
6 – *Tom Jomby (UK) def. Andrew Butz (UF) – 4-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) (2:35)
Order of Finish: 4-3-2-1-5-6
*Clinching point
