The Florida men’s tennis team capped a magnificent run through the SEC Tournament on Sunday with a 4-0 victory over Kentucky at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex to claim the championship. It completed a run of four victories in four days to earn the Gators’ fourth SEC Tournament title since the event started in 1990 and Florida’s first since 2005. UF also won the tournament in 1994 and 2000.
The Gators (18-8) came into the SEC Tournament as the No. 5 seed and without a first-round bye, but downed three higher seeds, including top-seeded Tennessee in the semifinals and No. 3-seed UK (26-8) in the final. Head coach Andy Jackson’s squad became just the second team in the 22-year history of the event to win the championship with four victories in four days without the benefit of a first-round bye. The other team to do so was also a Jackson-coached group, with Mississippi State accomplishing the feat in 1996. The Gators also became just the fourth team to win the SEC Tournament on its home courts.
“The guys are extremely excited and pleased, and the Gators are very proud of them,” Jackson said. “Four matches in four days in the best tennis conference, or at least as good as anyplace else in the country, they have a lot to be proud of. Now we’ve got a chance to host an NCAA Regional, we’re improving, and we’re very excited. I would be wrong if I said I didn’t feel like it was a championship match today. Kentucky’s got an extremely good team, a championship team, and we were very fortunate to win in an extremely close match.”
The Gators got doubles started with a 45-minute win on court two as sophomore Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and junior Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) took down 83rd-ranked Alberto Gonzalez and Tom Jomby, 8-4. But UK responded with a court one victory, as Brad Cox and Eric Quigley scored an 8-4 victory against sophomore Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and senior Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France).
After trading breaks early on court three, Florida’s duo of freshman Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) and sophomore Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) pulled away for an 8-4 win over Anthony Rossi and Alex Musialek to secure the doubles point for UF.
A day after getting off to a blistering singles start against Tennessee on Saturday, the Gators saw the Wildcats claim the first set on four singles courts on Sunday, including a hard-fought court six set where freshman Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) rallied from a 5-1 deficit to force a tiebreaker before succumbing, 12-10, in that breaker.
However, van Overbeek put up a strong showing against the 83rd-ranked Gonzalez on court four, taking a 6-2, 6-4 decision and putting Florida up, 2-0, and all four Gators who dropped their first set rebounded to push their respective matches into a third set.
Bangoura, the only other Florida player to secure his first set, rallied from 2-0 down in the second set at the No. 2 position and had a chance to serve for his match at 5-4. He soon found himself in a 0-40 hole, but fought off all three break points and locked down a 6-4, 6-4 win against Musialek.
Minutes later, Slilam served for the match at 5-3 against Cox on court three and left no doubt, holding at love with a serve-and-volley to set off the Florida celebration.
“It feels great,” Slilam said. “To be able to win the last match is definitely amazing. I was talking with [student assistant coach] Antoine [Benneteau], I told him, ‘You have to help me. I’m stressed. You’re going to have to tell me what I have to do on each point.’ … It’s huge. Antoine has been on my court since January, and I’ve been playing really well. It’s helped me a lot because he was in this situation for the last few years, so he knows exactly what to say when we are tight. He knows how to talk to me.”
The final three matches were suspended in progress after the clincher. Lacroix and Quigley were all square at 4-4 in the third set of their top-10 showdown on court one, while Rossi led Federhofer, 4-2, in the deciding set on court five and Newman was tied at 1-1 in the third against Jomby on court six.
Lacroix earned tournament MVP honors for his performance and was named to the All-Tournament Team along with Slilam, who also had the clinching match in UF”s quarterfinal win against Mississippi State.
“I feel so happy that we won the SEC Tournament at home my senior year,” Lacroix said. “I’m so happy for the team. We’ve been working so hard every day, and it’s paying off. I’m really happy for the team and so proud of the guys, and I hope we’re going to keep playing that well for the NCAA [Tournament].”
The Gators now await their NCAA Tournament draw, which will be announced on Tuesday, May 3, at 5:30 p.m. NCAA Regional weekend is set for May 13-15 and consists of 16 host sites nationally where four teams vie for a chance to reach the finals site, which is Stanford University this season.
#17 Florida 4, #11 Kentucky 0
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
April 24, 2011
SEC Tournament Championship
Doubles
1 – #35 Cox/Quigley (UK) def. #29 Bangoura/Lacroix (UF) 8-4 (:52)
2 – Federhofer/Slilam (UF) def. #83 Gonzalez/Jomby (UK) 8-4 (:45)
3 – *Butz/van Overbeek (UF) def. Musialek/Rossi (UK) 8-5 (:59)
Order of finish: 2-1-3
Singles
1 – #8 Alexandre Lacroix (UF) vs. #4 Eric Quigley (UK) 4-6, 6-2, 4-4 (DNF)
2 – #44 Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) def. #52 Alex Musialek (UK) 6-4, 6-4 (2:09)
3 – *#93 Nassim Slilam (UF) def. Brad Cox (UK) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 (2:14)
4 – Bob van Overbeek def. #83 Alberto Gonzalez (UK) 6-2, 6-4 (1:22)
5 – #123 Anthony Rossi (UK) led Billy Federhofer (UF) 6-3, 4-6, 4-2 (DNF)
6 – Spencer Newman (UF) vs. Tom Jomby (UK) 6-7(10), 6-3, 1-1 (DNF)
Order of finish: 4-2-3
*Clinched doubles point/match victory
Florida’s SEC Tournament Results
First Round: (5) Florida 4, (12) Arkansas 0
Quarterfinals: (5) Florida 4, (4) Mississippi State 2
Semifinals: (5) Florida 4, (1) Tennessee 2
Championship: (5) Florida 4, (3) Kentucky 0
All-Tournament Team
Brad Cox, Kentucky
Alberto Gonzalez, Kentucky
*Alexandre Lacroix, Florida
Tennys Sandgren, Tennessee
Nassim Slilam, Florida
Ignacio Taboada, Georgia
*SEC Tournament MVP
