The
No. 5 Florida (3-0) men’s tennis team advanced to the ITA Men’s National Team
Indoors on Sunday with a 6-1 win over Wake Forest (4-1) in the ITA Kick-off
Weekend in Gainesville. The Gators earned one of 16 spots in the national
tournament, hosted by the University of Virginia Feb. 17-20 in Charlottesville,
Va.
“I’m
really glad that our team was able to advance to the ITA Indoors to be able to
get that exposure so that we can be better prepared for SEC play, the SEC
Tournament and NCAA Tournament,” said head coach Andy Jackson. “It’s a huge
bonus. We’re very excited to beat a solid Wake Forest team that was extremely
ready to play.”
Once
again, Florida swept all three doubles matches to earn the first point. Billy
Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and Nassim Slilam (Paris, France)
quickly won at the first position, 8-3, over the Demon Deacons’ Amogh Prabhakar
and David Hopkins. Minutes later, Andrew Butz (Vero Beach, Fla.) and Bob
van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) clinched the doubles point with an 8-5 win
at the No. 3 position against Danny Kreyman and Adam Lee.
Frank
Carleton
(Naples, Fla.), a transfer from Wake Forest this season, teamed with Spencer
Newman (Miami, Fla.) for an 8-6 win over Alex Tsai and Conner Sherwood on
court two.
“I
had to really keep my emotions in check,” said Carleton. “I tried not to even
talk to the guys before the match was finished and I tried to keep to myself
and focus on the Gators winning, and that’s what we did.
“[Spencer
and I] are playing good. We’re making our opponents work, we’re not giving them
any free points. We’re doing a lot of things well. There are definitely some
things that we can do better, but for the most part we’re doing well.”
In
singles action, Florent Diep (Paris, France) won in just over an hour
against Sherwood on court four, 6-4, 6-2, to give UF a 2-0 lead in the match.
Carleton then disposed of former teammate Prabhakar, 6-3, 6-1, at No. 3
singles.
“I’ve
probably hit with [Prabhakar] hundreds of times the past two seasons,” said
Carleton. “It was fun. I went out there and made a lot of balls, didn’t
underestimate anybody and just played tennis. I had a good match and we got a
win.”
“It’s
a lot to play a team that you used to play for,” said Coach Jackson. “Psychologically
it’s very hard. I thought he handled himself very, very well.”
Federhofer
secured the win at No. 6 singles, earning a straight-set win over Tsai, 6-1,
6-2. Newman, playing at the fifth position, beat Lee, 6-1, 6-4. At the top
singles spot, van Overbeek pulled out a first-set tiebreaker and a close second
set to beat Hopkins, 7-6 (3), 6-4.
Slilam
fell in a third-set pro tiebreak to No. 115-ranked Kreyman, 2-6, 6-4, 1-0
(12-10).
