The
Florida men’s tennis team fell to No. 4 Georgia, 4-2, on Saturday in the
quarterfinals of the 2012 ITA Division I National Men’s Team Indoor Championship
in Charlottesville, Va. After the Gators claimed the doubles point, they fell
short in singles play, suffering just their second loss of the season.
Florida
(6-2) opened the match with strong play in doubles, taking a 4-0 lead over
Georgia (8-0) at No. 1 and No. 2 doubles. The ninth-ranked pair of Billy
Federhofer and Nassim Slilam took down the Bulldog’s seventh-ranked
pair of Wil Spencer and Garrett Brasseaux, 8-5, at No. 1. Meanwhile, UF’s 14th-ranked
pair of Tripper Carleton and Spencer Newman beat Hernus Pieters
and Sadio Doumbia, 8-6, to clinch the doubles point. The Gators became the
first team to win the doubles point against UGA in eight matches this season.
No.
29 Andrew Butz and Bob van Overbeek were in a tiebreak at 8-8
with UGA’s Ignacio Taboada and Nathan Pasha when play was halted.
Heading
to singles play with a 1-0 lead, Florida was unable to capitalize, winning the
first set on just two of six courts. Taboada evened the match at 1-1 beating
Newman, 6-1, 6-3, at No. 4 singles, and No. 55 KU Singh gave the Bulldog’s a
2-1 lead with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Florent Diep.
Michael
Alford
continued his strong singles play and tied the match at 2-2, beating Pieters
7-6, 6-3 at No. 5 singles.
Georgia’s
Spencer and Pasha clinched the team victory with wins at No. 2 and No. 6,
respectively. Spencer beat Slilam, 7-6 (3), 6-2, and Pasha defeated Federhofer,
6-3, 7-6 (4).
Carleton,
playing at No. 1 singles for the first time as a Gator, won the first set 6-2
against Doumbia and was tied at 6-6 in the second when play was halted.
The
Gators will play a consolation match on Sunday against the No. 10 Duke at noon.
