On a perfect afternoon in Gainesville, the 10th-ranked
Florida men’s tennis team finished the regular season with a 6-1 win over South
Carolina at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. After dropping the doubles
point to the Gamecocks, the Gators swept all six singles matches in straight
sets to win the match.
Florida (14-8, 7-4 Southeastern Conference) will now travel
to Starkeville, Miss., for the 2012 SEC Tournament, hosted by Mississippi State
next weekend, April 19-22. UF has earned the No. 4 seed in the conference based
on a head-to-head tiebreaker over Ole Miss and will have a bye in the first
round, beginning play on Friday.
Prior to today’s match, the Gators honored their lone
senior, Nassim Slilam. After earning a 6-3, 6-3 win over Andrew Adams, he
now has 122 combined singles and doubles victories. In his three seasons at UF,
he has helped lead the Gators to two NCAA Sweet 16 appearances as well as a top
10 final ITA ranking each of the past two seasons. Slilam has won at least 20
singles matches in each of his three seasons at Florida, totaling 66 singles
wins, while also compiling 56 doubles victories.
“It’s just two-thirds of the season that he’s finished now,”
said head coach Andy Jackson. “The third that is going to be the most important
is the NCAA Tournament. He’s had a fantastic career, but I really am hopeful
that he has a chance to do something special in the tournaments coming up.
You’re going to remember the SEC Tournament and the NCAAs. He’s a huge part of
our team and I’m really proud of him. At the same time, I kind of feel like
he’s still got a third of his season left to go.”
South Carolina (15-10, 2-9 SEC) came out hot in doubles
action, as Kyle Koch and Carl Eguez beat UF’s Michael Alford and Andrew
Butz at the No. 3 position, 8-6. Courts one and two came down to the wire,
with both matches being decided in a tiebreaker. The Gamecocks’ Chip Cox and
Nick Jones pulled out the 9-8 (3) victory at the top position over Billy
Federhofer and Slilam to secure the doubles point.
On court two, USC’s Ivan Machado and Thiago Pinheiro beat Spencer
Newman and Bob van Overbeek, 8-7 (4).
“I thought that South Carolina had the best scouting and the
best execution of their game plan in the doubles of any team that we’ve played
this year except for Southern Cal,” said Coach Jackson. “We just kept our
concentration and got them in the singles and that gives us more momentum.
We’re looking forward to playing in the SEC tournament.”
Florida quickly recovered in singles play, as Newman breezed
past Pinheiro at No. 4 singles, 6-1, 6-0, to even the match at 1-1 overall. At
No. 1 singles, van Overbeek beat Machado, 6-3, 6-2, and Alford beat Eguez on
court six, 6-4, 6-2, to give Florida a 3-1 lead. Florent Diep clinched
the victory for the Gators on court five, taking down Cox, 6-4, 6-4.
Slilam then completed his win over Adams and Tripper
Carleton beat Jones, 7-6 (1), 6-4, to complete the singles sweep.
