On a day
that saw over 20 former lettermen from the 1960s-2000s come back to Gainesville
for the bi-annual Lettermen’s Weekend sponsored by the Men’s Tennis Booster Club,
the No. 11 Florida men’s tennis team downed Alabama 7-0, at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex. With the victory, the
Gators improved to 12-7 overall and 5-3 in conference action, while the Crimson
Tide fell to 6-12 (1-7 SEC).
“I think we did a lot of good things as a group,”
said head coach Andy Jackson. “I think you gain confidence by doing
things the right way and we’re doing the pretty well right now but we have to
keep doing it as the season goes on.”
The
number three doubles team of Andrew Butz and Tripper Carleton got
the Orange and Blue off to a quick start taking down David Vieyra and Michael
Thompson 8-4 in a mere 37 minutes. Shortly thereafter, the UF number one doubles
team of Spencer Newman and Bob van Overbeek downed Ricky
Doverspike and Jarryd Botha to clinch the doubles point for the Gators. Florent
Diep and Billy Federhofer wrapped up doubles action with a tight 8-7
(2) victory at number two doubles.
Carleton
got the Gators on the board in singles action dispatching Botha at number two
singles, 6-4, 6-3. Newman quickly followed with a 6-4, 6-2, victory on court
three to push the UF advantage to 3-0.
Butz
wrapped up the match for the Orange and Blue with a 6-3, 6-4 victory on court
six. Butz fell behind 3-1 early in the first before running off victories in
the next five games to take the opening set. Butz carried the momentum over
into the second set getting up an early break and eventually closing out the
match on a powerful overhead slam.
Two
minutes after the conclusion of the Butz match, van Overbeek downed Doverspike
at one singles. After the two held serve for the entire first set, van Overbeek
took two mini-breaks to jump out to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker and cruised to
a 7-3 win. In the second set, the two continued their back-and-forth play
before van Overbeek broke in the fifth game. From there, van Overbeek was able
to hold serve and close out the set 6-4 to give the Gators a 5-0 lead.
Diep
pushed the UF advantage to 6-0 after taking a hard fought contest on court
four. After taking the first set 6-3, Diep had to go to a tiebreaker in the
second. After rallying to tie the tiebreaker at 4-4, Diep won the next three
points to take the set and the match.
Michael
Alford closed
out the day for the Orange and Blue with a comeback win on court five. After dropped
the first set 6-4, Alford rallied and won the next two sets 6-4 and 6-2 to
claim the victory and secure the shutout for Florida.
