The
University of Florida men’s tennis team beat Furman, 7-0, on Sunday afternoon
at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. The Gators improved to 5-0 on the
season and will hit the road for the first time next Saturday, traveling to
Florida State.
Florida
stormed out in doubles, as Billy Federhofer and Gordon Watson
breezed past Alex Christ and Matt Browne at the top position, 8-1. Mike
Alford and Luke Johnson then clinched the doubles point with an 8-4
win over Furman’s Richard Casagrande and Jacob Behal. UF’s Stephane Piro
and Bob van Overbeek led 7-4 against the Paladins’ Andrew Mellow and
Tyler Droll on court two when play was halted.
“We
came out and played pretty well in the doubles,” said head coach Bryan Shelton.
“I thought we made some good adjustments today with how we attacked and looked
to be really active. Whether we faked and stayed, whether we poached, we were a
little more decisive today in the doubles and that kind of set the tone for the
day.”
Singles
play began with a quick point from Piro, who beat Christ, 6-1, 6-1, at the No.
2 position. Federhofer gave Florida a 3-0 lead with a 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 5
singles against Droll, and Watson clinched the victory with a 6-1, 6-3 win over
Browne on court four.
“We
talk all the time about executing plays,” said Coach Shelton. “For us, we were
able to execute more often today. I felt like our guys were playing more
offensively and looking to set up points based on their strengths. I was happy
to see us finish at the net multiple times in multiple matches today.”
Alford
and van Overbeek won in straight sets at No. 3 and 1 singles, respectively,
while Johnson completed the sweep with a third-set tiebreak win at No. 6
singles.
“The
more we are able to make the plays and execute, the better we’re going to be,
and you want to be able to do it in the matches,” said Shelton. “It’s one thing
to be able to do it in practice, but we’re working on it so we can actually
execute it in the matches. Today we gained a little bit of confidence in making
those plays. Hopefully it’ll help us as we prepare for Florida State this
coming week.”
