The Florida men’s tennis team was on court
for over four hours on Saturday, dropping a tightly contested match to No. 16
Baylor, 4-3, at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex. After falling behind early,
the Gators evened the match at 3-3 but couldn’t pull out a victory. The Gators
fell to 6-4 on the season and look to begin SEC play next weekend.
“That was a great match,” said head coach
Bryan Shelton afterward. “I thought Baylor played great tennis, especially when
the pressure was on and the stakes were the highest they played there very
best. I give them a lot of credit today.”
Baylor (7-1, 0-0) came out firing in doubles,
as the Bears’ pair of Julian Lenz and Patrick Pradella beat the Florida duo of
Mike Alford and Florent Diep, 8-3, at the No. 2 position. Baylor clinched the
doubles point when Diego Galeano and Marko Krickovic closed out UF’s Billy
Federhofer and Luke Johnson, 8-5, on court three.
“I was proud of our guys,” said Coach Shelton.
“We got down 1-0 and this team came at us. They were fired up. They were their
own cheering section out there. They were loud and they were getting after it.
Our guys didn’t back down and I was very proud of our effort and our fight.”
The Gators did bounce back, when Piro evened
the match with a victory at No. 2 singles, beating Tony Lupieri in straight
sets, 6-2, 6-4. Johnson finished off Galeano at No. 6 singles to put Florida
ahead 2-1 overall in the match.
Baylor responded with a point from Pradella
at No. 1 singles over UF’s van Overbeek, 6-4, 6-4. With the match square at
2-2, the remaining three courts went to a third set, and Federhofer was the
first to pull through. After falling in an early 4-1 hole in the first set, he
rallied to beat No. 56 Krickovic, 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-4.
“Billy is resilient,” said Shelton. “He made
some adjustments and picked up the emotional fight and got himself into the
battle. Once he got in there he did a nice job, even losing the second set, starting
so strong in the third set. He went up big early in the third, almost went up
5-1. For the [Baylor] guy to continue to fight against him and come back showed
me a lot too. I have a lot of respect for Baylor and for how hard those guys
fought today. To see Billy close it out in the end, that was tremendous. It was
huge for us.”
With a 3-2 lead the Gators needed one of the
two remaining matches with courts two and four still playing. On court four,
Alford took the first set from Baylor’s Mate Zsiga, but couldn’t hold on and lost,
4-6, 6-3, 6-4. With all eyes on the match between Diep and Lenz at No. 2
singles, Diep fought back after dropping the first set and forced a third, but
Lenz was too much in the third set, winning 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
“Overall, I thought we did a nice job of just
competing hard,” said Shelton. “Next time we’re in that situation I want to see
us run through the door and get across that finish line first. I believe that
we can and I believe that we will. We’re looking forward to what lies ahead
with the SEC season. This coming weekend we get to play Texas A&M. It’s a
new season for us and I’m ready to get started.”
With the start of SEC play next weekend, the
Gators will have their work cut out for them. There are currently nine SEC
teams in the top 25 and No. 14 Texas A&M will travel to Gainesville next Sunday
for a 1 p.m. match. Florida will hit the road for its next five matches,
beginning with a trip to South Carolina and No. 8 Georgia.
“We’re not afraid to work hard,” Coach
Shelton said after Saturday’s match. “I know the coaching staff here is on a
mission. I’ve got two of the best coaches that I work with in Scott Perelman
and Amer Delic. We’re on a mission and I think these guys are on a mission to
get it right. I feel like we’re working on the right things. We’ve just got to
keep working and keep grinding and keep fighting, keep battling. It’s not just
on match day. It’s every single practice day. We’ve got to eke out every single
debt that we can from every single practice to give ourselves more
opportunities like we had today.”
