The
Florida men’s tennis team got tripped up in its first Southeastern Conference
road match, falling to South Carolina, 4-3, in Columbia on Friday night. UF
drops to 7-5 on the season and is now 1-1 in league play. The Gamecocks improve
to 11-5 and 1-1 in the conference.
The
Gators got off to a promising start in doubles. On court one, the UF pair of
Stephane Piro and Bob van Overbeek jumped out to a quick lead and beat South
Carolina’s Chip Cox and Tsvetan Mihov, 8-4. Billy Federhofer and Gordon Watson
then clinched the doubles point for Florida with an 8-4 win over Kyle Koch and
Harry Menzies on court two.
In
singles, Florida extended its lead with a 6-3, 6-3 win from Federhofer at No. 6
singles. South Carolina responded, as Koch defeated Watson at No. 5 singles,
6-4, 6-3. After exchanging points on courts one and three, the Gators held a
3-2 lead with two matches still on court.
After
winning the first set on No. 4 singles, Mike Alford couldn’t hang on against the
Gamecocks’ Thiago Pinheiro, losing 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.
The
final match on court was between UF’s Diep and South Carolina’s Andrew Adams at
No. 2 singles. Diep easily won the first set, 6-1, but Adams fought back and
took the second set, 7-5. In the deciding set, Adams outlasted Diep 6-3 to
clinch the team victory.
Florida
returns to action with another road trip next weekend. The Gators will face
Georgia in Athens on Friday, March 15, and then travel to Knoxville to take on
Tennessee on Sunday, March 17.
