The Florida men’s tennis team lost 4-2 on
Saturday afternoon in the 2013 Southeastern Conference Tournament semifinals to
No. 7-ranked Tennessee. With the loss, the Gators will enter NCAA play with a
15-10 record.
“I thought Tennessee played really well today,”
said head coach Bryan Shelton. “They came out in the doubles, and they just
executed a lot better than we did. I thought that made a big difference in the
match how they came out playing so well from the very start, and got us on our
heels. But we did a good job of competing and staying after it. I thought our
guys competed until the last ball was struck, but they just played a little bit
better than us today. My hat is off to them.”
Tennessee took an early lead after winning
the doubles point. Florida actually won the first doubles match on court three,
when Mike Alford and Luke Johnson beat Taylor Patrick and Jarryd Chaplin 8-6.
The Vols then finished off the other two matches to take a 1-0 lead in the
match.
In singles, Tennessee’s Mikelis LIbietis,
ranked third in the nation, beat Stephane Piro 6-2, 6-4 to push the advantage
to 2-0. Gordon Watson got the Gators on the board with a 7-5, 6-1 win over
Patrick on court six. Florida then tied the match when Bob van Overbeek beat
Chaplin in three sets at No. 3 singles.
The Vols earned the win after No. 34 Hunter
Reese beat Florent Diep 7-6 (5), 6-3 and Ed Jones finished off Billy Federhofer
7-5, 6-4.
Florida will now have a few weeks off while
waiting for the 2013 NCAA Tournament to begin May 10-12 with the first and
second rounds.
