The Florida men’s tennis beat Bethune-Cookman
7-0 on Wednesday afternoon at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex. The
Gators improved to 12-9 on the season and sit at 5-5 in Southeastern Conference
play with two regular-season matches remaining.
“We played well today,” said head coach Bryan
Shelton. “I was happy that our guys came out ready to go. We haven’t had too
many mid-week matches and usually those are the difficult ones with school and
everything else. They go to class in the morning and then go out to play. Our
guys were focused from the very beginning.”
Florida jumped out quickly in doubles,
sweeping all three courts. Mike Alford and Luke Johnson shut out Kip Jackson
and Leonardo Lima 8-0 on court two and Florent Diep and Gordon Watson clinched
the doubles point with an 8-2 win against BCU’s Juan Varon and Moritz Pronath
at No. 3 doubles. Stephane Piro and Bob van Overbeek then closed out Santiago
Lobelo and Diego Garavito 8-3 on court one.
“I thought we came out in the doubles and
played with great energy,” said Coach Shelton. “We played with a purpose and we
executed. When you do those things well you’re going to have a good day. We did
a great job in the doubles and then followed that up with solid singles play.”
Watson and van Overbeek gave Florida a quick
3-0 lead, finishing their matches in under an hour. Watson won 6-2, 6-2 against
Pronath on court five and van Overbeek blanked Lima 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3 singles.
Johnson, playing at No. 6 singles, secured the win with a 6-3, 6-1 win against
Gilbert Rotich.
Alford, Diep and Piro each won their matches
in straight sets to complete the shut out.
