No. 6 Florida Downs No. 16 Mississippi State at National Indoors

Saturday, February 18

Charlottesville, VA

12 PM

Florida Gators

#16 Mississippi State University

Junior Jordan Belga clinched the match for the Gators with a 7-5, 7-6 win over MSU's Trevor Foshey (Photo: Tim Casey / UAA Communications)

No. 6 Florida Downs No. 16 Mississippi State at National Indoors

Saturday, February 18, 2017 | Men's Tennis

By: Kelsey Bibik

Box Score (PDF)

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The Florida men's tennis team proved once again that losing the doubles point isn't enough to the team down, as the No. 6 Gators toppled the No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs in the first consolation round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championship on Saturday. The Gators earned four singles wins one after another to defeat the Bulldogs 4-1.

In doubles play, the Gators earned an early win in the No. 3 position as Elliott Orkin and Chase Perez Blanco defeated MSU's Hunter/Oradini 6-3. The Bulldogs came back to clinch the doubles point, as the teams of Ingildsen/Perez and Lipman/Wardell fell in the No. 1 and 2 positions, respectively.

In singles play, the Gators fought back to win four tight matches to ultimately win the match. McClain Kessler swung the momentum back onto the Gators' side with a 6-2, 7-5 defeat of MSU's Simon Baudry, and Johannes Ingildsen followed it up with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Niclas Braun for his first win in the No. 4 position.

Chase Perez-Blanco fought a back-and-forth race to the finish with Strahinja Rakic, won in the third set with a final score of 6-0, 3-6, 6-3 to earn the third point for the Gators. Jordan Belga, finished out the day with a 7-5, 7-6 (7-1) win over Trevor Foshey to clinch the fourth and final point for Florida.

Quoting Head Coach Bryan Shelton
"It was a really good battle today. Proud of how hard we fought. Really nice to see Jordan Belga bounce back and clinch the match for us. It was a heavyweight fight at No. 1 singles between Alfredo [Perez] and [Nuno] Borges today, and I look forward to seeing that one again in the SEC season.

"Overall, we were resilient today and now we have to bounce back and be ready for one more tough opponent tomorrow in Oklahoma. We are so fortunate to have so many quality matches throughout this season."

No. 6 Florida Gators 4, No. 16 Mississippi State Bulldogs 1
Feb. 18, 2017 at Charlottesville, Va. | Boar's Head Sports Club

Singles (Order of finish: 5, 4, 2, 6)
1. #9 Alfredo Perez (FLA) vs. #3 Nuno Borges (MSU) 6-3, 3-6, 5-5, unfinished
2. Chase Perez-Blanco (FLA) def. Strahinja Rakic (MSU) 6-0, 3-6, 6-3
3. #60 Elliott Orkin (FLA) vs. Giovanni Oradini (MSU) 6-7, 6-2, 2-5, unfinished
4. #109 Johannes Ingildsen (FLA) def. Niclas Braun (MSU) 7-5, 6-3
5. #76 McClain Kessler (FLA) def. Simon Baudry (MSU) 6-2, 7-5
6. Jordan Belga (FLA) def. Trevor Foshey (MSU) 7-5, 7-6 (7-1)

Doubles (Order of finish: 3, 2, 1)
1. #44 Niclas Braun/Trevor Foshey (MSU) def. #7 Alfredo Perez/Johannes Ingildsen (FLA) 6-4
2. Nuno Borges/Strahinja Rakic (MSU) def. Maxx Lipman/Josh Wardell (FLA) 6-2
3. Elliott Orkin/Chase Perez-Blanco (FLA) def. Vaughn Hunter/Giovanni Oradini (MSU) 6-3

Next up for the Gators
Florida will take on No. 14 Oklahoma Sunday at noon in the third round of the consolation. The Gators have only played the Sooners one time in program history – on March 5^th, 1986 where Florida won 5-4 under head coach Steve Beeland.

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