GATOR MEN’S TENNIS HOLDS OFF MISSISSIPPI, 5-3, AT USTA/ITA NATIONAL TEAM INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Saturday, February 26

Louisville, KY

4:00 PM

Florida Gators

Ole Miss-National Team Indoors

GATOR MEN’S TENNIS HOLDS OFF MISSISSIPPI, 5-3, AT USTA/ITA NATIONAL TEAM INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS

Saturday, February 26, 2000 | Men's Tennis

By: Jeff Kamis

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The fourth-ranked University of Florida men's tennis team (6-1) knocked off No. 5 Mississippi (4-2) Saturday afternoon in the fifth-place match of the USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships at the Louisville Tennis Club. Florida finishes the tournament tied for fifth with a 2-1 record, its best showing in seven appearances at the tournament.

"They really did a great job," said Gator head coach Ian Duvenhage. "The mark of a good team is how you rebound from adversity. We played badly yesterday (in the loss to UCLA), but today we went back to basics and played well. This is a good confidence boost. When you put the whole weekend in perspective, I'm real happy with the effort. We had a very good tournament."

The Gators jumped out to a 2-0 lead by sweeping the three doubles matches. Florida's combination of juniors Jeff Morrison and Nathan Overholser battled to a 9-8 (7-5) victory over Vikrant Chada and James Shortall at the number one spot. Senior Justin O'Neal and junior Marcos Asse teamed up for an 8-6 win at number two and UF's freshmen pair of Matt Behrmann and Troy Hahn posted an 8-6 victory at number three.

Morrison, who is ranked fifth in the latest WingspanBank.com collegiate rankings, closed out a 3-0 weekend in singles with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over 84^th-ranked Shortall. The win gave Morrison his 150^th overall victory as a Gator, 91 in singles and 59 in doubles. UF's 12^th-ranked O'Neal downed Alexander Hartman, who is rated 48^th, 6-2, 6-2 at number two singles for his 169^th career overall win at Florida. The 169 wins (96 singles, 73 doubles) ties O'Neal with former Gator and current UF assistant coach Damon Henkel for second-place on the Florida all-time victory list. Henkel won 169 matches (102 singles, 67 doubles) from 1992-96. Gator sophomore Olivier Levant sealed the Gator victory with a 7-5, 6-1 triumph over Kristofer Stahlberg at number four, his first clincher as a Gator.

The tournament, the nation's premier indoor tournament, includes seven of the top 10 teams in the latest WingspanBank.com collegiate rankings. The tournament is using an experimental dual match format intended to shorten matches to less than three hours. Among the major differences in this format are: match tie-breakers (first to 10, win by two) being played in place of a third set in singles, teams being awarded two points (instead of one) for sweeping doubles and the possibility of overtime existing if a match is tied 4-4 after singles.

2000 USTA/ITA National Team Indoor Championships - Fifth-Place Match
No. 4 FLORIDA (6-1) 5
No. 5 Mississippi (4-2) 3
Saturday, February 26, 2000
Louisville Tennis Club, Louisville, Ky.

DOUBLES
No. 1 – Jeff Morrison-Nathan Overholser (UF) d. Vikrant Chadha-James Shortall (UM) 9-8 (5)
No. 2 – Marcos Asse-Justin O'Neal (UF) d. Martin Selin-Kristofer Stahlberg (UM) 8-6
No. 3 – Matt Behrmann-Troy Hahn (UF) d. Alexander Hartman-Anders Stenman (UM) 8-6

SINGLES
No. 1 – Jeff Morrison (UF) d. James Shortall (UM) 6-4, 6-2
No. 2 – Justin O'Neal (UF) d. Alexander Hartman (UM) 6-2, 6-2
No. 3 – Vikrant Chadha (UM) d. Nathan Overholser (UF) 7-5, 6-3
No. 4 – Olivier Levant (UF) d. Kristofer Stahlberg (UM) 7-5, 6-1
No. 5 – Martin Selin (UM) d. Dylan Mann (UF) 7-5, 2-6, 1-0 (10-6)
No. 6 – Anders Stenman (UM) d. Matt Behrmann (UF) 6-2, 6-1