Florida Gators
SOUTH CAROLINA
MTen Earns SEC Tourney Bye With Win Over SC
Sunday, April 14, 2002 | Men's Tennis
The Gators end the season in a three-way tie for fourth place with Alabama and Auburn. Each of the three teams are 1-1 against the other two this year. The second tiebreaker is head-to-head results against the top teams in descending order. While all lost to #1 seed Georgia, only Florida, out of the three, beat #2 seed Ole Miss. Thus, the Gators receive the #4 seed and as a result will have Thursday off and play on Friday against the winner of Thursday's match between #5 seed Alabama and #12 seed Vanderbilt.
Today, UF began the match by taking the doubles point for the 15th time in its 20 matches this year. Olivier Levant and Eleazar Magallan needed just 31 minutes to post a 8-1 win at No. 2 as the tandem continues a torrid pace that also saw a 8-2 win on Friday against Duke. Matt Behrmann and Troy Hahn secured the point at No. 3 with a 8-5 win as the team improved to 12-4 on the year in doubles. The Gamecocks then defaulted the No. 1 match with the Gators ahead 6-5.
The two teams split the first two singles matches, which ended just seconds apart. Seth Rose tied the score for USC with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Magallan at No. 2 but Levant put UF up 2-1 with his 6-0, 6-2 win at No. 3. Ross Greenstein gave UF a 3-1 cushion with his 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 6, capping the match on the first of a triple match point.
Mirzadeh provided the clincher over #75 Angelo Niculescu at No. 1 and with it his snapped a 10-match losing skid. A tightly-contested first set with to Mirzadeh 7-6 (7-2) in a tiebreaker. Mirzadeh dominated the second set, twice breaking serve at love, to post the 7-6 (2), 6-0 win. As play concluded, the Gamecocks picked up a win at No. 4 from David Nelson and the Gators capped play with a win from Matt Behrmann at No. 5. The win was Behrmann's ninth in a row and his 13th dual match win of the year. Behrmann, a junior, entered the season with just nine career dual match wins.
The SEC Championships will be played from April 18-21 at the UT Varsity Tennis Courts in Knoxville, Tennessee. Match times will be announced later.
Doubles
1) #29 Chris McDonald/Hamid Mirzadeh (UF) d. Marcus Westman/Angelo Niculescu (USC), 6-5 def.
2) Olivier Levant/Eleazar Magallan (UF) d. Seth Rose/Carl Wermee (USC), 8- 1
3) Matt Behrmann/Troy Hahn (UF) d. David Nelson/Ben Atkinson (USC), 8- 5
Singles
1) #122 Hamid Mirzadeh (UF) d. #75 Angelo Niculescu (USC), 7-6 (2), 6-0
2) #55 Seth Rose (USC) d. #74 Eleazar Magallan (UF), 6-0, 6-4
3) Olivier Levant (UF) d. #90 Marcus Westman (USC), 6-0, 6-2
4) David Nelson (USC) d. Troy Hahn (UF), 7-6 (5), 6-3
5) Matt Behrmann (UF) d. Carl Wermee (USC), 7-5, 6-3
6) Ross Greenstein (UF) d. Rodrigo Pacheco (USC), 6-4, 6-4
