Florida Gators
Tennessee (SEC Quart.)
Men's Tennis Falls to Tennessee In SEC Quarters
Saturday, April 20, 2002 | Men's Tennis
"We played better against them than last time (a 6-1 loss on April 5)," UF head coach Andy Jackson said. "Tennessee is very good. This match was definitely closer than the score indicated. We felt a lot better than last time and now we have three weeks to prepare for the NCAAs which is the definitive measure of how good a season you've had."
The match opened with Florida losing the doubles point for only the sixth time in 22 matches this year. At No. 3, Tennessee's Andy Crews and Mark Dietrich needed just 39 minutes to shut out the Gator tandem of Matt Behrmann and Troy Hahn. It was only UF's second shut out doubles loss of the year, the other coming on Feb. 22 at Texas A&M when Lester Cook and Ryan Newport blanked Chris McDonald and Hamid Mirzadeh at No. 1. The Vols clinched the point at No. 2 where Adam Carey and Peter Handoyo posted an 8- 4 win. The No. 1 match was then suspended with UT ahead by a 5-4 score.
Mark Dietrich put UT up 2-0 at No. 4 singles when he beat Troy Hahn, 7-5, 6-1. Dietrich broke serve tied 4-4 in the first set and carried that momentum to the victory. Six minutes later, Peter Handoyo gave the Vols a 3-0 edge when he completed a 6-3, 6-1 win over Eleazar Magallan, who was overmatched tonight against the nation's ninth-ranked player. Adam Carey sealed the Gators' fate with his 6-2, 6-0 win at No. 3 over Olivier Levant. Levant made Carey work hard for his points, as evidenced by the 1:36 length of the match, but in the end the Vol senior captured the win by breaking serve as match point came on a long Levant return.
In the suspended matches, Hamid Mirzadeh held a 6-3, 4-5 lead over No. 21 Mario Toledo at No. 1, Simon Rea of UT led Matt Behrmann 7-5, 3-3 at No. 5 and UF's Trey Johnson enjoyed a 6-2, 4-4 advantage at No. 6 over Wade Orr.
Florida will head back to Gainesville and wait to hear whether or not it will be chosen to host one of the 16 NCAA Regionals from May 10-12. The bracket announcement will be made on May 2 at 6:30 pm. Each of the 16 four- team regionals feed into the NCAA's final four rounds which will be played this year at Texas A&M University in College Station, beginning on May 18.
Doubles
1) #14 Chris McDonald/Hamid Mirzadeh (UF) v. #17 Simon Rea/Mario Toledo (UT), 4-5 susp.
2) #52 Adam Carey/Peter Handoyo (UT) d. #54 Olivier Levant/Eleazar Magallan (UF), 8-4
3) Andy Crews/Mark Dietrich (UT) d. Matt Behrmann/Troy Hahn (UF), 8-0
Singles
1) #105 Hamid Mirzadeh (UF) v. #21 Mario Toledo (UT), 6-3, 4-5 Susp.
2) #9 Peter Handoyo (UT) d. #86 Eleazar Magallan (UF), 6-3, 6-1
3) #99 Adam Carey (UT) d. Olivier Levant (UF), 6-2, 6-0
4) #94 Mark Dietrich (UT) d. Troy Hahn (UF), 7-5, 6-1
5) Matt Behrmann (UF) v. Simon Rea (UT) 5-7, 3-3 Susp.
6) Trey Johnson (UF) v. Wade Orr (UT) 6-2, 4-4 Susp.
