Florida Gators
UCF
Florida Men’s Tennis Works Past UCF
Saturday, May 10, 2003 | Men's Tennis
The third-seeded University of Florida men's tennis team began its quest for the 2003 national championship on Saturday morning as the Gators defeated Central Florida, 4-0, in front of a crowd of 303 at Linder Stadium. UF (23-4) will play Florida State in Sunday's second round as the Seminoles battled Miami for a 4-2 win. UF and FSU will square off on Sunday at noon to determine which team advances to the Round of 16 in Athens, GA.
"To our credit we expected the match to go like this," said UF head coach Andy Jackson. "Men's college tennis often has tight matches in the first round. I thought Matt (Berhmann) and Olivier (Levant) played especially well and got us the match."
Florida advanced to the second round for the fourth time in the last five years as the Gators have made it under Jackson in both of his two years in Gainesville. In addition, Florida moved to 20-12 all-time in the NCAA tournament while UF is 9-0 against in state opponents with Jackson at the helm. Additionally, the Gators secured the program's seventh shutout in NCAA tournament play.
UCF ended its season with a 20-4 record after making its first-ever trip to the NCAA Regionals. By winning its first-ever Atlantic Sun Championship on April 19, UCF received the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
"I thought we were on today," said UCF head coach Bobby Cashman. "It was not an embarrassment. We fought hard, but stopped making plays in the doubles when they mattered. Florida had many seniors, this was our first year in the tournament, and I am proud of them. It didn't look like a 4-0 match"
The Golden Knights made Florida work for the doubles point as the Gators took it for the 23rd time this season. Locked at four each on court three, UF's 41st-ranked Matt Behrmann and Troy Hahn reeled off four straight to take an 8-4 win over UCF's Gabriel Strangberg and Rhett Rosen in 52 minutes. Four minutes later and the Gators were up 1-0 when Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris McDonald (16th nationally) used the same score to take a decision over Catalin Bradu and Antonio Sierra.
Eleazar Magallan stretched to lead to 2-0 when he used a straight set 6-2, 6-2 win to defeat Paul Ramy at the bottom of the line up. The bottom of the line up proved to be strong for the Gators as UF came up with wins on courts four and five to take the match. Behrmann defeated Simon Jaegar 6-1, 7-6 (4) to get UF one step away. It didn't take long for the Gators as Olivier Levant ended it seven seconds later with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Augusto Sanabria.
"I knew Troy (Hahn) was in a battle and I knew Hamid (Mirzadeh) was down in the first set," said Behrmann. ". I thought I started hot and Jaegar was a little cold and then it evened out. I had no idea what the score in Olivier's match was though. I was trying to get done and off the court as soon as I could"
NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championships
First Round
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex, Gainesville, Fla.
Saturday, May 10, 2003
Florida 4 def. UCF 0
Doubles
Singles
END OF REPORT
