Florida Gators
SEC Tourney - South Carolina
UF Men?s Tennis Defeats South Carolina, 4-0
Saturday, April 24, 2004 | Men's Tennis
For the second straight season and the eighth time in the history of the program, the second-seeded University of Florida men's tennis team advanced to the semifinal round of the SEC Men's Tennis Tournament with a 4-0 win over tenth-seeded South Carolina Friday evening in Nashville. With the win, UF improved its record to 16-6 on the year as the Gators won their sixth straight match, while USC slipped to 15-13. Florida improved to 4-0 against South Carolina under head coach Andy Jackson although the match was the first-ever between the two in the tournament.
The shutout was UF's fourth straight one way or the other in the opening round of tournament play. Alabama blanked UF in the first round of the 2001 event. In 2002, the Gators opened by defeating Vanderbilt, 4-0. A season ago, UF did the same by shutting out Alabama, 4-0. Overall, six of UF's last seven appearances in the tournament have ended with one team not allowing the other to get on the scoreboard. The win also improved UF to 9-5 in the quarterfinal round all-time and moved the Gators to 4-2 in the tournament under Jackson.
The match began nearly five hours later than it was scheduled to begin after rain storms in the Nashville area forced earlier matches indoors and caused delays. After five of the first six sets were complete, the match itself was moved indoors due to darkness. Florida's win reversed a recent trend as indoor finishes have been an obstacle for the Gators of late. Over the past two seasons seven of Florida's 11 have come when the match finished indoors.
UF grabbed the doubles point in slightly under an hour with wins at the top and bottom of the lineup. The Gators have won 16 of 23 doubles points this season and five of the last six. UF's Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris Brandi (ranked 45th nationally) cruised past Geraldo Knorr and Pedro Rodrigues on court one 8-3. The win marked the sixth in the last seven matches for the UF duo. On court three, UF's Martin Stiegwardt and Stefan Tell appeared to be in control after racing out to a 7-3 lead. However, USC's Ben Atkinson and Carl Wermee reeled off three straight games before Stiegwardt and Tell took an 8-6 decision.
On court five, Florida's Jordan Dolberg made it a 2-0 Gator advantage as he defeated USC's Ben Atkinson 6-3, 7-5. Dolberg continued to be a steady addition to the lineup as he won his fifth straight match after dropping his first-ever collegiate appearance against Mississippi State on April 2.
Mirzadeh, who came into the match ranked 10th in the ITA singles poll, picked up a 7-6 (2), 6-4 win at the top of the lineup over Westman to get UF to within one point of clinching the victory. Minutes, later Brandi provided what the Gators were looking for with his 7-6 (2), 7-6 (7) decision over Knorr on court four.
UF will take on third-seeded Georgia (No. 10 nationally) in the semifinal round on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET as the Bulldogs defeated Mississippi State on Friday, 4-0. The Gators were outlasted by UGA, 4-3, on Friday, March 26, in the regular season meeting in Athens, GA. Florida is 1-3 all-time against the Bulldogs in SEC Tournament play as UGA has eliminated Florida from the event more times than any other league member. However, Florida's sole win over Georgia in the tournament came in the 2000 championship match as the Gators slipped past the Bulldogs for the title, 4-3.
SEC Men's Tennis Tournament – Quarterfinal Round
Florida vs. South Carolina
Friday, April 23, 2004
Nashville, Tenn.
Doubles
Order of Finish – 1, 3*
Singles
Order of Finish – 5, 1, 4*
