Florida Gators
SEC Tournament - Georgia
UF Men?s Tennis Falls To UGA In SEC Tournament Semifinals
Saturday, April 24, 2004 | Men's Tennis
Second-seeded Florida fell short Saturday afternoon in its attempt to reach the SEC Tournament championship match for the second straight season as the Gators were defeated by third-seeded and tenth-ranked Georgia, 4-1. Florida, which advanced to the semifinals of the event for the eighth time in school history fell to 16-7 on the year and now awaits a bid to the NCAA Tournament. Georgia improved to 17-6 on the year and will meet Ole Miss in Sunday's title match.
Florida looks to receive an invitation to the NCAA Championships for the 14th consecutive year as the Gators have received a bid every year since the NCAA expanded its field to 64 teams in 1999. Since the expansion, UF has hosted its first and second round matches every year since 2001. A season ago, UF advanced to Athens, GA, and worked its way into the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championships before dropping a 4-1 decision to UCLA.
Saturday's match was the second between Florida and Georgia this season as the Gators were defeated, 4-3, in Athens on Friday, March 26. The loss to the Bulldogs was the fourth for Florida, which is 1-4 all-time against UGA in tournament play as the Bulldogs have eliminated Florida from the event more times than any other league member.
UF dropped the doubles point for only the second time in the last seven matches as Georgia came away with wins on the top two courts. Georgia's Bo Hodge and John Isner teamed to defeat Florida's 45th-ranked Chris Brandi and Hamid Mirzadeh at the top of the lineup, 8-3, leaving the Bulldogs needing a win on any of the two remaining courts. On court two, Florida Vladimir Obradovic and Janne Holmia raced to a 3-0 lead before Georgia's Matias Ormaza and Strahinja Bobusic grabbed three straight of their own. From there, the match was tied on four other occasions before the Georgia duo came away with the 9-7 win.
Georiga made it a 3-0 lead with wins on courts four and one. Ormaza took a straight set 6-4, 6-4 win over Brandi before Hodge (ranked No. 13) fought off Mirzadeh (ranked No. 10) 6-1, 7-6 (1). Holmia got UF on the board with a 6-3, 6-4 victory on court two over 77th-ranked Isner. Howerver, Omerzel held off Obradovic in a second set tiebreaker on three for the 6-1, 7-6 (4) victory to give the Bulldogs a 4-1 win.
The entire 64-team field for the NCAA Championships will be revealed on Wed., May 5 at 4:45 p.m. in a televised announcement on ESPNews. NCAA First and Second Round matches will be played May 14 through 16 on 16 campus sites, also revealed during the selection show. Winners of the second round matches advance to Tulsa, Okla., for the remainder of the Championships.
SEC Men's Tennis Tournament – Semifinal Round
Florida vs. Georgia
Saturday, April 24, 2004
Nashville, Tenn.
Doubles
Order of Finish – 1, 2
Singles
Order of Finish – 4, 1, 2, 3
