Florida Gators
South Carolina
Men?s Tennis Grabs Share of SEC Championship With 7-0 Win At No. 17 South Carolina
Saturday, April 16, 2005 | Men's Tennis
For the second time in three seasons and the ninth time in school history, the sixth-ranked University of Florida men's tennis team won the Southeastern Conference crown as the Gators came away with an 7-0 victory over No. 17 South Carolina Saturday afternoon. With the victory, UF will enter postseason play with a 17-5 overall record, while the squad improved its conference record to 10-1 on the season to match Ole Miss, which defeated Mississippi State on Saturday, 4-3.
"The SEC is definitely one of the best tennis conferences in the country and to win a title is something pretty special," said UF head coach Andy Jackson. "I'm very excited and proud of the team and felt they deserved everything with the way they played this season."
Florida first claimed the title in 1950 and went on to do so again in 1961, 68, 69, 75, 94, 2000 and 2003.
This year's title is the third of nine the Gators have shared. In 1975, the Gators tied with Georgia on top of the league standings before doing the same with Tennessee in 2000.
Now in his fourth season at Florida, Jackson became the quickest coach in the history of the program to bring a pair of titles to Gainesville. Bill Potter, who won four, got his first ten years into his Gator career while Ian Duvenhage took six seasons to win his first of two. Jackson is also the only coach in the history of the SEC to win titles at two different member institutions. Jackson, who coached at Mississippi State prior to coming to Gainesville, captured crowns while with the Bulldogs by winning the regular season in 1992 and 1993 and sharing the overall conference crown with Georgia in 1993.
The shutout against the Gamecocks on today was the sixth for the Gators against an SEC opponent in the Jackson era and the third this season.
UF came away with the doubles point against the Gamecocks, which is something the Gators had been unable to do in five of the last seven outings. Florida fell behind on the top court 4-1 and 4-0 on court two before battling back on both courts to get the 1-0 lead. Florida's Stefan Tell and Nestor Briceno came back to get the Gators within one court of clinching the point with an 8-6 victory over Tom Eklund and Jaime Cullar. The win came on court two, which was the highest the UF duo has appeared in the order this season. Florida got on top 1-0 when 22nd-ranked Hamid Mirzadeh and Greg Ouellette took an 8-4 decision against Pedro Rodrigues and Geraldo Knorr on court one.
Florida's momentum carried over to the singles courts, where Mirzadeh (No. 30) took a 6-1, 6-4 decision over Eklund on court one. With the win, Mirzadeh improved to 5-0 against Gamecock players in the singles portion of dual contests during his career, none of which went to a third set.
Chris Brandi (No. 85) built the lead to 3-0 with a straight-set win of his own as he took out Knorr, 6-3, 6-2 on court five. Brandi's dual record improved to 15-4 on the season with the win.
Briceno (No. 125) clinched the match for the Gators with a 6-3, 7-5 decision over Banenko one court higher in the lineup for his fifth-straight win.
Vladimir Obradovic, Ryan Sherry and Ouellette added to the total to get the shutout for the Gators. Obradovic defeated 106th-ranked Cuellar 3-6, 6-0, 7-6, while Sherry went three sets with Atkinson on court six, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Sherry's win sent his dual record to 16-3 on the year, which tied Ouellette for the best mark on the team.
Ouellette (No. 39) came back in a third set as well with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win on court two over Rodrigues. Ouellette finished the regular season with an 11-0 record against SEC foes in dual matches becoming the first player in the Jackson era to do so.
Florida will return to play on Friday, April 22, in at the 2005 SEC Tournament in Athens, Ga. The Gators have received a first-round bye and will make their first appearance of the event in the quarterfinal round.
Florida vs. South Carolina
Doubles
3. Ben Atkinson/ Dmitry Babenko (USC) def. Jordan Dolberg/Chris Brandi (UF), 9-8 (4)
Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3
Singles:
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 4, 3, 6, 2
