The University of Florida men's tennis team fell short to Auburn, 4-3, Sunday afternoon in a match that came down to a tiebreaker on the final doubles court. With the loss, UF finished the regular season 12-6 overall and 7-4 in the Southeastern Conference. UF's league record tied three other teams for third in the SEC.
The Florida-Auburn match was originally scheduled for Sunday, April 1, in Auburn, Ala.. UF had built a 2-1 advantage on that date before the match was postponed due to rain. The format of the match was changed prior to the original meeting due to the chance of rain as singles was played first.
UF's Jesse Levine and Greg Ouellette had given Florida its two points when the teams met on the first Sunday of the month with straight set wins on courts one and two, respectively.
In today's meeting, singles play resulted in a 3-3 tie and the teams were forced into doubles play. UF's Nestor Briceno picked up the third Gator point on the No. 3 singles court with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over Pawel Dilaj.
Levine and Ouellette paired on the doubles courts to defeat Robert Lathouwers and Alex Schweizer, 8-3. However, the match was decided on court three where UF's Billy Mulligan and Jordan Dolberg were edged by Dliaj and Lukas Marsoun (9-8 (5)).
Florida next travels to Baton Rouge, La., for the SEC Tournament. When the four-way tie was broken, the Gators received the number three seed in the event and will face the winner of the Alabama-South Carolina match on Friday at 9 a.m. ET. Florida defeated USC in the regular season, 6-1, and was defeated by Alabama, 5-2.
Below are the scores from the three finished matches:
Singles
1. #4 Jesse Levine (UF) def. #86 Alex Schweizer (AU) 6-0, 6-3
2. #16 Greg Ouellette (UF) def. #50 Robbert Lathouwers (AU) 6-3, 6-4
3. Nestor Briceno (UF) def. Pawel Dilaj (AU) 4-6, 6-3, 7-5
4. Lukas Marsoun (AU) def. Billy Mulligan (UF) 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4)
5. Alexey Tsyrenov (AU) def. Jordan Dolberg (UF) 6-3, 6-0
6. Terence Nugent (AU) def. Shaun Young (UF) 6-4, 6-5
Doubles
1. #6 Jesse Levine/Greg Ouellette (UF) def. Robbert Lathouwers/Alex Schweizer (AU) 8-3
2. Terence Nugent/Alexey Tsyrenov (AU) def. Nestor Briceno/Geoffrey Barton (UF) 8-3
3. Pawel Dilaj/Lukas Marsoun (AU) def. Billy Mulligan/Jordan Dolberg (UF) 9-8 (5)
* - The player rankings on courts one, two and five in singles were at the time of the match.
