No. 11 Men's Tennis to Host UCF, Visit No. 6 Baylor
Thursday, January 21, 2010 | Men's Tennis
The University of Florida's 11th-ranked men's tennis team hosts the University of Central Florida on Friday at 3 p.m. at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex to open both teams' spring dual match season.
The Gators will then travel to Waco, Texas, to take on the sixth-rated Baylor Bears at 2 p.m. Eastern on Sunday in an early-season clash between two of the nation's top programs.
“We are trying to get exposed to high-level play, have a great strength of schedule and have enough wins to get a high NCAA seeding,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “You want to try to play the best early to show your guys what an NCAA contender looks like. You can't be scared to lose. We are going to Baylor as an underdog, but we're going out to win. Either way, we get a tough road match and see what the competition looks like. It will be good for us. I feel like our scheduling is historically why we do well at the end of the year.”
Florida has met UCF 10 times in program history, winning all 10, including every season since 2001. Florida has hosted every match in series history. Baylor owns a 4-3 edge all-time against the Gators, but Florida scored a resounding 7-0 victory when the teams met last January in Gainesville. Florida's most recent road meeting with Baylor came in 2008, when the Bears scored a 5-2 win against UF.
Junior Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France), the nation's No. 7 player in the ITA's first spring poll, has been a force for UF throughout the open portion of the 2009-10 season, tallying a 15-4 mark in singles play, which includes nine wins against ranked opponents.
Additionally, Lacroix and senior Antoine Benneteau (Boulogne-Billancourt, France) appear at No. 10 in the doubles rankings with a 12-1 record that includes capturing the SEC Indoors title, the Gator Invitational and the ITA Southeastern Regional Championships. The pair also advanced to the quarterfinals at the ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships.
In addition to Lacroix and Benneteau, both 2009 All-SEC performers, the Gators also welcome back 2009 SEC Freshman of the Year Carlos Cueto (Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain) and their 2009 MVP, sophomore Joey Burkhardt (St. Augustine). Other returning letterwinners for 2010 include senior Daniel Cash (Oslo, Norway) and junior Erik Corace (Naples).
The Gators have added four new faces since last spring. Freshman Billy Federhofer (North Miami) joined the squad before the fall season and has posted a 4-5 mark. Incoming freshmen this spring include Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton) and Bob Van Overbeek (Boca Raton). Both won their first career match at the SEC Indoors last weekend in Norcross, Ga., with Bangoura advancing to the quarterfinals before bowing out against a top-10 opponent. Sophomore Nassim Slilam (Paris, France), who also posted his first win in the Orange and Blue at SEC Indoors, completes the roster for the 2010 Gators.
Admission to Friday's match is free. Updates and results will be available on www.GatorZone.com.
-UF-
