Florida Gators
#4 Tennessee
Men's Tennis Edged by No. 4 Tennessee, 4-3
Friday, April 9, 2010 | Men's Tennis
The sixth-ranked Florida men's tennis team dropped a tight match, 4-3, to No. 4 Tennessee on Friday afternoon at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex in a battle of teams that came into the match undefeated in Southeastern Conference play.
Florida (15-3, 7-1 SEC) overcame a slow start, but could not get over the hump and fell to Tennessee (21-1, 9-0 SEC) by a single point.
“I'm very proud of my guys,” UF head coach Andy Jackson said. “This loss wasn't because of a lack of investment or heart. We'll improve and try to do better down the road. I feel like if we played tomorrow, every court could be different. These are two very good teams.”
The Gators dropped the doubles for just the third time this season. While Bob Van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) and Daniel Cash (Oslo, Norway) picked up a victory on the third doubles court, the Gators absorbed losses on court one where No. 2 Davey Sandgren and John-Patrick Smith overcame 12th-ranked Antoine Benneteau (Boulogne-Billancourt, France) and Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) and fourth-rated Boris Conkic and Rhyne Williams topped No. 49 Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) and Joey Burkhardt (St. Augustine, Fla.).
“The doubles point wasn't the whole match,” Jackson said. “Sometimes it's easy to look at that point and say that's what decided the match, but we could've won singles on three, four or six, and it would have changed the outcome.”
Burkhardt got the Gators rolling in the right direction in singles action, scoring a 7-5, 6-2 victory on court two over No. 26 Conkic after facing an early deficit. Burkhardt fell behind, 4-0, in the first set, but won 13 of the next 16 games to win the match. It marked the highest-ranked opponent that the Gator sophomore has beaten in his career (1-2 vs. top-30 opponents).
“I got off to a slow start, but against Tennessee and Georgia I always seem to play better and can dig a little deeper,” Burkhardt said. “I played better than I have been, and it was good to get the result. It'll be nice to have that confidence going forward.”
Moments later, Van Overbeek and Benneteau each fell just short of forcing a third set on their respective courts, and the Volunteers pulled out to a 3-1 lead.
But seventh-ranked Lacroix hammered home a straight-sets win over second-ranked Smith to pull the Gators within 3-2.
It was the second time this spring that Lacroix has downed a top-five opponent (Georgia Tech's No. 4 Guillermo Gomez) and his second career victory over a No. 2-ranked player in as many tries (3-0 career vs. top-four opponents). In addition, it was Smith's first loss in SEC play this spring.
However, UT clinched the team victory on court six just three minutes after Lacroix's win as Davey Sandgren rallied from a first-set loss to top Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) in three sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
The final match on court five brought the final tally to 4-3, with Bangoura collecting his team-high 15th singles win in dual match play while handing Matteo Fago his first SEC loss. The two split the first two set, and with the outcome already decided, Bangoura won the 10-point tiebreaker for the third set, 10-8.
The Gators have little time to dwell on the loss because eighth-ranked Georgia (17-4, 9-0 SEC) comes to town on Sunday at 1 p.m. fresh off a 4-3 win at South Carolina this afternoon.
“We saw where we were against one of the best teams in the country today,” Lacroix said. “We were very close. We'll try to think about this and use it.”
Admission to Sunday's match is free.
Florida vs. Tennessee
Doubles
No. 1 – (2) D. Sandgren/Smith (UT) def. (12) Benneteau/Lacroix (UF) – 8-6
No. 2 – (4) Conkic/Williams (UT) def. (49) Bangoura/Burkhardt (UF) – 8-3*
No. 3 – Cash/Van Overbeek (UF) def. Fago/Jones (UT) – 8-5
Order of Finish: 1, 3, 2*
Singles
No. 1 – (7) Alexandre Lacroix (UF) def. (2) John-Patrick Smith (UT) – 6-4, 7-6 (3)
No. 2 – Joey Burkhardt (UF) def. (26) Boris Conkic (UT) – 7-5, 6-2
No. 3 – (49) Rhyne Williams (UT) def. Antoine Benneteau (UF) – 7-5, 6-3
No. 4 – (111) Tennys Sandren (UT) def. Bob Van Overbeek (UF) – 6-4, 6-4
No. 5 – Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) def. Matteo Fago (UT) – 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 6 – Davey Sandgren (UT) def. Nassim Slilam (UF) – 4-6, 6-3, 6-4*
Order of Finish: 2, 3, 4, 2, 6*, 5
*Clinched doubles point/match victory
-UF-
