Weekend Look Back: Both Gator Tennis Squads Advance In NCAA Tourney, Lacrosse Wins NCAA Opener, Baseball Wins At Vandy
Monday, May 16, 2011 | General
Both tennis teams marched into the NCAA Round of 16, lacrosse won its first NCAA Tournament game on a rain-soaked day in Gainesville, while baseball took two of three at No. 2 Vanderbilt in a busy weekend for UF athletics.
Tennis
Both the men's and women's tennis teams advanced to the NCAA Championships Round of 16, battling off a pair of opponents and lengthy weather delays to do so.
The second-seeded women's team advanced with a 4-0 victory over South Carolina on Sunday, and now heads to the round of 16 where they will face 15th-seeded Clemson on Friday at 3 p.m. at Stanford. The Gators swept through the weekend, opening with a 4-0 victory over South Carolina State on Saturday after a six-hour rain delay.
In a match that started Saturday and finished on Sunday, the seventh-seeded Gator men's tennis team swept past Miami, 4-0, to reach the Round of 16. As did the women's squad, the men opened with a 4-0 victory over South Carolina State on Friday. The men's squad now faces 10th-seeded Kentucky on Thursday at 3 p.m. in Palo Alto, Calif.
Lacrosse
In what was a theme over the weekend, the lacrosse team waited out a five-hour delay before defeating Stanford, 13-11. The fourth-seeded Gators finished out what was a close game throughout, scoring three of the game's final four goals after the teams were deadlocked 10-10.
Janine Hillier's four-goal performance showed the Gators are far from a one dimensional team GatorZone.com Senior Writer Scott Carter explains.
The Gators now face No. 5 seed Duke on Saturday at 3 p.m. at Disney Stadium with a trip to the national semifinals on the line.
Baseball
The baseball team set the stage for a huge weekend, taking two of three at No. 2 Vanderbilt to set up a three-way tie with the Gators, Commodores and South Carolina heading into the final weekend of play.
The Gators took the opener in the series with Vanderbilt, getting three runs in the ninth to rally for a 6-5 win in a game that started Friday night and was completed on Saturday. Vanderbilt took the second game, 14-1, to set up Sunday's pivotal tilt.
Mike Zunino continued his recent hot streak on Sunday, delivering a three-run homer in the 12th inning to provide the difference in a 6-3 victory. The win pushed the Gators to 39-13 on the year and 20-7 in SEC play. After a Tuesday night game at home vs. Jacksonville, the Gators welcome Kentucky in for a three-game set starting Thursday night at McKethan with major SEC title implications on the line. South Carolina hosts Alabama and Vanderbilt travels to Georgia.
Track & Field
On the strength of seven individual Southeastern Conference titles and two school records, the University of Florida men's and women's track and field teams posted a pair of runner-up finishes at the 2011 SEC Outdoor Championships, hosted by the University of Georgia.
Arkansas claimed the men's team title with 157.50 points, while the Gator men were second with 140 points. Top-ranked LSU took home the women's team title with 146 points, while Florida was second with 116 points.
Florida took home seven individual league titles over the course of the weekend including: Will Claye (men's long jump, men's triple jump), Gray Horn (men's decathlon), Genevieve LaCaze (women's steeplechase), Fawn Miller (women's javelin), Terrell Wilks (men's 100-meter dash) and the men's 4x100-meter relay.
In Horn's case, it was a piece of history as he became just the second man in SEC history to win the decathlon three years in a row. The Gators will have this weekend off before heading to the NCAA Preliminary Round in Bloomington, Ind., starting May 26.
