
No. 11 Men's Tennis Falls to No. 12 Mississippi State, 4-3
Saturday, March 24, 2012 | Men's Tennis
The No. 11 Florida men's tennis team came up short on yet another tight 4-3 decision, falling to No. 12 Mississippi State on Friday night. After a weather delay interrupted the doubles action for roughly an hour and a half, the Gators could never overtake the Bulldogs after falling behind early in the match.
“Congratulations to Coach [Per] Nilsson,” said head coach Andy Jackson. “I know that they deserve it. They played better than we did. It's a tough time for us, but I frankly saw some positive things that we're going to try to build on.”
Mississippi State (13-4, 4-1 SEC) took an early lead after pulling out a tough doubles point. MSU's Louis Cant and Malte Stropp, ranked 24th in the country, beat the Gators' Tripper Carleton (Naples, Fla.) and Michael Alford (Tampa, Fla.) at the No. 2 position, 8-6. Florida then earned a victory on court three, as Spencer Newman (Miami, Fla.) and Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) won 8-6 over the Bulldogs' Zach White and Ethan Wilkinson.
The doubles point came down to court one, where UF's eighth-ranked pair of Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) and Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) faced Mississippi State's George Coupland and Artem Ilyushin. After falling behind 3-0 early, Federhofer and Slilam earned two breaks and took a 5-4 lead. The MSU duo bounced right back and earned a break of their own and held serve to close out the match, 8-6.
Mississippi State pushed their lead to 2-0 after Stropp defeated Carleton at No. 3 singles, 6-1, 6-4, but Newman got a point back for the Gators with a 6-3, 6-2 win on court four over No. 36-ranked Coupland.
Ilyushin, ranked 14th in the nation, extended MSU's lead to 3-1 overall, beating van Overbeek, 6-2, 6-3, at the top singles position. Minutes later, Slilam pulled Florida within one point once again, taking down James Chaudry, 6-2, 6-2, at No. 2 singles.
The match was decided on court five, where Florida's Florent Diep (Paris, France) took on MSU's Cant. After Cant claimed the first set, Diep jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the second set but couldn't hold on, eventually losing in a tiebreak, 6-4, 7-6 (3).
Federhofer won the remaining match on court six against Mississippi State's White, but it took two tiebreak sets and a super tiebreak third set to decide the outcome. After Federhofer took the first set, White won the tiebreak in the second before Federhofer won the super tiebreak and the match, 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 1-0 (10-X).
Florida hits the road for their next match, traveling to Oxford, Miss., to take on Ole Miss on Sunday at 2 p.m.
2012 University of Florida Men's Tennis | ||||||
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex | ||||||
Gainesville, Florida | ||||||
Friday, March 23, 2012 | ||||||
Doubles | FLORIDA | vs | Mississippi St. | Winner |
| Score (match length) |
Billy Federhofer (8) | George Coupland | |||||
No. 1 - | Nassim Slilam (8) | Artem Ilyushin | MSU* | 8-6 (1:09) | ||
Tripper Carleton | Louis Cant (24) | |||||
No. 2 - | Michael Alford | Malte Stropp (24) | MSU | 8-6 (:47) | ||
Spencer Newman | Zach White | |||||
No. 3 - | Bob van Overbeek | Ethan Wilkinson | UF | 8-6 (:53) | ||
Singles | FLORIDA | vs | Mississippi St. | Winner |
| Score (match length) |
No. 1 - | Bob van Overbeek (61) | Artem Ilyushin (14) | MSU | 6-2, 6-3 (1:36) | ||
No. 2 - | Nassim Slilam (56) | James Chaudry | UF | 6-2, 6-2 (1:39) | ||
No. 3 - | Tripper Carleton (57) | Malte Stropp (113) | MSU | 6-1, 6-4 (1:15) | ||
No. 4 - | Spencer Newman (93) | George Coupland (36) | UF | 6-3, 6-2 (1:28) | ||
No. 5 - | Florent Diep | Louis Cant (37) | MSU* | 6-4, 7-6 (3) (2:03) | ||
No. 6 - | Billy Federhofer | Zach White | UF | 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 14-12 (2:39) | ||
FINAL SCORE: | Florida - 3 | Mississippi St. - 4 | * Clinched victory | |||
Records: | Florida (9-7, 2-3 SEC) | Mississippi St. (13-4, 4-1 SEC) | ||||
Order of Finish: | Doubles: 2, 3, 1 | Singles: 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 6 | ||||
Attendance: | 216 |