Men's Tennis Hosts UNF at 3 p.m. in Season Opener
Tuesday, January 21, 2014 | Men's Tennis
GAINESVILLE, Fla.—The Florida men's tennis team kicks off the 2014 season on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m., hosting the University of North Florida at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
This is just the second meeting between the two teams. UF beat UNF in the only other meeting in 1989, an 8-1 Gators' victory in Gainesville.
The Gators open the season ranked No. 15 in the ITA preseason rankings. In addition, five players are ranked in singles and UF has four doubles pairs ranked. Senior Stephane Piro is the highest ranked singles player at No. 28, while freshman Elliott Orkin jumped into the rankings at No. 53 after a solid fall season. Maxx Lipman (109), Gordon Watson (111) and Mike Alford (116) are also in the preseason rankings.
In doubles, Orkin and Watson rank 13th after going 12-3 in the fall and making a run to the quarterfinals at the ITA Men's All-American Championships. Piro is ranked with both Florent Diep (34) and Lipman (45). Alford and Diep rank 43rd.
FROM THE COACH – Head Coach Bryan Shelton
“Tomorrow we want to come out here and compete and really get lost in the competition. It's not just a sprint, it's a marathon, and we know that. So when we come out here and start working tomorrow in the match, we want to play percentage tennis, and try to do it so that we play better as the matches go along, just like we want to play better as the season goes along.
“We take that same attitude into the match tomorrow against UNF. We're excited, we're fired up, but we still have to stay composed. We still have to play within our limits. If we start going outside of our limits, then we start making unforced errors and we make life a lot more difficult on ourselves. We want to keep things simple. We have a game plan and we'll go out and execute that game plan tomorrow.”
Florida vs. North Florida
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex (Gainesville, Florida)
Live Scoring: http://www.gatorzone.com/tennis/live/?sport=tennm&live_match=11718
For all of the latest information on Florida men's tennis:
Official Website: www.GatorZone.com/tennis/men
Twitter: @GatorZoneTennis
YouTube: www.YouTube.com/UFtennis
