Florida Gators
#30 Stanford
No. 13 Florida Bounces Back to Beat No. 30 Stanford, 4-2
Sunday, January 25, 2015 | Men's Tennis
Gainesville, Fla. – After dropping the doubles point and falling behind early in singles, the No. 13-ranked Florida Gators waged a spirited comeback to defeat No. 30 Stanford, 4-2, in the ITA Kick-Off Weekend consolation match at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex Sunday morning.
The Gators trailed early after dropping their first doubles point of the dual match season. Stanford's No. 3 doubles pairing, Trey Strobel and Nolan Paige, quickly took down Florida's No. 43-ranked Oliver Landert and Josh Wardell. Stanford clinched at the No. 2 position with a 6-2 win over No. 49 Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin.
The match began to look bleak for Florida when Stanford jumped to a 2-0 lead after David Wilczynski handily defeated freshman Chase Perez-Blanco, 6-1, 6-0, but the home team refused to fold.
Landert put the Orange & Blue on the board with a 6-4, 6-2 straight-set victory over Robert Stineman at the No. 6 position. It was all Florida from there, as No. 81 Orkin battled back from a 4-1 deficit in set two to take down Maciek Romanowicz, 6-1, 7-5.
After dropping his first set, junior No. 60-ranked Diego Hidalgo resiliently defeated Nolan Paige, 2-6, 6-1, 6-1, earning the Gators their first lead of the match, 3-2.
Similar to yesterday's match versus No. 31 Ole Miss, junior Gordon Watson had an opportunity to clinch the match. Watson edged Stanford's No. 3 singles player, John Morrissey, 7-6 (2), 6-2, to secure the win for the Gators.
The Gators look ahead to a three-match road swing, starting with a trip to Athens, Ga., to face No. 1-ranked defending NCAA Champion Southern California and No. 4-ranked UCLA on Saturday, Jan. 31 and Sunday, Feb. 1.
| 2015 University of Florida Men's Tennis | ||||||
| Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex | ||||||
| Gainesville, Florida | ||||||
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 | ||||||
| Doubles | FLORIDA | vs | Stanford | Winner |
| Score/match length |
| Gordon Watson (32) | John Morrissey | |||||
| No. 1 - | Diego Hidalgo (32) | Robert Stineman | DNF | |||
| Maxx Lipman (49) | Maciek Romanowicz | |||||
| No. 2 - | Elliott Orkin (49) | Tom Fawcett | *STAN | 6-2 (:33) | ||
| Oliver Landert (43) | Trey Strobel | |||||
| No. 3 - | Josh Wardell (43) | Nolan Paige | STAN | 6-1 (:27) | ||
| Singles | FLORIDA | vs | Stanford | Winner |
| Score/match length |
| No. 1 - | Maxx Lipman (34) | Tom Fawcett (25) | DNF | |||
| No. 2 - | Elliott Orkin (81) | Maciek Romanowicz | UF | 6-1, 7-5 (1:23) | ||
| No. 3 - | Gordon Watson | John Morrissey | *UF | 7-6 (2), 6-2 (1:35) | ||
| No. 4 - | Diego Hidalgo (60) | Nolan Paige | UF | 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 (1:30) | ||
| No. 5 - | Chase Perez-Blanco | David Wilczynski | STAN | 6-1, 6-0 (:57) | ||
| No. 6 - | Oliver Landert | Robert Stineman | UF | 6-4, 6-2 (1:20) | ||
| FINAL SCORE: | Florida - 4 | Stanford - 2 | * Clinched victory | |||
| Records: | Florida 3-1 | Stanford 1-2 | ||||
| Order of Finish: | Doubles: 3, 2 | Singles: 5, 6, 2, 4, 3 | ||||
| Attendance: 79 | ||||||
Quotes from the Match
Shelton's Notes – Head Coach Bryan Shelton
On falling behind early in the match…
You're going to make mistakes in your lives in every situation whether it's in tennis or in other things. You're going to make mistakes. As long as you don't try to cover them up or make excuses, you can learn from those mistakes. Take ownership of them and then make the adjustments you need to make to get it right the next time. So I was proud of our guys for making the adjustments today and getting it right.
On improvements made today after yesterday's loss…
I thought the difference today was when we had the opportunities to close it out, we played consistently. We eliminated unforced errors. I think that's something that most of our guys who won today did a better job of. Elliott [Orkin], Diego [Hidalgo], they eliminated the unforced errors. Actually, Diego didn't have to make any big corrections because he didn't make that many unforced errors yesterday, but in other situations Oliver [Landert] and I guess Elliott eliminated some of those unforced errors today as well and it made a difference. But I'm happy for Gordon [Watson] to be in that situation again [to clinch the match] and come through.
Junior Captain Gordon Watson
On his singles match today compared to yesterday…
It was a lot easier because I was up 5-2 or 4-1 in the second, but it was weird not being able to see everybody's scores [playing on the back courts] so… I prefer that because you don't know where you are you just know you have to win the match no matter what. Coming back from yesterday, there was no way I was losing that match today.
On using the doubles point loss as motivation for singles play…
I believe so. Winning that doubles point is important. The doubles point is always important. We did it yesterday. We won the doubles point and they [Ole Miss] came back and beat us. So it's important, but we trust in our guys, all six of us, to get the “W.”
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