Florida Gators
#20 Mississippi State - SEC Tournament Quarterfinals
Florida Falls to Mississippi State in SEC Tournament Quarterfinals
Friday, April 17, 2015 | Men's Tennis
SEC Tournament Central Page
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The University of Florida men's tennis team won the doubles points and battled hard in each singles match, but it wasn't enough as the No. 6 seed Gators fell to No. 3 Mississippi State in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, 4-2, on Friday morning. This week's tourney is being held at the Mitchell Tennis Center in College Station, Texas.
UF took the lead early with dominant doubles play, as the nation's No. 51 tandem of sophomores Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin clinched the doubles point for Florida with a 6-3 win in the No. 1 match. The duo downed Mississippi State's No. 7-ranked doubles pairing of Florian Lakat and Julian Cash. The No. 50-ranked pairing of juniors Diego Hidalgo and Gordon Watson won their match at the No. 2 spot, 6-2.
In singles, Orkin recorded an impressive match in the No. 2 doubles position as he won in straight sets, 7-6, 6-0, to give UF a 2-0 lead in the match. Later, Watson won a three-set thriller by scores of 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to earn the victory at the No. 3 position.
Despite those two wins, the Bulldogs won at the No. 1, 6, 5 and 4 spots to clinch the match.
UF will now await to see where its headed for the NCAA Tournament. The selection show will be aired on NCAA.com and begin at 5:30 p.m. on April 28.
| 2015 University of Florida Men's Tennis |
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| Mitchell Tennis Center |
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| College Station, Texas |
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| Friday, April 17, 2015 |
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| Doubles | FLORIDA | vs | MISSISSIPPI STATE | Winner |
| Score/match length |
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| Maxx Lipman (51) | Florian Lakat (7) | ||||||
| No. 1 - | Elliott Orkin (51) | Julian Cash (7) | UF* | 6-3 | |||
| Diego Hidalgo (50) | Mate Cutura | ||||||
| No. 2 - | Gordon Watson (50) | Tassilo Schmid | UF | 6-2 | |||
| Chase Perez-Blanco | Juan Cruz Estevarena | ||||||
| No. 3 - | Joshua Wardell | Robin Haden | DNF | 5-2 | |||
| Singles | FLORIDA | vs | MISSISSIPPI STATE | Winner |
| Score/match length |
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| No. 1 - | Diego Hidalgo (53) | Florian Lakat (76) | MSU | 7-6, 6-1 | |||
| No. 2 - | Elliott Orkin (116) | Juan Cruz Estevarena | UF | 7-6, 6-0 | |||
| No. 3 - | Gordon Watson | Mate Cutura (118) | UF | 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 | |||
| No. 4 - | Chase Perez-Blanco | Rishab Agarwal | MSU* | 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 | |||
| No. 5 - | Maxx Lipman (120) | Tassilo Schmid | MSU | 6-4, 7-5 | |||
| No. 6 - | Joshua Wardell | Julian Cash | MSU | 7-6, 6-2 | |||
| FINAL SCORE: | Florida – 3 | Mississippi State – 4 | * Clinched victory |
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| Records: | Florida 14-8 | Mississippi State 19-6 | |||||
| Order of Finish: | Doubles: 2, 1* | Singles: 2, 1, 6, 5, 3, 4* | |||||
| Attendance: NA | |||||||
Quotes from the Match
Shelton's Notes – Head Coach Bryan Shelton
On today's match…
“Mississippi State came out and played really well. My hat is certainly off to Matt Roberts and his program. I thought we got off to a great start in the doubles, as our guys came ready to play. So I'm really happy about that. I feel like over the last few weeks, we have been able to find some answers in our doubles play. Unfortunately today, we just couldn't get it done in singles. We had a lot of missed opportunities on our part as we had some game points that we didn't convert on. I'm a little bit frustrated that we didn't covert better today, as we weren't as mentally tough as we needed to be to get the job done.”
On Elliott Orkin's performance today…
“It was nice to see the resiliency from Elliott [Orkin]. He lost convincingly yesterday so it's easy to start doubting yourself, but he got right back after it today and played really well in doubles, and then did his thing in singles.”
Florida vs. Mississippi State:
UF still leads the all-time series versus Mississippi State, 34-18.
Leading the Way:
Sophomore Elliott Orkin paced the Gators in singles as he recorded his team-leading 26th victory of the season. Junior Gordon Watson improved to 21-14 overall.
It Takes Two:
No. 51 Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin clinched the doubles point for UF and took down their third-straight ranked opponent as they beat Mississippi State's No. 7-ranked Florian Lakat and Julian Cash, 6-3.
Previously, the Gator tandem downed Kentucky's No. 69-ranked Jerry Lopez and Nils Ellefsen and Tennessee's then-No. 3 pairing of Mikelis Libietis and Hunter Reese.
SEC Tournament History:
Florida is now 32-19 at the SEC Tournament since team play was initiated in 1990, and 3-3 all-time against Mississippi State at the SEC Tourney.
