Florida Gators

Box Score (PDF)

Gainesville, Fla. – The No. 15 Florida Gators took down the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles on Friday night (May 12), winning the doubles point and three singles matches to win 4-0.

Florida advances to the second round of the tournament, and will face head coach Bryan Shelton's alma mater, Georgia Tech, Saturday (May 13) at 4:00 p.m. at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

In doubles play, seniors Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin earned the first win for Florida, taking down Alfonzo and Cerrini 6-1 on Court 2. The Gators on Court 3 clinched the doubles point, as Joshua Wardell and Chase Perez-Blanco defeated Ruiz and Fernandez 6-3.

In singles play, Florida started off strong, winning five of the six first sets. From there, Alfredo Perez earned the first singles point, defeating Felipe Ramirez 6-1, 6-2.

McClain Kessler was the next to finish, giving UF a 3-0 lead with his 6-1, 6-4 win over Andres Alfonzo on Court 6. Perez-Blanco clinched the match for Florida with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Ezequiel Cerrini on Court 3, sending the Gators to the second round of the tournament.

NOTE: If Saturday's match against Georgia Tech is moved indoors due to weather, live video and scoring will NOT be available to fans. Follow Florida Men's Tennis on Twitter at @GatorsMTN for live updates. Spectator seating inside of the Charles R. and Nancy V. Perry Indoor Facility is limited, and admission will be on a first-come-first serve basis.  

 
Head Coach Bryan Shelton
"I was really pleased with the way we competed today. Florida Gulf Coast came and they were a stern test. CJ [ Weber] does a great job getting those guys to play with a lot of energy and fight. Even when we were up a lot of first sets in singles, they continued to fight and push which I think is a tribute to how hard they work and the things they do. I'm really proud of our guys. I thought we came out and played good doubles from the beginning and played with good energy, and it was good to see us finish in the end. I felt like on every court we were playing better as the match went along, so that's always good to see."

On what they're expecting in tomorrow's match against Georgia Tech…
"It's going to be a great match. I think you go out there and you lace 'em up and you have your guys ready to play. You tend to forget about all the things that happened before, like my relationship with their head coach, Kenny Thorne, who I grew up with, we played junior tennis together and coached together. But I know we'll both go out there and battle to win. Our guys are ready to compete. We want to get to Athens, we want to get to the final sixteen site, that's the goal we have right now in front of us. It doesn't matter who is on the other side of the net, we're going out there to battle."

Sophomore McClain Kessler
On trying to close out his second set…
"I just felt like Coach Perelman told me to make a lot of first serves, and I did, I went up 40-15, and he [Andres Alfonzo] actually got it back to deuce, so I just told myself there's no way I'm going to miss a ball."

On how closing that set felt…
"It felt great. We fought hard, I thought he was going to go away and I made a mistake thinking that, because he just kept fighting. That 5-2 game was tight, the 5-3 game was tight and then to finally get the 5-4 win was really relieving."

Sophomore Alfredo Perez
On how he felt in his match…
"I felt good. Everything went my way, I was playing well and serving well. [Ramirez] was really fighting and trying to come back, so I tried not to give him any chances, but he was still figuring out ways to come back in the match and make it tighter."

On whether or not he was surprised to be the first singles player to finish…
"No, I've been playing well and every match has been a battle. Today I finished first, and I don't get to do that too often."

 
Match Notes

• The Gators advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the 16^th time in program history.
• UF's 4-0 sweep over FGCU marks the 30^th time the Gators have swept an opponent in an NCAA Tournament match, and the 14^th time it has happened in the first round (since 1999).
• This was the first time Perez was the first to win his singles match outright since Florida played USC on February 4^th.
• This marks Kessler's sixth win in a row in the same number of dual matches.
• Perez-Blanco's singles win marks the third time he has clinched a match for the Gators.

 
Florida 4, FGCU 0
NCAA Tournament | First Round
Friday, May 12, 2017 | 5:00 PM
Gainesville, Fla. | Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex

Doubles (Order of finish: 2, 3)
1. #2 Johannes Ingildsen/Alfredo Perez (UF) vs. Felipe Ramirez (FG), 4-4
2. Maxx Lipman/Elliott Orkin (UF) def. Andres Alfonzo/Ezequiel Cerrini (FG), 6-1
3. Joshua Wardell/Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) def. Mateo Ruiz/Javier Fernandez (FG), 6-3*

Singles (Order of finish: 1, 6, 3)
1. #8 Alfredo Perez (UF) def. Felipe Ramirez (FG), 6-1, 6-2
2. #85 Elliott Orkin (UF) vs. Mateo Ruiz (FG), 6-4, 4-3
3. Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) def. Ezequiel Cerrini (FG), 6-4, 6-2*
4. Maxx Lipman (UF) vs. Oliver Landert (FG), 6-2, 4-4
5. #123 Johannes Ingildsen (UF) vs. Javier Fernandez (FG), 4-6, 6-1
6. McClain Kessler (UF) def. Andres Alfonzo (FG), 6-1, 6-4
* Clinched victory
 

Up Next for the Gators
Florida will take on Georgia Tech in the second round of the tournament on Saturday, May 13^th at the Ring Tennis Complex. Florida holds a 33-12 all-time record over the Yellow Jackets, but have only seen them in the NCAA Tournament one time, where the Gators won 4-1 in the first round in 2007.
 

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