BOX SCORE
Fort Worth, Texas – The No. 4 Florida Gators defeated the No. 15 TCU Horned Frogs, 4-3, on Sunday at the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center.
Despite winning the doubles point, the Gators fell behind 3-1.
Oliver Crawford and
Johannes Ingildsen forced their matches to three-sets. Crawford trimmed TCU's lead to 3-2 just seconds before Ingildsen, who was in a third set tiebreaker, squeaked out a match-tying victory. The deciding match was on court 6 with freshman
Lukas Greif facing TCU's freshman Sander Jong. Greif clinched the match for the Gators in two sets.
With the comeback victory, the Gators are a perfect 5-0 to start the season and their five wins have been clinched by five different players.
In doubles, TCU jumped out quick and took the 6-3 victory on court two over
Alfredo Perez and Ingildsen, but the Gators responded with late breaks on courts one and three. The two courts served it out as Florida took the doubles point behind 6-4 victories from Crawford and
Sam Riffice on court three and
Duarte Vale and
McClain Kessler on one.
The Gators earned the doubles point for the fourth time this season.
Singles, however, did not begin the way Florida wanted. Playing on only five courts at TCU's indoor facility, the Horned Frogs dominated the first set, claiming victories on all courts.
TCU took a 3-1 lead with two-set decisions over
Andy Andrade, Vale and Riffice.
After falling in set one, Crawford and Ingildsen cruised back in set two and forced a third. Crawford won 6-4 in the third set to cut TCU's lead to one. A few seconds later, Ingildsen fended off match point to force a tiebreaker with No. 83 Bertus Kruger. Ingildsen took the third set 7-6 and tied the match at 3.
Greif and Jong started their singles match at the conclusion of the earlier decisions. He rolled to a 6-4, 6-2 victory and capped the comeback for the Gators.
Up next, Florida will head to Chicago for the ITA National Men's Team Indoor Championships. The 16-team tournament begins Friday, Feb. 15.
Gator Quotes
"TCU played one heck of a match today. We were rock solid in doubles but they jumped on us early in singles. We hung in there long enough and played bravely in a few key spots to secure the win.
Lukas Greif was cool under pressure and shut the door on them with the match on the line. I hope we learned a lot from this match. We have to stay aggressive and cool under fire to beat teams like this one. Playing defensively will not get the job done. We did enough to get the job done but we have to be tougher across the board." –
Head Coach Bryan Shelton
Final Results
#4 Florida 4, #15 TCU 3
Doubles-Order of Finish: 2, 3, 1
Kessler/Vale (Florida) def. Rybakov/Gray (TCU) 6-4
#48 Stalder/Kruger (TCU) def. Ingildsen/Perez (Florida) 6-3
#35 Crawford/Riffce (Florida) def. Fomba/Jong (TCU) 6-4
Singles-Order of Finish: 2, 5, 3, 1, 4, 6*
#20
Oliver Crawford (Florida) def. #8 Alex Rybakov (TCU) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
#75 Alastair Gray (TCU) def. #27
Andy Andrade (Florida) 6-4, 6-0
Reese Stalder (TCU) def. #67
Sam Riffice (Florida) 7-5, 6-4
#46
Johannes Ingildsen (Florida) def. #83 Bertus Kruger (TCU) 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 [7-5]
Luc Fomba (TCU) def. #109
Duarte Vale (Florida) 6-4, 6-3
Lukas Greif (Florida) def. Sander Jong (TCU) 6-4, 6-2
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