BOX SCORE
LAKE NONA, Fla. – This Florida team seems to resemble that of the 2005 Gators, but it now looks to break the mold and go somewhere no team in program history has ever gone.
With a 4-0 sweep of Baylor in Thursday's Elite Eight match at the USTA National Campus, Florida advanced to the Final Four for the first time in 14 years. This is also just the third time in program history that the Gators have reached the NCAA Tournament semifinals, falling in both 2000 and 2005.
Florida has the opportunity to be the first team in program history to play in the national championship match.
The Gators took a highly contested doubles point to go up 1-0 early in the match. As all three courts battled in tight matches, it was senior
Alfredo Perez and sophomore
Oliver Crawford who took the first match, 6-4, on Court 2. Senior
McClain Kessler and junior
Johannes Ingildsen earned their second top-10 doubles win in the last week as they upset Baylor's No. 1 ranked duo, 7-5, to clinch the point for the Gators.
The momentum carried over to singles, as Florida took the first set on four of the six courts.
Kessler dominated on Court 6 as he earned a 6-1, 6-0 win to put the Gators up 2-0. Kessler is now 9-1 in dual singles this season.
After taking their first sets, it was a race to see who would clinch the match for Florida. Sophomore
Andy Andrade and
Sam Riffice, both had match point balls in the air at the same time, up 40-15. Andrade finished his match, 6-2 just moments before the Orlando native and SEC Freshman of the Year clinched the match for Florida, sending them on to Saturday's Final Four.
Up next, the third-seeded Gators will meet the sixth-seeded Texas Longhorns in the NCAA semis Saturday at the USTA. The UF-UT match will be played at noon on courts 1-6 and will be live-streamed at
WATCH- USTA NATIONAL CAMPUS. For all the details regarding the final rounds and to buy tickets, please visit the
Tournament Headquarters for the USTA.
Florida sits at 6-9 all-time against Texas with the last meeting taking place in Charlottesville, Va., at the ITA Indoor National Championships on Feb. 17, 2017. The Longhorns took the match 4-2.
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QUOTES FROM THE GATORS
Florida Head Coach Bryan Shelton
On how the match ended
"It's a great way to end the match. Just knowing we put ourselves in the strong position and knowing we've got guys playing well all over the place. It's not just one guy, but it's across the board. I think it was just a great team win."
On how they're preparing for the semifinals
"I think the beauty of this is there's a day off in between, so we can recover really well. I think our guys are in really good physical shape so we'll do the right things tonight, make sure we recover fully and have a good day tomorrow. We'll practice a little bit, but rest up again. I feel like our tanks are full right now. this is the time. The end of the year, the postseason, we're in the Final Four, and for us it's like, 'Let's make sure our tanks are ready to go when we come out and just fire from the hips come Saturday.' We're going to play a really good Texas team that also won pretty convincingly today, so I don't know that we have an advantage there. Just two really good teams trying to battle it out to the finals."
Florida senior McClain Kessler
On winning the doubles point
"We knew if that if we got the doubles point, it'd be a good start for us. We knew we were playing a very tough team, me and Joe [
Johannes Ingildsen], but if me and Joe play our best tennis, we feel like we're the team to beat. It's what we're telling ourselves before the match and during the match. We had a lot of fun out there."
Florida freshman Sam Riffice
On feeling like the home team
"It was amazing. The crowd tonight, so many Gator fans out there watching us and supporting us. We had so many friends that came out all the way from Gainesville to come support us. I felt like I was playing a home match out there. There was so much energy and excitement for us."
Final Results
No. 4 Florida 4, No. 6 Baylor 0
Doubles-Order of Finish: 2,1
1.
Johannes Ingildsen/
McClain Kessler (UF) def. #1 Jimmy Bendeck/Sven Lah (BU)- 7-5
2.
Oliver Crawford/
Alfredo Perez (UF) def. Will Little/Matias Soto (BU)- 6-4
3.
Duarte Vale/
Andy Andrade (UF) vs. Johannes Schretter/Constantin Frantzen (BU)- 5-5, unfinished
Singles-Order of Finish: 6,5,2
1. #9
Oliver Crawford (UF) vs. #20 Johannes Schretter (BU)- 4-6, 5-2, unfinished
2. #54
Sam Riffice (UF) def. #25 Matias Soto (BU)- 6-3, 6-4*
3. #113
Johannes Ingildsen (UF) vs. #112 Adrian Boitan (BU)- 4-6, 3-1, unfinished
4.
Alfredo Perez (UF) vs. #78 Will Little (BU)- 6-3, 5-5, unfinished
5. #59
Andy Andrade (UF) def. #76 Sven Lah (BU)- 6-2, 6-2
6.
McClain Kessler (UF) def. Jimmy Bendeck (BU)- 6-1, 6-0
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