LAKE NONA, Fla. – For the first time since 2014, Florida will be represented in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Singles Championships.
Sam Riffice, the SEC Freshman of the Year, knocked off No. 2 JJ Wolf of Ohio State in a thrilling three-set decision (3-6, 6-3, 6-2).
Riffice, playing his highest ranked opponent of the season, went down 3-4 in the first set, dropped the next serve which allowed Wolf to quickly take the first set, 6-3. But in the second set, Riffice rolled out to a 4-2 lead in the second and wound up taking the set 6-3, forcing the decisive third. In the third, Riffice went up a break at 3-2, held on to break again at 5-2 and was able to serve out the upset against the Buckeye, who had only one loss on the season.
"I thought I played an amazing match today," Riffice said. "I had a good game plan I felt like to kind of disrupt his rhythm because he is such a powerful player. He is really good serve and the first strike afterwards so I was really trying to mix up the rhythm, slice a lot, get the ball over his head and just do those type of things to throw him off a little bit and disrupt him. I thought I executed my game plan really well today."
Florent Diep was the last Gator to advance to the singles quarterfinals. The Florida senior was knocked out by No. 39 Denis Nguyen of Harvard.
Riffice will face 10
th-ranked Aleksandar Kovacevic of Illinois who advanced to the quarterfinals with a walkover after Wake Forest's Bar Botzer pulled out of the match with a foot injury.
Kovacevic played No. 1 for the Fighting Illini and is 21-3 in singles play since the beginning of the spring season and 32-6 overall. Riffice and Kovacevic did not lineup against one another in Florida and Illinois' two meetings this season, as Kovacevic matched up with Crawford at No. 1 and Riffice faced Alex Brown at No. 2. Kovacevic did play Wolf twice this season, falling in both.
In the other round of 16 singles match, Crawford faced the end of his impressive sophomore season as he fell in two sets to No. 19 William Blumberg of North Carolina. Blumberg, who was a runner-up in the 2017 NCAA Singles Championships, pulled ahead of Crawford in both sets to take the 6-4, 6-2 decision, thus ending Crawford's run.
The Spartanburg, S.C. native ends the season with 25 singles wins, playing the No. 1 position for Florida, and earned first-team All-SEC Honors and his first ITA Singles All-American honor. He was also named to the SEC All-Tournament Team, NCAA All-Tournament Team and was named the ITA National and Southeast Region Player to Watch for next season.
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