LAKE NONA, Fla. – The 2019 season came to an end on Thursday night as freshman
Sam Riffice fell in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Individual Championships.
The Orlando native faced No. 7 seed/No. 10 ranked Aleks Kovacevic of Illinois in the program's first quarterfinal appearance since 2014. The two held serve through the first, going to a tiebreak. Riffice gained the momentum taking the set 7-6(2). The freshman had his chances in the second set, breaking and serving for the match at 5-3. After getting broken, he regained the lead 6-5 and Kovacevic forced yet another tiebreak. Despite taking a 3-1 lead in the second set tiebreak, he watched that lead quickly dwindle and lost the second set 7-6(5).
Kovacevic took control in the third with a 4-1 lead. Down 5-2, Riffice took an injury timeout to start the game, after falling behind 30-15, fired back to take the game, setting up yet another match point for Kovacevic at 5-3. Starting to cramp however, he couldn't get a point in the final game and lost the third set 3-6.
The SEC Freshman of the Year and ITA Southeast Region Rookie of the Year ends the season with 26 singles wins, playing primarily the No. 2 and 3 positions for Florida. He went 10-0 in SEC singles action and was the first freshman to go undefeated in conference play since Jesse Levine in 2007. Named team captain, Riffice helped lead the Gators to their third ever NCAA semifinal appearance and first regular season SEC Championship since 2005.
He also became the 30
th player in program history to be earn All-American status and just the seventh freshman to take home the honor in their first season, third in the last three years.
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