BOX SCORE
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Once Mother Nature decided to cooperate, efficiency was the word of the day. No. 3 overall seeded Florida's earned a 4-0 sweep of Florida Gulf Coast and will meet Florida State in the second round of the NCAA Championships.
After making a decision to move matches ahead 3 hours, the rain didn't hold off long enough. The early match was tied 3-3 and FSU was up 5-3 in the third set on the final court when the downpour began and prompted a three-hour rain delay. Courts were dried and the final three points of the Seminoles' 4-3 win were earned.
The Gators and the Eagles took the courts for a short warmup period, but the rain wasn't done. Approximately 10 minutes prior to the new start time, another shower blew through and caused another rain delay. The courts were dried once again and an hour later (4 hours after original match time), the Gators began their NCAA Tennis journey.
Doubles was tight initially. FGCU took early leads on courts one and three and surged back to close the lead that
Sam Riffice and
Alfredo Perez had built on court two. Riffice and Perez took the first match 6-3 and Florida narrowly claimed the advantage with a 6-4 win from its No. 1 pair
McClain Kessler and
Johannes Ingildsen. The match on court three was abandoned knotted at 4.
Florida continued to cruise in singles and took all six first sets. It jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a straight-set win from Riffice on court 2. The SEC Freshman of the Year avenged two devastating three-set losses in the SEC Tournament.
From there, it was a race to see who would finish first. Sitting at match point on all five of the remaining courts, Ingildsen didn't drop a game in the second set and put the Gators up 3-0.
Moments later, sophomore
Duarte Vale earned his 12
th-straight win and clinched the win for the Gators with a 6-1, 6-4 decision on court 6. Vale is now 9-0 in his last 10 matches and has not lost since Feb. 10 in Florida's 4-3 win over TCU.
Andrade, Crawford and Perez's matches all went unfinished.
Up next, 4
th-ranked Florida will meet No. 28, and second-seed in the regional, Florida State in the NCAA Second Round on Saturday at 2 p.m. This will be the second time this season that the two teams have met. The Gators took the previous meeting 4-1 at the USTA National Campus for College MatchDay on Feb. 2, 2019.
Quotes from the Gators:
Sophomore Duarte Vale
On clinching the win for the Gators…
"It always feels good to get the team a win and if you can contribute to that, it feels good. So I am just happy that I could help."
On starting off the tournament with a commanding win…
"It's very important. It obviously still wasn't perfect and we can still get a lot better, but it was good to see guys with good rhythm especially after the rain delay. And just to come out first round and get that good win, it's good. In a tournament, the goal is to always keep improving. So if you can start solid and build up from there, it helps so it was very important to come out solid today."
Junior Johannes Ingildsen
On the opportunity to take on Florida State in the second round…
"It's always exciting to play in the NCAAs but especially against Florida State. In the three years I have been here, I've lost twice to them so I know how it feels to lose to that team and it's not fun. We got them last time and we just know it's going to be a huge battle. They are a good team and it's always a fight, no matter what. It's going to be fun to have them at home this time."
On getting the doubles point against FGCU….
"I thought all the courts were playing very aggressive. We knew that Florida Gulf Coast has good doubles teams and we knew it was probably their best punch. We knew they would come out with everything so I thought we did a good job of keeping ourselves under control but still play aggressive."
Final Results
#4 Florida 4, Florida Gulf Coast 0
Doubles-Order of Finish: 2,1
1.
Johannes Ingildsen/
McClain Kessler (UF) def. Felipe Escobar/Mateo Ruiz (FGCU) 6-4
2.
Sam Riffice/
Alfredo Perez (UF) def. Marcelo Tebet/Juan Montes (FGCU) 6-3
3.
Andy Andrade/
Duarte Vale (UF) vs. Feliksas Sakalauskas/Felipe Ramirez (FGCU) 4-4, unfinished
Singles-Order of Finish: 2,3,6
1. #9
Oliver Crawford (UF) vs. Juan Montes (FGCU) 6-2, 5-1, unfinished
2. #54
Sam Riffice (UF) def. Felipe Ramirez (FGCU) 6-1, 6-4
3. #113
Johannes Ingildsen (UF) def. Felipe Escobar (FGCU) 6-4, 6-0
4.
Alfredo Perez (UF) vs. Marcelo Tebet (FGCU) 7-6 (7-4), 5-0, unfinished
5. #59
Andy Andrade (UF) vs. Feliksas Sakalauskas (FGCU) 6-4, 5-3, unfinished
6. #90
Duarte Vale (UF) def. Javier Fernandez (FGCU) 6-1, 6-4
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