GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 2 Florida men's tennis team (6-1) punched their ticket to the ITA National Team Indoor Championships on Sunday afternoon, coming away with a gritty 4-0 victory over USF (4-1) at the Alfred A. Ring Complex to hand the Bulls its first loss of the season. The feat serves as the Gators' fourth consecutive ITA Kickoff title and National Team Indoor berth, as Florida holds a four-match win streak behind notching its seventh straight doubles point and singles wins from Sam Riffice, Duarte Vale and Andy Andrade.
 
USF gave the Gators all they could handle in doubles action, entering Sunday's match also having not dropped a doubles point on the year, though, Florida would manage to grind out the first two victories on courts three and one to grab the 1-0 lead.
 
Juniors Duarte Vale and Josh Goodger initially found themselves in a 3-1 deficit to USF's Ivan Yatsuk and Sergio Gomez Montesa in No. 3 doubles before storming back to win three straight games and take a 4-3 lead. The momentum would go on to pace Vale and Goodger in earning their third win together over the Bulls, 6-3, to hold a 3-0 mark on the year.
 
14^th-ranked Oliver Crawford and Sam Riffice partook in a battle with the Bulls' Jacob Wojcik and Rithvik Bollipalli, opening up No. 1 doubles knotted at 3-3 prior to the Gators earning a break to push a 5-3 lead. USF would take the next game, however, a quick return from Crawford on match point went on to clinch the doubles point for the Gators, as Johannes Ingildsen and Will Grant's match on court two went unfinished at 5-5.
 
The Gators then got off to hot starts in singles, with four first-set wins, as USF attempted to rally in No. 5 and No. 6 singles, though, Florida would manage to seal the deal early on with victories on courts two, three and four.
 
No. 4 Sam Riffice dominated in his matchup with Wojcik in No. 2 singles, dropping him decisively in straight sets, 6-0, 6-3, to add his fourth win of the year.
 
No. 17 Duarte Vale then added his fifth win of the year in No. 3 singles, downing Luquet, 6-2, 6-1, to push the 3-0 advantage. Meanwhile, junior Oliver Crawford nabbed the first set in his matchup with No. 121 Chase Ferguson on court one, 6-3, while freshman No. 118 Blaise Bicknell (No. 5) and senior Johannes Ingildsen (No. 6) dropped tight first sets in tiebreaks on their respective courts.
 
After surviving a tiebreak finish in the first set of No. 4 singles, 7-6 (4), junior No. 72 Andy Andrade would go on to clinch the match in dominant fashion, 7-6 (4), 6-1, over USF's Antonio Muniz to stamp the victory for Florida and secure the Gators bid into National Team Indoors in Madison, Wisc. on Feb. 14-17.
 
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Bryan Shelton
 
On doubles success early on this season…
"Today was certainly a tough test because I thought South Florida came out and played great doubles. We've put a lot of time into the doubles, starting back into the beginning of the fall season. We said that we were going to make it a priority to improve and we asked our guys to do some specific things to help them get better … to be more aggressive … to serve a volley … to really work on coming forward. We just put a lot of time into it and the guys have bought in and I think they're excited to play better doubles."
 
"Not only our guys that played today, but every guy on our team is working on our doubles play and working on becoming better. I feel we've been able to challenge one another in practice because we have such great depth that, the other six guys that weren't on the court today, could play high-level doubles too. So, that kind of strengthens everyone on the team."
 
On slow start in doubles…
"I think that we just got to stay the course. It's (doubles) definitely a little bit of a sprint because it's the first to six games and we just wanted our guys to know that there was time and not to panic. Stay the course, continue to do the things we've been working on and, over time, we can recover and get back in these sets. So, our guys never panicked and they just continued to fight and compete and that's a good sign that they were resilient and able to bounce back the way they did."
 
On depth and versatility in the lineup…
"We're deep. We have 12 guys on this team and I feel comfortable putting a lot of them out there in big-time situations for us. We're trying to qualify for National Team Indoors and I had a lot of options of who I could put out there today … Just have a lot of confidence in all of our guys and it's great because, when you go through the season, you never know when you're going to need somebody to step up. So, we try to keep them all ready to go and the only way to keep them ready is to give them some opportunities to play."
 
On team's response to Texas loss…
"Well I think we learned a lot from that match. Was a great early test and we kind of realized we weren't where we needed to be as far as competing against one of the top teams in the country. They were a little bit better than us on that day. I think we got off to a good start but weren't able to finish some of the things that we had started … some sets where we had leads and things like that. So, that's something that we're working on. The mental process of how to start a match, how to compete in the middle of a match and how to finish."
 
UP NEXT:

• The No. 2 Gators prepare for the Fresh From Florida Sunshine Showdown against No. 21 Florida State next Saturday, Feb. 1, in the annual College MatchDay event, held at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona. The match will be nationally televised on Tennis Channel, as first serve is slated for a 5 p.m. start.

 
#2 University of Florida 4, University of South Florida 0
 
Singles competition – 2,3,4 (Order of finish)
1. #31 Oliver Crawford (UF) vs. #121 Chase Ferguson (USF) 6-3, 3-4, unfinished
2. #4 Sam Riffice (UF) def. Jakub Wojcik (USF) 6-0, 6-3
3. #17 Duarte Vale (UF) def. Pierre Luquet (USF) 6-2, 6-1
4. #72 Andy Andrade (UF) def. Antonio Muniz (USF) 7-6 (7-4), 6-1
5. Blaise Bicknell (UF) vs. Ivan Yatsuk (USF) 6-7 (4-7), 2-2, unfinished
6. Johannes Ingildsen (UF) vs. Rithvik Bollipalli (USF) 6-7 (5-7), 2-0, unfinished
 
Doubles competition – 3,1 (Order of finish)
1. #14 Oliver Crawford/Sam Riffice (UF) def. Jakub Wojcik/Rithvik Bollipalli (USF) 6-4
2. Johannes Ingildsen/Will Grant (UF) vs. Chase Ferguson/Pierre Luquet (USF) 5-5, unfinished
3. Duarte Vale/Josh Goodger (UF) def. Ivan Yatsuk/Sergio Gomez Montesa (USF) 6-3