No. 1 Florida Men’s Tennis Crowned SEC Champions

Gators win 5-2 over visiting Kentucky to earn title

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 1 Florida (17-1, 11-0 SEC) defeated No. 22 Kentucky (15-6, 5-5 SEC), 5-2, on Sunday afternoon to win the Southeastern Conference regular season title.

This is the program’s 10th regular season conference championship and second under head coach Bryan Shelton. As a school, the win today marked the University of Florida’s 250th SEC title.

The Gators have now won 14-straight matches and complete the home portion of the regular season with a 10-0 record at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex. The team has now won 25-consecutive SEC regular season home matches dating back to March 5 of 2017, which is a conference record.

Additionally, UF is 55-5 at home since the 2017 season began.

Florida was able to recover from a dropped doubles point and storm back, winning five of six singles matches en route to the victory over a strong Wildcats side.

Captains Duarte Vale and Sam Riffice pulled off important wins on No. 1 and No. 2 while Blaise Bicknell (No. 4), Ben Shelton (No. 5) and Josh Goodger (No. 6) came away with victories as well.

Goodger clinched the title after coming back from a 0-6 first set, winning 6-3, 6-3 the rest of the way. He and Bicknell remain undefeated on the year.

With one match remaining in the regular season, the Gators will travel to South Carolina on Friday at 6 p.m. ET.

Singles Results: 1, 4, 5, 3, 6, 2
1. #3 Duarte Vale (UF) def. #7 Liam Draxl (UK) 6-2, 6-2
2. #17 Sam Riffice (UF) def. #31 Gabriel Diallo (UK) 5-7, 6-3, 6-4
3. #60 Millen Hurrion (UK) def. #8 Andy Andrade (UF) 6-3, 6-3
4. #34 Blaise Bicknell (UF) def. #97 Joshua Lapadat (UK) 6-3, 6-0
5. Ben Shelton (UF) def. Yasha Zemel (UK) 6-1, 6-4
6. #94 Josh Goodger (UF) def. Alexandre Leblanc (UK) 0-6, 6-3, 6-3

Doubles Results: 1, 3, 2
1. #20 Cesar Bourgois/Gabriel Diallo (UK) def. #16 Will Grant/Johannes Ingildsen (UF) 7-5
2. Millen Hurrion/Liam Draxl (UK) def. Josh Goodger/Duarte Vale (UF) 7-6 (9-7)
3. Andy Andrade/Ben Shelton (UF) def. Alexandre Leblanc/Joshua Lapadat (UK) 7-5

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