Gators continue to impress, winning their 7th-straight match
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 10 Florida (10-1, 6-0 SEC) defeated No. 3 Tennessee (15-2, 4-1 SEC), 5-2, on Sunday afternoon at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
The Gators once again used a doubles point victory to get proceedings started and never looked back, going up 4-0 and clinching the match before the Volunteers won a point.
Will Grant and Johannes Ingildsen continued their brilliant run of form as a doubles pairing, winning on No. 2 by a score of 6-3, improving their record to 6-0 on the year.
For the second time in as many matches, the doubles point came down to an Andy Andrade and Ben Shelton tiebreaker. Much like the match against Georgia on Friday, the pairing emerged victorious and gave UF an important first point.
In singles, Blaise Bicknell and Josh Goodger won on No. 4 and No. 6 in straight sets to push Florida’s lead to 3-0 early on in the contest.
Bicknell is now 18-0 overall and 9-0 in dual matches this season while Goodger is 9-0 overall and 3-0 in dual matches.
The comeback of the day, and the match clincher, came from Shelton on No. 5. After dropping his first set 0-6, Shelton stormed back to win his final two sets, 6-1, 6-3, to help the Gators see off Tennessee.
The freshman moved to 17-2 overall and 10-1 in dual matches this season.
Captain Duarte Vale put together an impressive comeback himself on No. 1 to improve his record to 15-3 overall and 7-3 in dual matches this season.
Vale was an important piece for UF over the weekend in singles as he defeated the No. 9 and No. 24 players in the country.
Looking ahead, Florida is scheduled to play at Ole Miss on Friday at 6 p.m. ET and at Mississippi State on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET.
Quotables
Head Coach Bryan Shelton: “To have these types of weekends where you have Georgia coming to town, you have Tennessee that’s ranked No. 3 in the nation coming to town, and getting to play them on our home courts in front of a great fanbase, it makes it special.”
Captain Duarte Vale: “No matter what the rankings are, the records are, these are just two huge rivalries (UGA and UT) so it’s going to be tough matches no matter what.”
Ben Shelton: “All of our guys balled out this weekend. Everyone did their job and it was just fun to be out there with them.”
Singles Results: 6, 4, 5, 2, 3, 1
1. #12 Duarte Vale (UF) def. #24 Adam Walton (TENN) 4-6, 6-4, 10-5
2. Johannus Monday (TENN) def. #8 Sam Riffice (UF) 1-6, 6-4, 6-4
3. Martim Prata (TENN) def. #85 Andy Andrade (UF) 7-6 (7-4), 6-3
4. #68 Blaise Bicknell (UF) def. Giles Hussey (TENN) 6-3, 6-2
5. Ben Shelton (UF) def. Luca Wiedenmann (TENN) 0-6, 6-1, 6-3
6. Josh Goodger (UF) def. #124 Pat Harper (TENN) 6-4, 6-3
Doubles Results: 2, 1, 3
1. Adam Walton/Pat Harper (TENN) def. #45 Sam Riffice/Duarte Vale (UF) 6-4
2. Johannes Ingildsen/Will Grant (UF) def. Johannus Monday/Martim Prata (TENN) 6-3
3. Ben Shelton/Andy Andrade (UF) def. Giles Hussey/Mark Wallner (TENN) 7-6 (7-2)
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