For the third straight year, the Gators are in the Sweet 16.
On Sunday, the No. 12 University of Florida men’s tennis team defeated No. 24 Harvard 4-0 and clinched a spot in the Round of 16 of the NCAA Championship.
Though the Gators (16-9) shut out the Crimson, head coach Andy Jackson said that the match was closer than the score showed.
“It was a tough match because Harvard is good, Harvard is Top-25 and they have a lot of confidence,” Jackson said.
The contest opened with doubles matches. Harvard was able to take the first match with an 8-5 victory over Florida’s Tripper Carleton and Nassim Slilam. Then, the Gators’ tandem of Michael Alford and Florent Diep evened the doubles point with an 8-2 victory over the Crimson’s Andy Nguyen and Denis Nguyen.
Knotted at 1-1, the battle for the doubles point turned to court two, where UF’s Spencer Newman and Bob van Overbeek faced Harvard’s Jon Pearlman and Christo Schultz. The match was tightly contested, but the Gators’ duo pulled ahead late for a 9-7 win.
Winning the doubles point put Harvard under a lot of pressure in the singles matches, Jackson said. UF had been working on doubles lately, and he was happy to see Newman and van Overbook play the way they had practiced.
The Gators controlled the singles matches after clinching the doubles point. Florida earned two quick points after Diep and Slilam won their matches. Then Newman notched thw inning point, defeating Harvard’s Shaun Chuadhuri, 6-4, 6-2.
Newman said after his victory that he was looking forward to playing in the Sweet 16.
“It’s the legend of playing NCAAs at Athens,” Newman said. “It’s all I’ve heard growing up is that places is the place where the magic happens, and I can’t wait.”
