Trying to defeat the championship host for the third time in one season proved too difficult a challenge for the No. 6 Gators men’s tennis team (21-5) as the season ended with a 4-2 loss to No. 12 Georgia (20-7) in the round of 16 in Athens, Ga.
Florida got the first point of the match, an 8-3 win at court No. 3, but minutes later Georgia tied the doubles competition with an 8-3 victory at court No. 1.
The Bulldogs’ Jamie Hunt and Christian Vitulli edged Florida’s Joey Burkhardt and Sekou Bangoura Jr. 8-5 at court No. 2 to give Georgia the first point of the match.
The Gators, familiar with the scenarios of needing four singles victories to win a dual match against Georgia and down 1-0 on the road, opened singles play ready to rally by winning four of six first sets.
Nassim Slilam evened the score at 1-1 by defeating Will Reynolds 6-4, 6-0 at court No. 6.
At courts Nos. 3 and 4, Georgia won two second sets that swung the momentum in the Bulldogs’ favor.
Bob Van Overbeek cruised to a 6-1 win in his first set, but failed to close out. Drake Bernstein recovered to defeat Van Overbeek 1-6, 6-1, 6-2.
Bangoura tied things up with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Vitulli at the No. 5 spot.
Momentum swung back in Georgia’s favor again when Jamie Hunt won the second set against Antoine Benneteau 6-1 to push the match to a third set and keep the score tied.
As Benneteau’s third set began to head south, the rest of the Gators’ lineup failed to hold off the Georgia attack.
Burkhardt dropped his court No. 2 match to Nate Schnugg 7-5, 6-4 meaning Florida needed both its upperclassmen singles contributors to win to stay alive.
The match would ultimately be decided by a tiebreaker to decide the second set between Alexandre Lacroix and Javier Garrapiz.
Garrapiz proved perhaps he should have been matched up against Lacroix in the previous two meetings, winning the tiebreaker and clinching the victory for the Bulldogs.
The season is not over for Lacroix and Benneteau, as both will take part in the NCAA Individual Tournament, which begins Wednesday.
