"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
With a trip to the ITA Indoor Championships within his sights,
Alexandre Lacroix tossed the ball up and swung down for the
serve.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Ace.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Lacroix, ranked No. 4 in the ITA singles rankings, again led the
team as his ace on the last point of his singles match clinched a
spot in Seattle for the Gators.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
The No. 7 Florida men's tennis team cruised to a 6-1 victory over
No. 57 North Carolina State University on Saturday at Linder
Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex in the second round of the ITA
Kick-Off Weekend tournament. Lacroix’s straight set win (6-4, 6-2)
over No.61 Jaime Pulgar of N.C. State punched Florida’s ticket to
the ITA Indoor Championships in Washington.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"It's very important for us to advance because we want to be among
the best teams in the country," Gators coach Andy Jackson said.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"It's going to be good for us to see that level of competition, and
frankly, we feel like we can do some damage."
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 10.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Earlier in the day, Lacroix and Nassim Slilam, ranked No. 11 in the
doubles rankings, posted an impressive 8-4 victory over Dominic
Hodgson and Julian Sullivan.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">It
was the duo's second notable doubles win in as many days, following
a clinching doubles performance against UC Santa Barbara on
Friday.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Lacroix is a doubles All-American, and Slilam has been playing as
well as any doubles player in the country, Jackson said.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Billy Federhoder and Bob van Overbeek posted the Florida’s other
doubles win, an 8-0 shutout coming at the hands of Ivan Sanchez
Gomez and Sean Weber.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"They [N.C. State] play indoors a lot and play very good doubles,"
Jackson said, "and I feel like we got on top of them and kind of
discouraged them and that carried over into the singles."
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Slilam paved the way for the Gators early on in singles action,
taking care of Rafael Paez (6-1, 6-0) in only 43 minutes. Slilam's
quick win ended an entire 15 minutes before any other Gator player
finished his match.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"When you play team matches, it's not just being able to win, but
getting somebody who can really crush the opponent and get off the
court and put us up 2-0 to take some pressure off of our guys,"
Jackson said.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
The next win came from No. 52 van Overbeek (6-2, 6-3) over No. 106
Dave Thomson. It was van Overbeek's 10th consecutive singles win,
dating back to the fall semester.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
After the Gators secured their berth in the Indoor Championships
with Lacroix's ace, Sekou Bangoura Jr. and Billy Federhofer posted
their own singles wins.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Freshman Andrew Butz was UF's only player to fall in singles,
losing in a third-set tiebreaker to Gomez.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Florida will compete in Seattle on the weekend of Feb. 18-21.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"We get to play at least three top fifteen teams in Seattle,"
Lacroix said. "If we play like we did this weekend, we can have a
chance to beat the big teams."
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman; min-height: 15.0px;">
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
WOMENS
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
The No. 2 UF women's tennis team posted a 6-0 win over College of
Charleston on Saturday morning in the first round of the ITA
Kick-Off Weekend tournament at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis
complex.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
With the victory, the Gators advanced to the second round of the
tournament, and will face Winthrop University on Sunday at 1
p.m.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Like the men’s championships, the winner of the championship match
will advance to the ITA Indoor Championships in Seattle, Wash.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
The Gators took a quick lead by winning the doubles point in the
first match.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Sophomore Lauren Embree and junior Joanna Mather defeated Christin
Newman and Kelly Kambourelis, 8-1, in a match that lasted just 35
minutes.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Only minutes later, freshmen Alex Cercone and Olivia Janowicz
posted an 8-0 shutout over Caroline Newman and Katie Lee.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
The two doubles victories were so quick that the crowd didn't get
to see the top-ranked doubles team of Allie Will and Sofie Oyen
finish their match, but the duo led 5-3 when the Gators clinched
the doubles point.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"We played well, but we had our moments in the doubles matches
where we weren't as focused as we could have been," Gators coach
Roland Thornqvist said.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"We addressed that in the locker room between the doubles and
singles matches and we did a good job of being business-like in
singles and getting off the court quickly."
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">It
took only an hour for three Gators to win their singles matches,
providing the team with the remaining three points it needed to
advance to the second round of the tournament.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Cercone, Oyen and sophomore Caroline Hitimana each had straight-set
victories.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">"I
thought Alex and Caroline were both very methodical and were both
clearly better than their opponents," Thornqvist said.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Although the team win was already clinched, Embree and Will both
had enough time to finish their own straight-set singles wins
before the day was over.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Embree showed improvement both in her doubles match with Mather and
in her singles win. This was her second dual match after missing
the fall with a wrist injury.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">"I
felt a lot better today playing doubles," Embree said. "Jo and I
got out there and had more fun today and it showed."
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
"Lauren got a little better today, and it's not going to be a quick
fix for what she went through," Thornqvist said. "It's going to be
a grind."
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">
Looking forward to Sunday's championship match, Thornqvist said
that he liked the approach his team had to the tournament.
"margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Times New Roman;">"I
think we're going to continue to get better, and if we can continue
to improve on the little things, then I like our chances."
