As the scoreboard changed from five to six, Florida State’s Ariana Rahmanparast celebrated. She’d just clinched a decisive singles victory over Florida’s Katie Kubicz, ending a seven-match losing streak for the Seminoles against the Gators.
Fighting to save a fourth match point, freshman Oliver Crawford rushed the net only to watch the evening’s final ball soar right past him. The No. 22 Florida State men’s tennis team erupted in cheers after redshirt senior Lucas Poullain’s winning shot sealed the Seminoles’ victory over the No. 8-ranked Gators on Saturday in Orlando at the USTA National Campus. The 4-3 upset marks Florida’s (3-1) second consecutive loss to FSU (10-1).
Tied at 5-5 in a decisive third set, Johannes Ingildsen had a chance to keep the Gators alive.
The year is 2009. The month is February.
Two hundred eighty-one days.
Andy Andrade wrapped his arm around his coach and smiled. He looked comfortable and confident. Volunteer assistant coach Scott Perelman had just joined Andrade on the sideline after the freshman concluded a speedy 6-0 first set win on the No. 5 singles court against South Alabama on Saturday. The two sat close on Andrade’s bench. They laughed.
Junior Alfredo Perez’s roar echoed inside the Perry Indoor Facility at the Ring Tennis Complex on Sunday. He had just turned the bad fortune of a serve’s awkward bounce off the net into an aggressive backhand winner. The shot kept Perez alive in the first set tiebreaker of a highly competitive match he’d eventually win, 7-6(6), 6-2, over South Florida senior Grayson Goldin.
Every competing senior on the Florida women’s tennis team won their singles match in a 4-0 rout of Cal State Fullerton on Saturday, leaving UF’s freshmen unable to finish their matches. During Sunday’s matchup with Louisiana-Monroe at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville, it was their turn to close the dual-match out.
As senior Anna Danilina crouched down awaiting a serve, the home crowd at the Ring Tennis Complex began to clap in unison, a signal to Cal State Fullerton freshman Genevieve Zeidan that the match was about to come to an end.
The Florida men’s tennis team is looking to start dual-match play 2-0 for the eighth consecutive season this weekend.
The Gators women’s tennis team has faced some of the best programs in the nation this season. When it comes to its upcoming opponent in Cal State Fullerton, however, the squad is left entirely in the dark.
The Gators had already clinched the match. A crowd of over 350 fans had dwindled down to just a handful. In its home opener against UCF on Monday night, Florida was just about ready to return to the locker room victorious. But junior McClain Kessler was still battling for a third-set win on the No. 6 singles court.
The Florida men’s tennis team gave the home crowd at the Ring Tennis Complex exactly what it wanted in Monday’s home-opener against UCF.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime moment Belinda Woolcock never saw coming.
The Florida men’s tennis team kicks off its dual-match season today against UCF as the No. 9-ranked program in the country. The Gators have won all 16 previous matchups with the Knights, including a 7-0 sweep in 2013 when the teams last met.
The Florida men’s tennis team was one player shy of its usual squad during Thursday afternoon’s practice. Freshman Duarte Vale was busy competing in the second round of the City of Sunrise Pro Tennis Classic while the rest of his teammates were in Gainesville preparing for their home opener against UCF on Monday.
After a day of rain and four rounds of competitive qualifying play over the weekend, two Florida men’s tennis players will battle in the City of Sunrise Pro Tennis Classic’s main draw this morning.
Of the four Florida women’s tennis players who competed in the Freeman Memorial in Las Vegas over the weekend, three of them were freshmen looking to make an immediate impact on the team. Overall, UF’s first-year players mostly fell flat.
A successful first set of tennis placed freshman Duarte Vale just six games away from victory on Monday. But after dropping the second set and battling for a 5-5 tie in the deciding third, Vale faced elimination. He won the final two games of the match however, and secured his spot in the City of Sunrise Pro Tennis Classic’s main draw with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 upset over No. 8-seeded Filip Bergevi.
It’s not often you see college teammates competing against each other in a professional tournament. On Monday morning, however, two of Florida’s men’s tennis players will go head to head for a spot in the City of Sunrise Pro Tennis Classic’s main draw.
Solutions by The State News
