In its second-to-last home match of the regular season, the No. 10 UF men's tennis team defeated LSU 5-2.
The doubles point was already clinched by the Gators (13-6, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) before Antoine Benneteau and Joey Burkhardt posted an 8-4 score on No. 8 tandem Neal Skupski and Michael Venus.
Benneteau and Burkhard are now 9-8 in dual match play and ranked No. 17 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association, but Benneteau won't let the rating go to his head.
"(I've) been through a lot with Joey," the junior said. "We could've won the doubles against Georgia. It cost us the doubles point over there. We lost 4-3, so we can think it probably cost us the match.
"The two last matches, we feel more confident about our play. We can count on each other more."
Less than an hour into singles play, Jeff Dadamo put the second point on the board for UF. Benneteau followed suit by coming from behind to beat Sebastian Carlsson.
"I was very nervous in the first set losing 5-3, then I won the rest of the games in the match," he said of his 7-5, 6-0 win.
Benneteau has been applying more pressure on opponents and said he is thinking about the game more than relying on instinct.
"I try as much as I can to go forward toward the net, to be very offensive," he said.
Carlos Cueto admitted he didn't play well in his 6-4, 6-2 loss to No. 8 singles player Michael Venus, whom Cueto defeated in the SEC Indoors.
Alex Lacroix clinched the match for the Gators. Johnny Hamui also picked up a win. Joey Burkhardt lost a hard-fought three-set match on Court 4.
UF will host Arkansas at 1 p.m. Sunday before finishing the season on the road.
"The team spirit will be really high at this time," Benneteau said. "We're very ready to achieve great things."
WOMEN LOSE IN BATON ROUGE: Marrit Boonstra's 15-match win streak has ended. The junior lost the match-deciding set against LSU's Megan Falcon 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 on Court 1.
The No. 16 Gators (10-8, 4-3 SEC) were defeated by the No. 24 Tigers 4-3.
Boonstra and partner Jo Mather also lost their first doubles match in nine contests. LSU claimed the point by winning two of the three.
Junior Anastasia Revzina won the first point for UF by beating Mykala Hedburg 6-2, 6-2. Mather and fellow freshman Jessica Alexander also won their singles matches.
The Gators head to Arkansas to face the Razorbacks on Sunday at 2 p.m.
