For the fourth time this season, the UF men's tennis team showed its weakness against a top-ranked opponent, as the Gators dropped a tight 4-3 match to Southern California.
The No. 13 Gators (11-4, 4-0) came out strong Thursday evening, winning two of the three doubles matches to claim the first point over the No. 3 Trojans (14-2).
Hopes were high at Linder Stadium at that point, with one of the largest home crowds of the season on hand to watch Florida battle the two-time defending national champions.
The doubles point was important for Florida, as USC came to Gainesville boasting four singles players ranked No. 53 or higher.
The Gators only had to pull out three of the four singles matches to win, but they fell short of that mark.
When singles began, it seemed as though each individual player looked sluggish from the start.
"It took us 45 minutes to engage in singles," coach Andy Jackson said. "That's too long to get going, and USC was too good. It was the deciding factor in the match."
The sole exception was freshman Spencer Newman, who roared out to a straight-sets win on Court 6.
Court 1 saw a highly anticipated singles matchup, with No. 6 Alexandre Lacroix going up against USC's Steve Johnson, ranked No. 1 in the country.
After USC took a 3-2 lead, Lacroix needed to pull out a win to give Florida a chance to steal the team match.
Lacroix dropped the first set, then battled Johnson to a 6-6 tie in the second. Lacroix finally folded in the second-set tiebreaker after surviving four match points.
Johnson's power proved to be the difference-maker, as the 6-foot-4 junior ripped some terrifying serves in close situations to pull out the match.
"It's tough coming up a little short, but they were better than us today," Lacriox said. "All you can say is, 'Good job, SC. See you next time.'"
Florida's next test comes Saturday against No. 29 Mississippi, a team Jackson said is underrated.
"Ole Miss is not a top 30 team. They're a top 15 team that hasn't played any competition yet," Jackson said.
"They were here today practicing, and that match on Saturday will be at least at the level of this match today."
