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Faced with the tall task of repeating an impressive showing in
Southeastern Conference play last year, the No. 11 UF men's tennis
team raced out to a fast start against LSU in its conference opener
and never looked back.
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Powered with new sets of doubles teams, the Gators (8-3, 1-0) won
all three doubles matches en route to a 6-1 drubbing over the
Tigers on Friday at Linder Stadium.
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For the first time this year, the Gators' top two singles players
took the court together as doubles teammates, as senior Alexandre
Lacroix and sophomore Sekou Bangoura Jr. scored an 8-6 win over
LSU's No. 17 doubles pair of Neal Skupski and Sebastian
Carlsson.
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The new doubles pairings came just days after coach Andy Jackson
claimed that his team would need to improve heavily in doubles to
be true contenders in the SEC.
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Jackson claimed that without improving in doubles, the Gators would
not be able to attain a top-5 ranking, which he feels is the
standard for winning the conference.
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"[The assistant coaches] and I talked a lot about what would be
good combinations according to chemistry and playing style,"
Jackson said.
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The coaches' plans shook out well, as Lacroix and Bangoura Jr.
showed a high amount of chemistry, despite playing together for the
first time in doubles.
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"Alex is an All-American doubles player, and Sekou is among the
best doubles players in the country," Jackson said.
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With the doubles win, Lacroix moved within one victory of tying the
all-time UF record of 93 doubles wins held by Nathan
Overholser.
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Lacroix and Bangoura Jr. carried their momentum into singles play,
each winning in straight sets on Courts 1 and 2, respectively.
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"We can't do much to get our guys ready besides remind them that
we'll never be the 2010 champions," Jackson said, speaking of the
team's loss to Tennessee in last year's conference tournament
final.
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"Now it's 2011, and we can't win all these matches at once. We have
intelligent guys and we're just going to try to get to 2-0 before
we do anything else."
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WOMEN'S:
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The No. 1 UF women's tennis team (12-1, 1-0) shook off three rain
delays to win a 6-0 conference opener against LSU Friday in Baton
Rouge, La.
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The teams elected to move up the start time and to play the singles
matches first in hopes of avoiding the weather. Although three
weather delays pushed the Gators' patience, each of the six UF
singles players came away with quick straight-sets wins.
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The doubles matches were abandoned due to the inclement weather,
giving Florida the shutout victory.
