As Alexandre Lacroix reflected on a career defined by breaking records and setting standards, it was only fitting that he continued the trend on Senior Day.
Lacroix, the lone senior for the No. 15 UF men’s tennis team, was recognized before Sunday’s match against Vanderbilt amid one of the most remarkable careers in program history.
By the end of the match, Lacroix had become just the second UF player to reach 200 total wins, and he helped the Gators (13-6, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) celebrate their last regular-season contest at home with a 7-0 shutout of the Commodores (11-8, 2-6 SEC).
“I really tried to keep the emotion inside me because I know it’s hard to play tennis with that emotion,” Lacroix said. “So, I tried to keep it and just let it go at the end of the match.”
Lacroix and Sekou Bangoura Jr. clinched the doubles point for Florida with an 8-6 win over Vanderbilt’s Adam Baker and Charlie Jones.
That win gave Lacroix his 200th career victory as he joined Justin O’Neal (1997-2000) as the only other player in UF history to reach that mark. O’Neal recorded 208 career victories, a number Lacroix still has a chance to top this season.
Lacroix’s singles match Sunday was a come-from-behind win in a third-set tiebreaker over the Commodores’ Ryan Lipman.
The final match score wasn’t at all indicative of how close the action was, as Vanderbilt proved deserving of its No. 30 national ranking despite a subpar record in conference play.
The Gators saw four singles matches enter second-set tiebreakers and played phenomenally as a team to close out those matches.
Bangoura, Nassim Slilam and Billy Federhofer each needed tiebreakers to win their matches in straight sets. Bob van Overbeek lost his tiebreaker but won the third set to claim his victory.
The match could have turned out worse for Florida had it not succeeded in those tiebreakers, as the Gators have struggled in close decisions this spring.
“It was much like the Kentucky match or the Mississippi State match, but we just won all the close matches,” UF coach Andy Jackson said. “We did some things tactically better, and we won a hard-fought victory that we were pleased with.”
