You can’t be the best unless you beat the best.
For the No. 5 Gators, the dual match season has
started with a slate of matches against some of the top teams in
the nation. After starting with a win at then-No. 5 Baylor, UF has
gone winless against top ten teams.
However, a record that would normally raise flags
doesn’t sound any alarms for Florida coach Andy Jackson.
“Am I concerned with losing? Always,” Jackson said.
“We've got three losses, all three of them indoors to top ten
teams. I'm not ready to cancel the season yet.”
Two of those three losses came this weekend, as
Florida dropped matches against No. 4 Georgia and No. 10 Duke on
Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Florida (6-3) only won two out
of a possible ten points, including getting shut out for the first
time this year against Duke.
Against the Blue Devils, the Gators lost the doubles
point and three of the singles matches before play was ended. It
marked Florida’s worst loss of the season, surpassing a 6-1 loss at
No. 2 Virginia earlier this month.
Still, Jackson saw positives in the weekend, which
did include a win against Pepperdine on Friday. Playing indoors at
the Boar’s Head Tennis Club for just the second time this season,
he saw improvements from his team. That was the goal, he said,
after the Gators lost against the Cavaliers.
“We want to get better indoors, and we've gotten
better indoors. We probably should have won [Saturday], but Georgia
was too good for us,” he said.
With seven days before Florida’s next match, a final
tune-up before Southeastern Conference play, the team will focus
more on the matches ahead than the losses they’ve suffered. The
season is still young, Jackson said, and the team will use the rest
of the time to prepare for the postseason.
Until then, the Gators will follow Jackson’s
philosophy of not dwelling on losses to tough opponents.
“We're going to not overreact,” Jackson said. “We’ll
try to get ready for the SEC season, and the SEC tournament, and
then the NCAA, which is about three months away.”
