The Gators have come close in their first two matches against Top-10 Southeastern Conference foes, but they have come up both times.
Capping off the season's first weekend of SEC tennis, No. 9 Florida found itself in a tight match against No. 7 Kentucky. Down 3-2, the Gators’ hopes rested on sophomore Michael Alford, who played his first dual match of the season in both singles and doubles.
After dropping the first set to Kentucky’s Grant Roberts, Alford came back to tie the match. But, in the decisive third set, the sophomore was shut out 6-0. Coach Andy Jackson said that although he did not see the match, it seemed as if Alford was simply worn down.
“It's the first time that I've asked Michael to play doubles and singles,” he said. “I didn't see any of the match, but with the scores, it kind of look like he ran out of gas. I think that a lot of that is that this is the first time in Mike's career is that he's been asked (to play doubles and singles).”
The decision to play Alford so extensively on Sunday came as a result of Spencer Newman’s illness. The impact of Newman’s absence was twofold, as Alford was forced to fill in during doubles. Still, Alford and junior Tripper Carleton defeated their opponents handily, leading to Florida winning the doubles point.
Last week, the Gators dropped a similar match 4-3 to Georgia. In that match, junior Bob van Overbeek fell apart in a match-deciding third set. At one point, a trainer had to attend to him. Though the similarity between that match and Sunday’s is the factor of conditioning, Jackson believes his team is in good shape physically.
“I think that we are a well-conditioned team,” he said. “We all have, over a period of time, shown that. The way that we train and condition, I'm pretty confident in.”
Rather than focusing on conditioning before next week’s match at No. 1 Southern California, he said that the Gators will instead be tweaking their tennis mechanics.
“The adjustments we are going to make are a little more technical on the court. We just have to stick with what we're doing and make adjustments hitting the ball and in tactics during matches.”
