Judging by Friday evening’s score, Florida and Tennessee played a very close match. But if you ask coach Andy Jackson, the score doesn’t tell the whole story.
In a match he described as “odd,” the No. 10 Gators dispatched the No. 19 Volunteers 4-3, starting off the Southeastern Conference season on the right foot.
“We’re pleased to be in first place instead of last place, which is what we were playing for today,” he said. “It was an odd match, after the win I think we played OK.”
Jackson called the win “odd” partly because none of the matches were particularly close. Florida held a 2-1 advantage in doubles play, which had matches finish with scores of 8-1, 8-3, and 8-4. In singles, all matches except for one were won in straight sets, and no losing player won more than four games in a set against his opponent. Fortunately for the Gators, they were able to split singles, giving them the narrow win.
“There weren’t any close matches, except for one. The doubles really weren’t close at one, it wasn’t close at two or three,” he said. “It wasn’t very close the three [singles matches] that we won. It wasn’t really close the two that they won, and then the one was very close with a [third-set] match tiebreaker. You don’t really play matches like that very often.”
No. 15 Florida women’s team defeated No. 5 Tennessee 7-0 in Knoxville, Tenn. The Gators, who dropped from No. 2 to No. 15 in last week’s ITA rankings, made their case to return to the Top 10 with their sweep of the Volunteers.
UF dropped only one set the entire match. Especially impressive was the doubles play, an area in which the Gators have been trying to improve. Against Tennessee’s two top-ten doubles teams, Florida won both matches in consecutive sets.
Both UF squads will face UGA on Sunday. The men’s team hosts No. 6 Georgia at 1 p.m. and, the women will play the No. 4 Bulldogs in Athens.
