After a hard fought win against Vanderbilt on Saturday in a three hour match, the Florida Gators stay alive in the Southeastern Conference tournament and head to the finals to take on the Texas A&M Aggies for the first time since 2011.
“I think today’s match started just like the one against Vanderbilt a week ago: we got up one point in doubles and today we played well on all three courts in doubles" said coach Bryan Shelton. "We put ourselves in a position to win all three and we were able to close it out very effectively."
In doubles, the team won two straight matches to clinch the point. Mike Alford and Diego Hidalgo defeated Ryan Smith and Suresh Eswaran (VU) 8-4. Soon after, freshman duo Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin defeated Rhys Johnson and Pen Binet (VU) 8-4.
On the singles court, Florida jumped out to a 3-0 lead with wins by Orkin and Lipman. The next to points were claimed by Vanderbilt to stretch the match to 3-2.
The match point came down to senior Mike Alford who defeated Ryan Smith (VU) in three sets, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5.
“I tried to stay calm and ended up just enjoying it" said Alford. "It was a lot of fun being out there; especially when I thought I was playing well and he [Ryan Smith] was playing well. I was just enjoying it and I really wanted to win.”
Going into tomorrow, Florida wants to prepare their bodies for the Aggies, a team they were defeated by on February 28th in College Station 2-4.
“We have to get our bodies ready and we have to come out tomorrow and just enjoy it" said senior Mike Alford. "We’re going to play a tough team – a team we’ve played before and we played them tight. We want to come out and play well."
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