After a long run, Florida (15-9, 8-4 Southeastern Conference) fell 4-2 in the SEC Tournament championship game to Texas A&M (24-6, 10-2 SEC).
The Aggies entered the match playing strong from the beginning, winning the doubles point with victories on Courts 2 and 3.
The freshman duo of Maxx Lipman and Elliott Orkin fell first to No. 66 Harrison Adams and Shane Vinsant in a battle, 8-6.
Soon after, the No. 78 TAMU duo of Jeremy Efferding and Jordan Szabo defeated UF’s Mike Alford and Diego Hidalgo 8-4 to clinch the doubles point for the Aggies and give them a 1-0 advantage.
“I thought Texas A&M came out strong and they got on us in a couple of the doubles, particularly No. 1 and No. 3, and did a nice job in the key moments of the matches,” coach Bryan Shelton said in a release.
In singles, the Gators appeared to find momentum. Four of six Florida players won the first set of their singles matches. Despite the momentum change, TAMU’s Jackson Withrow was still able to defeat No. 92 Orkin 6-4, 7-5 to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.
Florida’s first point of the match came from Florent Diep, who defeated No. 14-ranked Adams 6-3, 6-4. Minutes later, Lipman came up big for Florida, evening the match up at 2 with his 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over No. 57 Efferding.
Lipman’s point was the last for the Gators. Both Gordon Watson and Alford fell to their opponents. Watson fell to No. 23 Shane Vinsant in three sets (1-6, 6-3, 6-0), while Alford fell 7-6, 6-3 to Szabo, who clinched the match and the 2013-2014 SEC title for the Aggies.
“In singles play, our guys responded like they always do and came back,” Shelton said. “We were up in almost every set of the matches from 1-6. We had opportunities on 5 and 6 where we didn’t win the set, but overall, I felt like we competed really hard. We just didn’t sustain anything long enough to really get the match today.”
Despite the loss, Alford and Diep were both named to the 2014 SEC All-Tournament team.
Florida will learn its seeding in the NCAA Tournament on April 29 when the 2014 NCAA Men’s Tennis Selection Show airs.
Follow Britnee McCoy on Twitter @TheReporterGirl
