Florida faced three ranked opponents over the weekend in the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
The No. 6 Gators (7-3) lost two of their three matchups at the University of Virginia’s Snyder Tennis Center.
The first Gators loss came on Friday in a first-round matchup against No. 11 Texas.
The Longhorns made quick work of Florida on the doubles court, winning matchups over new Florida pairings in the second and third positions. Texas closed out the victory in singles play by taking victories over Florida’s Elliott Orkin, McClain Kessler and Jordan Belga in the three, five and six positions, respectively.
“We have to perform better as a team in the critical points in these matches,” UF coach Bryan Shelton said in a release. “We had a lot of opportunities that we created, but we just did not capitalize on enough of them.”
The loss to Texas forced the Gators into the consolation bracket, where they met No. 16 Mississippi State in the second round.
The Bulldogs also took the doubles point over Florida.
On court one, the pair of Niclas Braun and Trevor Foshey handed the No. 7-ranked Florida duo of Alfredo Perez and Johannes Ingildsen its first loss of the 2017 dual season.
However, the script flipped in favor of the Gators in singles play.
Of the six singles matches, Florida either won or was leading in all matches as it advanced to the third round of the consolation bracket to face No. 14 Oklahoma.
Against the Sooners, the Gators started off playing well.
The veteran pair of Josh Wardell and Maxx Lipman captured its first doubles victory of the season, leading the Gators to their first doubles victory in five team matches.
Yet their success in doubles didn’t translate into singles play for the Gators.
Perez, the No. 9 singles player nationally, was handed his first loss of 2017 against Oklahoma, losing to OU’s Spencer Papa in two hard-fought, tie-breaking sets.
Losing results held for the Gators on courts two, three and four, while the only singles victory came from Kessler on court five.
But despite falling twice in Charlottesville, it wasn’t all bad news for Florida.
The Gators were able to climb out of their doubles slump, finding good performances from the pairs of Wardell and Lipman and Chase Perez-Blanco and Orkin.
The weekend also showed continued growth for sophomore standout Perez, who defeated two opponents ranked in the top five nationally in No. 5 Christian Sigsgaard of Texas and No. 3 Nuno Borges of Mississippi State.
Additionally, Florida was one of three SEC teams to participate in the ITA Indoors, giving it valuable experience against top competition in comparison to much of its SEC opponents.
“Our guys fought extremely hard throughout this whole tournament,” Shelton said. “We have a high-character group, and that was evident in our two losses. That gives me confidence that we will continue to work the right way to keep getting better.”
And the experience taken from ITA Indoors will prove valuable for the Gators in their next matchup against No. 3 Ohio State, a team that made it to the finals of the ITA Indoors only to fall to the tournament’s host, No. 1 Virginia.
Contact Mark Stine at mstine@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @mstinejr.
Alfredo Perez hits a backhand during Florida's 4-2 against UCLA on Feb. 5, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
