The Florida men’s tennis team faced off with SEC opponent South Carolina in unique conditions on Sunday.
The No. 15 Gators (9-6) played the No. 23 Gamecocks (12-4) in a hard-fought match at UF’s Perry Indoor Tennis Facility. The match was moved from its original location at the Ring Tennis Complex due to rain and was played on three courts rather than the normal six.
“Having played the indoor matches indoors at Virginia, I think that helped us,” coach Bryan Shelton said. “I felt like we had two or three guys that enjoyed being indoors today.”
Florida started the match off strong, winning the doubles point behind its fourth-ranked pairing of sophomore Alfredo Perez and freshman Johannes Ingildsen. The underclassmen easily defeated the Gamecock pairing of Yancy Dennis and Harrison O’Keefe by a score of 6-2, while the tandem of redshirt-junior Josh Wardell and junior Chase Perez-Blanco clinched the point for the Gators.
However, South Carolina captured momentum at the start of singles play.
O’Keefe responded to the doubles loss with a close two-set win over Florida’s captain Elliott Orkin, 6-4, 6-4. Fellow Gamecock Andrew Schafer also captured a victory — this time over Perez-Blanco — ending the match in two sets as well and giving South Carolina a 2-1 match lead.
Victory for UF began to look less optimistic when it’s top-ranked player, Perez, dropped the opening set to South Carolina’s Gabriel Friedrich. However, in the second set, a frustrated Perez served two consecutive aces, turning momentum back in the favor of the Gators.
Perez fought back, winning his match by a final tally of 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
“He needed that win just to get his confidence back,” Shelton said. “He’s gone a couple weeks without winning a match. So for him, it’s huge to see one go (his) way.”
Perez’s victory was followed by a two-set win from his doubles partner, Ingildsen, giving Florida a 3-2 advantage.
With Ingildsen’s victory, the Gators had the opportunity to close out the match with either senior Maxx Lipman or junior Jordan Belga.
Lipman entered a three set-battle with Dennis. However, his match never concluded, as Belga captured the match in two quick sets to give the UF the 4-2 victory.
And the victory was much needed for Florida, which lost two of its last three matches heading into Sunday. The Gators dropped matches to Texas A&M and in-state rival Florida State, while defeating SEC rival LSU over spring break.
Florida will look to improve its record to 10 wins and capture a three-game SEC win streak when it faces off with Ole Miss in Oxford on Thursday.
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.
