Johannes Ingildsen and the Gators fell short against Texas A&M.
All eyes on him. Johannes Ingildsen is behind 5-2 of the third set in the final match with the team score tied at 3-3. A firmly hit forehand forces his opponent, Texas A&M’s Arthur Rinderknech, to desperately dive to return the ball and put him out of position.
Got him.
Just a tap over the net and he can stay alive. But he mishits the ball, causing it to hit the net.
As the Gator fans gasp and the Aggie fans cheer, the sophomore collapses to the floor, and with him, the Gators’ season is over.
The Florida men’s tennis team rallied from 3-0 down but could not finish the match off, resulting in the 4-3 loss to No. 5 Texas A&M on Sunday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Earlier in the week, coach Bryan Shelton said that the two keys to winning in the later rounds were aggressiveness in doubles and solid performances from the bottom of the lineup in singles play. But the Gators (19-10, 9-3 SEC) had a hard time accomplishing either on Sunday.
On Court 3, the Florida duo of freshman Duarte Vale and junior McClain Kessler dropped its doubles set for the second match in a row. The pair did not come out aggressively, which allowed the Aggies’ tandem of freshman Patrick Kypson and sophomore Valentin Vacherot to gain an early 4-1 lead that the Gator duo couldn’t recover from, resulting in the 6-2 defeat.
Senior Chase Perez-Blanco and freshman Oliver Crawford were the lone doubles team to win their match for the Gators. The duo came out strong with effective communication, leading to a decisive 6-3 win over Texas A&M’s senior tandem of Rinderknech and AJ Catanzariti on Court 2.
On Court 1, the No. 5-ranked doubles team of junior Alfredo Perez and sophomore Johannes Ingildsen saw its short, two-match win streak end after a tightly contested duel that would be the difference for the doubles point. The 7-5 defeat was the pair’s first loss of the NCAA Tournament.
“At No. 1 doubles we had a break three times, and each time they came back and played the perfect return game,” Shelton said in a release. “Give them a lot of credit because that point is huge in a match like this.”
Trouble continued in singles for the Gators.
In what would be his final match as a member of the Gator tennis team, Perez-Blanco lost in straight sets on Court 5 to Aggies’ Juan Carlos Aguilar 6-2, 6-3. The senior ends his collegiate career with 93 career singles wins and 186 career wins in both doubles and singles, which ranks sixth all-time at the University of Florida.
On Court 3, No. 14 Perez saw his six-match win streak end in a straight-set loss to A&M’s Jordi Arconada 6-3, 6-4 to put the Gators down 3-0.
But while Perez lost his win streak, Kessler maintained his with a win in straight sets on Court 6 over Catanzariti to give UF its first point of the match. The 7-5, 6-2 victory was Kessler’s seventh win in a row and his 11th of the season.
"(McClain) is like the energy bunny,” Shelton said of his team captain. “I think that every team would love to have a guy like that on their roster because he just gives, gives gives and has a lot of heart.”
With the contest at 3-1 in favor of the Aggies (25-5, 12-0 SEC), Florida needed all three of the remaining courts to win.
On Court 1, Crawford helped his team close the gap with a 6-4, 7-6 win in straight sets over No. 5 Kypson. The upset win required a tiebreaker in the second set to give the Gators their second point of the match.
Freshman Andy Andrade, who was the only Gator to earn a win over the Aggies in the two regular-season matches, once again proved his worth with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win over Vacherot on Court 4 to tie the event. The season came down to the match on Court 2 between Ingildsen and No. 12 Rinderknech.
The Denmark native suffered leg cramps in the Round of 16 match against Ole Miss on Friday, causing him to lose by default. However, Ingildsen chose to return to play in the quarterfinals against Texas A&M, but his willpower was not enough to win. The sophomore’s 7-5, 5-7, 2-6 loss was his ninth of the season and third in a row.
“I love this team, they are fun to work with, they were playing to win today, and we just didn't quite capitalize on some of the key points, and that was the difference,” Shelton said. “But to be down 3-0 and work our way back into this match, the way that we did, I'm just so proud of my guys. Just warriors."
The Gators lost in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in program history.
Florida will see three seniors graduate in Perez-Blanco, Joshua Wardell and Jordan Belga.
You can follow Dylan on Twitter at @dyrudolph and contact him at drudolph@alligator.org.
