The UF men’s tennis team experienced something on Friday that it hadn’t experienced since last May.
The sting of defeat.
The No. 4 Gators lost to No. 5 Southern California 4-3 in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Chicago, its first loss of the season.
It marked the third-straight year the team lost in the opening round of the ITA Championships.
Florida lost the doubles point. Sophomore Duarte Vale and senior McClain Kessler lost the early doubles match 6-1.
Senior Alfredo Perez and junior Johannes Ingildsen evened the fight for the doubles point with a 6-4 win.
However, sophomores Oliver Crawford and freshman Sam Riffice lost 6-4 and the Trojans took the point.
USC kept that momentum going into singles, winning the first set on four of the six courts.
UF managed to come back, though, as three out of those four players won their second set. The only one who didn’t was Andy Andrade, who fell 6-4, 6-3.
UF went on a run of its own. Perez earned his first singles win of the season with a 3-set victory. Kessler also picked up a 3-set win. Finally, it picked up its first lead of the day with a 3-6, 7-5, 7-5 win for Ingildsen.
Riffice had the chance to clinch the match. The odds were stacked against him as he was facing the fourth-ranked singles player Daniel Cukierman.
After losing the first set, Riffice cruised to a second-set win but couldn’t pull off the upset in the third set.
The match came down to Court 1 where Crawford battled Brandon Holt. Crawford won the first set 6-3, but then lost the second set 7-5. The third set came down to a tiebreaker with Holt winning 7-6.
One of the toughest parts of the loss was that the Gators had to play on Saturday night despite the disappointing loss.
Coach Bryan Shelton made sure to remind his team that they would be in for a challenge when they played No. 14 Illinois.
“The real test comes tomorrow when we face Illinois, who destroyed us one year ago in Seattle,” Shelton said after the loss on Friday in a release. “We'll rest up tonight and get ready to battle again.”
UF didn’t disappoint Shelton in its dominating 4-1 over the Fighting Illini on Saturday.
The doubles point came much easier for the team. Kessler and Vale won 6-3 and Crawford and Riffice won with a 6-3 victory of their own.
Illinois tied the match after Crawford lost in two sets to Aleks Kovacevic.
The Gators didn’t lose for the rest of the match with Ingildsen, Andrade and Riffice all picking up wins. Ingildsen’s win kept his perfect season going, while Riffice and Andrade bounced back from their disappointments of Friday night.
This win helped avenge a 0-4 loss Florida suffered at last year’s championships. It will also play Illinois on March 15th when it travels to Gainesville.
The weekend wasn’t over for the Gators, though. They had one more match to play on Sunday night against No. 10 Stanford. The Cardinal came into the match coming off a loss against Virginia, but then a bounce-back victory over Tulane.
Initially, the match started out well for Florida. It won the doubles point with wins for Vale and Kessler and for Ingildsen and Perez.
However, the Gators struggled to find success in singles. Riffice, Ingildsen, and Crawford all lost in straight sets. Andrade, Kessler, and Vale all brought their matches to three sets, but Kessler fell to Timothy Sah, and Stanford clinched the win.
“We got a lot out of this event and we appreciate the University of Illinois and Midtown Athletic Club for hosting such a great tournament,” Shelton said in a release. “Playing three night matches in a row is always a tough challenge but I know the lessons we learned here will help us throughout the season.”
Follow Noah Ram on Twitter @noah_ram1 and contact him at nram@alligator.org
The No. 4 Gators lost to No. 5 Southern California 4-3 in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Chicago. Senior McClain Kessler picked up a singles win.
Noah is a third year journalism-sports and media student from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He has been with The Alligator since Spring 2019 and has covered men’s and women’s tennis, gymnastics and volleyball. When he isn’t on his beat, Noah is usually sadden over his beloved South Florida sports teams, such as the Heat and Dolphins.
