The Gators conquered FSU to extend their winning streak over the Seminoles to three games on Saturday night.
No. 2 Florida stretched its winning streak to five on the young season at the United States Tennis Association campus when it beat the No. 21 Noles 4-1.
“I’m just happy for our guys that they were able to come out and compete the way they did tonight,” coach Bryan Shelton said in a release. "It’s always a testy match and a fun match against the Seminoles. Hats off to their team because they came out and competed really well tonight.”
Florida (7-1) cruised through doubles for the eighth straight time this season to take the 1-0 lead in front of a sold-out crowd of 1,000 fans.
Juniors Duarte Vale and Josh Goodger won first on Court 3 when they defeated Richard Thongoana and Marcus Walters. Then, senior Johannes Ingildsen and freshman Will Grant secured the doubles point when they beat Loris Pourroy and Juan Martin Jalif 6-4 on Court 2.
Vale and Goodger continued their strong start this season by remaining undefeated and pushing their overall record to 4-0.
During the fall season, Shelton said he made doubles a priority. When his team grabs a 1-0 lead, it sets the table for the rest of the match.
Florida’s success in doubles carried over into singles play, taking the first set on four out of six courts.
Sophomore No. 4 Sam Riffice won 6-3 in the first but ran into trouble when Jalif won the second set to force a third set tiebreaker. Still, his match went unfinished because the Gators clinched the match.
On Court 6, Ingildsen defeated No. 92 Rana Roop Bhullar in straight sets (6-2, 6-4) to put UF up 2-0.
No. 17 Vale finished second in singles after he topped Walters 6-4, 6-3 on Court 3.
The Seminoles (6-2) put an end to the shutout by seizing their first point in the contest when Pourroy knocked off Goodger in straight sets on Court 5 (6-3, 7-6 (7-3)).
Finally, junior No. 72 Andy Andrade got swarmed by his teammates for the second-straight weekend after he finished off Sebastian Arcila 6-1, 6-4, to capture the 4-1 win for Florida.
“This is the second year in a row for me to do it so, for me, it feels amazing,” Andrade said. “Looking at all these guys come on my court and see all their smiles, it for sure puts a smile on my face. I think we played pretty good. We’re pretty confident right now at the moment and this big ‘W’ for sure is going to lead us to more confidence.”
Florida heads to Big Ten country to take on Illinois on Friday and Purdue on Sunday to prepare for the Intercollegiate Tennis Association National Team Indoor Championships that start on Feb. 14.
Follow Zachary on Twitter @zacharyahuber and contact him at zhuber@alligator.org.
Andy Andrade
