The Gators’ hopes of winning back-to-back national championships took a blow Sunday.
No. 2 Stanford hosted No. 1 Florida and exacted their revenge for last year’s loss in the NCAA Championship, defeating the Gators 5-2.
In a match between the nation’s top two teams, Stanford was tested but never truly threatened by an overmatched Florida team. Coach Roland Thornqvist said that revenge was definitely on Stanford’s minds.
“The same thing happened when we played them for the second time last year. It gives you that extra giddy-up. They were definitely the better team,” he said. “We gave it all we had, and I think we learned a lot. I hope we get the chance to play them again.”
Florida’s lone victories were by No. 3 Allie Will, who defeated No. 5 Nicole Gibbs in three sets, and No. 34 Sofie Oyen, who split the first two sets with No. 31 Ellen Tsay before winning the third-set super tiebreak.
The weekend was not entirely lost for Florida’s women’s team, as it swept No. 27 Pepperdine 7-0 on Friday for its 26th consecutive victory.
A week after being completely outplayed, Bob van Overbeek and the No. 5 Gators men’s team (5-1) bounced back in a big way, defeating Florida State and Illinois 6-1 on consecutive days.
Against the Fighting Illini, No. 69 van Overbeek took down No. 2 Dennis Nevolo in straight sets, 7-6 (5), 6-4. Nevolo, an All-American who made it to the Round of 16 at the NCAA Championships last season, was the most recent in a string of nationally-ranked players van Overbeek faced.
The Gators junior, who has been challenged all year with playing at the No. 1 slot in the singles rotation, broke through against Nevolo. Jackson said the key to victory came earlier in the day during doubles play.
“The thing that was most important was how he recovered his emotional stability in the doubles, which was the biggest point of the match,” Jackson said. “For our team, it was huge what he did for us in the doubles, he and Andrew Butz.”
The doubles team of van Overbeek and Butz defeated Illinois’ Bruno Adelnour and Stephen Hoh in a hard-fought 8-4 match. Despite the score, it was a challenging contest that clinched the doubles point for Florida.
“We have confidence that Bob is among the best players in the country. Big kid, great serve, good competitor, lot of ability,” Jackson said. “He had his first huge win against a top-five opponent today, but it’s not a huge surprise and I don’t think it will be the last.”
