After winning the doubles match 8-2 four minutes after Billy Federhofer and Gordon Watson, Mike Alford carried that momentum over to singles.
Alford lead the way for UF in singles. After sweeping his first set, the junior was the first to claim a singles point for Florida by defeating Miami’s Omar Aly 6-0, 6-3.
Stephane Piro, Watson and Florent Diep all followed Alford’s lead as No. 12 Florida defeated Miami 5-2 on Saturday afternoon at Linder Stadium.
“Mike is a guy that makes very few unforced errors, and he can also hurt you when he goes on offense,” coach Bryan Shelton said. “That’s a good combination of not giving away points and being stingy out there. But at the same time, he takes his opportunities when they’re there to step up and get to the net and finish.”
Once Alford left the court, junior Stephane Piro wrapped up his match 2 minutes later in a 6-3, 6-1 win against Miami’s Wilfredo Gonzalez.
Watson, a redshirt freshman, clinched the victory for the Gators 2 minutes after Piro by defeating his opponent 6-4, 6-3.
“This is the fun part of the season for us, to go out there and compete against the other teams as a team,” Shelton said. “In the first one, you hope the guys are going to respond the right way and compete the right way.”
While the first three wins in singles were put away quickly, senior Florent Diep’s win didn’t come easily.
Like Alford, Diep swept the first set, but Miami’s Diego Soto fought back in the second set by taking an early 5-3 lead. Diep then tied it at 5-5. But two games later, the set was tied once again at 6-6.
However, Diep finished strong in the tiebreaker to win 6-0, 7-6 (4) and give the Gators their final point.
“I thought I played pretty good at the beginning, really aggressive (and) I didn’t miss much,” Diep said. “Then I wasn’t focused as much and started to miss a little bit. I lost one or two close games, then I started to think more and I lost four games in a row and was down 5-3 in the second set. (But) I kept fighting and came back to win 7-6 in the second set.”
The Gators will have a quick turn-around as they get ready to host UCF on Wednesday at 5 p.m.
Contact Katie Agostin at kagostin@alligator.org.
Florida redshirt freshman Gordon Watson hits a ball during the Bedford Cup on Sept. 15, 2012, at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
