GAINSVILLE, Fla. — The No. 10-ranked LSU men’s team had its five-match winning streak snapped Sunday afternoon as the No. 25 Florida Gators outlasted the Tigers, 4-3.
The Tigers (12-3, 4-2 SEC) headed into singles play behind for only the third time this season as they stumbled at the end of doubles, allowing the Gators (9-4, 4-2 SEC) to capture the doubles point.
“The doubles point was huge in this match. Like in our previous two loses, we had a chance to win the point but we couldn’t finish,” LSU head coach Jeff Brown said. “It’s hard to get a win against Florida unless you win in doubles. They have a very strong singles lineup which showed today.”
In doubles, court one’s battle ended quickly as the No. 6-ranked pair of Florida’s Jesse Levine and Greg Ouellette stormed out to a 8-2 victory against the No. 14-ranked duo of James Cluskey and Ken Skupski.
The No. 5-ranked team of Danny Bryan and Colt Gaston kept the Tigers alive for the doubles point by handily defeating Dan Cash and Billy Mulligan, 8-3.
Kevin Dessauer and Jan Zelezny put themselves in position to give the Tigers the doubles point against Geoffrey Barton and Nestor Briceno. The Tiger tandem was a game away from clinching their match with a 7-5 lead before the Florida duo rallied back to win the match in a tiebreaker.
Sophomore Cluskey quickly evened the score by taking Cash in straight-sets, 6-1, 6-1. The win pushes the Ireland native’s win streak to six matches.
On court one, Skupski struggled in his match against the No. 4-ranked Jesse Levine as he fell in straight sets, each by a 6-4 count.
The bottom half of the line up continues to shine for the Tigers as Dessauer and Zelezny claimed victories on courts four and five, respectively, to push the Tigers ahead by a 3-2 score.
“We always know what we are going to get with our top three guys,” Brown commented. “But the bottom half of our line up (Dessauer, Cluskey, Zelezny) has played extremely well and kept us in today’s match.”
The match came down to the battles on court two and three, where Bryan and Gaston each took their opponent to three sets.
On court three, Gaston took the early lead against Briceno by winning the first set, 6-4. Gaston could not carry the momentum the rest of the way as Briceno won the final two sets, 7-5, 7-5.
After winning the first set, Bryan struggled in the final two sets as he was forced to retire in his match against Ouellette.
The Tigers still lead the all-time series against the Gators with a 24-23-1 record.
LSU will remain on the road for its next match when they travel to Ole Miss on Friday for a 2 p.m. match.
#25 Florida 4, #10 LSU 3
March 24, 2007 at Gainesville, Fla.
Singles competition:
1. #4 Jesse Levine (UF) def. #24 Ken Skupski (LSU), 6-4 6-4
2. #16 Greg Ouellette (UF) def. #44 Danny Bryan (LSU), 6(2)-7, 6-2, 5-0 (retired)
3. #118 Nestor Briceno (UF) def. Colt Gaston (LSU), 4-6, 7-5, 7-5
4. #111 Kevin Dessauer (LSU) def. Billy Mulligan (UF), 6-4, 6-3
5. Jan Zelezny (LSU) def. Jordan Dolberg (UF) 7-6 (3), 6-3
6. James Cluskey (LSU) def. Dan Cash (UF), 6-1, 6-1
Doubles competition:
1. #6 Jesse Levine/Greg Ouellette (UF) def. #14 James Cluskey/Ken Skupski (LSU), 8-2
2. #5 Danny Bryan/Colt Gaston (LSU) def. Dan Cash/Billy Mulligan (UF), 8-3
3. Geoffrey Barton/Nestor Briceno (UF) def. Kevin Dessauer/Jan Zelezny (LSU), 9-8 (3)
Match notes:
Order of finish: Doubles (1, 2, 3) Singles (6,1, 5, 4, 3, 2)