LSU Gold

Men's Tennis Falls to No. 9 Florida

by Alissa Cavaretta
Box Score +0
Men's Tennis Falls to No. 9 Florida

BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s tennis team fell to the ninth-ranked Florida Gators, 7-0, Sunday afternoon at the LSU Tennis Complex.

With the loss, LSU drops to 8-14 on the season and 1-9 in Southeastern Conference play while Florida improved to 14-8 on the season and 8-3 in league action.

Co-Head Coach Chris Brandi on the Match
“I think today was almost the exact opposite of Friday’s match against South Carolina,” co-head coach Chris Brandi said. “Today we started a little slow in doubles, but then we came right back, had chances to serve it out on court three and court two was in a tiebreaker. We felt like we really could win that point and set the tone for us. In singles, we had a lot of close first sets. They’re a really talented team. It looked to me like after they got a few of those close ones their guys relaxed and played a lot better. It was a little disappointing that we couldn’t eke out a win or two and get a match win there because some of our guys had good opportunities. “

Doubles Point
Rafael Wagner and Agie Moreno dropped their match, 6-2, to No. 5 Alfredo Perez and Johannes Ingildsen on court one, but the Tigers were resilient on the bottom two courts, forcing both matches into tiebreakers.

Julian Saborio and Nikola Samardzic were down 4-1 on court two before coming back to tie the match against No. 44 Duarte Vale and McClain Kessler at 4-4. The pair was not able to hang on and eventually fell in the tiebreaker, 7-6(3) to give Florida the 1-0 advantage moving into singles play.

Singles Results
The Gators took the 2-0 lead after Kessler defeated Stewart Block in straight sets on court six, 6-1, 6-2.

Wagner dropped his match on court two, 6-1, 6-2, to No. 31 Oliver Crawford, and Florida gained the 3-0 advantage.

With a 6-4, 6-1 win by Andy Andrade over Agie Moreno on court five, the Gators clinched the match.

On court four, Saborio dropped consecutive sets, 6-4, 6-2, to Chase Perez-Blanco, to make it 5-0 in favor of Florida.

Samardzic fought to push the first set of his court three match against No. 9 Perez into a tiebreaker. After falling, 7-6(0), in the first set Samardzic, he lost the second set, 6-2, to give Florida the 6-0 lead.

The Gators finalized the score at 7-0 when No. 16 Ingildsen took down Shane Monore, 6-2, 6-4, on court one.

Next Up
LSU will have another home weekend of tennis beginning at 4 p.m. CT Friday against Auburn. The Tigers will continue with a match at noon CT Sunday against Mississippi State. The regular season will finish on April 20 when LSU faces the University of New Orleans at 5 p.m. CT.

Social Center
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#9 Florida 7, LSU 0

Singles competition
1. #16 Johannes Ingildsen (UF) def. Shane Monroe (LSU) 6-2, 6-4
2. #31 Oliver Crawford (UF) def. Rafael Wagner (LSU) 6-1, 6-2
3. #9 Alfredo Perez (UF) def. Nikola Samardzic (LSU) 7-6 (7-0), 6-2
4. Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) def. Julian Saborio (LSU) 6-4, 6-2
5. Andy Andrade (UF) def. Agie Moreno (LSU) 6-4, 6-1
6. McClain Kessler (UF) def. Stewart Block (LSU) 6-1, 6-2

Doubles competition
1. #5 Alfredo Perez/Johannes Ingildsen (UF) def. Rafael Wagner/Agie Moreno (LSU) 6-2
2. #44 Duarte Vale/McClain Kessler (UF) def. Julian Saborio/Nikola Samardzic (LSU) 7-6 (7-3)
3. Stewart Block/Shane Monroe (LSU) vs. #12 Oliver Crawford/Chase Perez-Blanco (UF) 6-6 (1-6), unfinished

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (6,2,5,4,3,1)