Gator Country

Florida's Nassim Slilam won the clinching point for the Gators against South Carolina on Saturday. / Gator Country file photo by Tim Casey

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 16 University of Florida men’s tennis team wrapped up the regular season with a 4-0 victory on the road against South Carolina at the USC Indoor Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon. Once victory was assured, the ongoing matches were suspended as the coaches agreed to that beforehand with the Southeastern Conference Tournament looming in four days. The Gators sit at 14-8 on the season, including 7-4 in the SEC, while the Gamecocks move to 6-17 and 1-10 in league play.

“We are pleased to make a nice recovery from a difficult weekend last weekend,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “I feel like we played a pretty good match and we are very excited about the competition next week.”

Florida opened by taking the doubles point with victories on courts one and three. The 39th-ranked duo of Alexandre Lacroix (Paris, France) and Sekou Bangoura Jr. (Bradenton, Fla.) defeated Alexander Kostanov and Chip Cox 8-1 at the No. 1 position while the No. 90 combination of Nassim Slilam (Paris, France) and Billy Federhofer (North Miami, Fla.) clinched doubles with an 8-3 win over South Carolina’s Jake Bowling and Chris Sheehan.  Florida improved its doubles record to 15-7 overall. Since Coach Jackson settled on the current doubles pairings at the start of SEC play, Lacroix and Bangoura are 7-5 with wins over four ranked doubles teams while Federhofer and Slilam have gone 9-2, including wins over Southern California, Georgia and Tennessee who all boast top-five programs nationally.

Sophomore Bob van Overbeek (Boca Raton, Fla.) earned the Gators’ first singles point with a convincing 6-0, 6-2 court five victory over Johannes Pulsfort to push the advantage to 2-0. Soon after, Lacroix took a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Kostanov to put Florida on the brink of victory and Slilam secured it, recovering from dropping the first set to win 12 of the final 15 games of the match en route to beating Cox 5-7, 6-1, 6-2. The remaining matches were abandoned in progress.

Florida will host the SEC Tournament from April 21-24 at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.

#16 Florida vs. South Carolina
USC Indoor Fieldhouse
Columbia, S.C.
April 16, 2011

Doubles
1 – #39 Lacroix/Bangoura (UF) def. Kostanov/Cox (USC) 8-1
2 – Machado/Menzies (USC) led Butz/van Overbeek (UF) 6-5 (DNF)
3 – *#90 Federhofer/Slilam (UF) def. Bowling/Sheehan (USC) 8-3
Order of Finish: 1-3

Singles
1 – #7 Alexandre Lacroix (UF) def. Alexander Kostanov (USC) 6-2, 6-4
2 – Ivan Machado (USC) led #45 Sekou Bangoura Jr. (UF) 7-6, 2-5 (DNF)
3 – *#80 Nassim Slilam (UF) def. Chip Cox (USC) 5-7, 6-1, 6-2
4 – Bob van Overbeek (UF) def. Johannes Pulsfort (USC) 6-0, 6-2
5 – Billy Federhofer (UF) led Harry Menzies (USC) 5-4 (DNF)
6 – Spencer Newman (UF) led Chris Sheehan (USC) 6-0 (DNF)
Order of Finish: 4-1-3

*Clinching point

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