April 12, 2013
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The eighth-ranked University of Kentucky men’s tennis team fell on the road to the No. 17 Florida Gators on Friday night in Gainesville, Fla., as the Wildcats were unable to win enough singles matches after dropping the doubles point, falling just short in the match 4-3 to the Gators.
The clinching point came for the Gators on court three as Charles Minc fought back from a one-set deficit to force a deciding set after all the other five singles matches had finished. After losing the opening set in a tiebreak, Minc was the only match left on the court and needed to win both the final sets to keep UK’s hopes alive. Minc took the second set after van Overbeek and Minc played 12 straight games without a break of serve. Minc won the tiebreak 7-2 and forced a deciding set.
In the deciding third set, Minc took the early advantage, getting the break at 2-1 to take the 3-1, and then 4-2 lead. Once Minc led 3-1, van Overbeek would go on to hold, break, and then hold again to square the match at 4-4. After another swift hold, van Overbeek broke Minc at 5-4 and took claim to the clinching match, 6-4 in the third set.
The doubles point was won by the Gators via wins on courts two and three. No 8 Tom Jomby and Kevin Lai for Kentucky continued their roll as of late, taking their match on court No. 1, 8-6. Matches on courts two and three were extremely tight, as both were 5-5 at one point. The Gators on court three broke at 6-5 and held serve the rest of the way to close out the doubles point.
Beck Pennington squared the match swiftly by taking a 6-4, 6-4 decision on court six over Luke Johnson. The win for Pennington is his ninth of his career, as he ups his record to 9-0, and 3-0 in Southeastern Conference play.
Florida took the 3-1 lead after Pennington evened the score with wins on courts five and four.
Kentucky would fight back to square the match again with two-straight wins for the Wildcats on the first two courts. Junior Tom Jomby took the 6-4, 6-3 win on the second court over Florient Demp of UF to make the Gators lead 3-2 before Anthony Rossi upped his season record to 19-5 on the season with a 6-1, 7-6 (5) win on court one over No 118 Stephanie Piro.
Kentucky will be back in action on Sunday afternoon as the regular season concludes with No. 22 South Carolina at 1:00 p.m. ET in Columbia.
Agate
No. 17 Florida 4, No. 8 Kentucky 3
Linder Stadium at the Ring Complex – Gainesville, Fla.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Doubles (Order of finish: 2, 1, 3*)
1- No. 8 Tom Jomby/Kevin Lai (UK) def. No. 35 Stephanie Piro/Bob van Overbeek (UF) 8-6
2- Mike Alford/Luke Johnson (UF) def. Grant Roberts/Anthony Rossi (UK) 8-5
3- Florent Diep/Gordon Watson (UF) def. Ryuji Hirooka/Beck Pennington (UK) 9-7
Singles (Order of finish: 6, 5, 4, 2, 1, 3*)
1- No. 19 Anthony Rossi (UK) def. No. 118 Stephanie Piro (UF) 6-1, 7-6 (5)
2- No. 21 Tom Jomby (UK) def. Florient Demp (UF) 6-4, 6-3
3- No. 117 Bob van Overbeek def. Charles Minc (UK) 7-6 (5), 6-7 (2), 6-4
4- Mike Alford (UF) def. Grant Roberts (UK) 7-6 (5), 6-1
5- Gordon Watson (UF) def. Kevin Lai (UK) 6-3, 6-3
6- Beck Pennington (UK) def. Luke Johnson (UF) 6-4, 6-4
