Gator Men’s Tennis in the NCAA Tournament

After having an undefeated season, the No.2 Florida Gators Men’s Tennis team are set to play against the No. 7 Virginia Cavaliers in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Thursday. The Gators beat No.15 North Carolina on Friday, 4-1. This is the fourth year in a row that the Gators have made it to the Elite Eight. Whoever wins this match will advance to the semifinals.

It’s finally MATCH DAY ‼️

🆚 #7 Virginia
📍 Champaign, Ill.
⏰ 8 p.m. ET
📺 https://t.co/fbfFDGVi2Z (@TennisONEApp)
📊 https://t.co/91BjXvlu9s#GoGators 🐊🎾 pic.twitter.com/xHVMG8HAfa

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) May 19, 2022

 

The Gators dominated in Doubles. Sam Riffice and Ben Shelton were first up for Florida in a match against North Carolina’s Mac Kiger and Brian Cernoch. Riffice and Shelton fought hard against this North Carolina pair. North Carolina stayed very close behind Florida, but Florida ended up beating them, 6-4.

Prior to this, North Carolina had won at court two, 6-2.

On court three, Nate Bonetto and Duarte Vale pulled through with a win for Florida after going against Henry Liberman and Benjamin Sigouin. This duo hand a tough battle against North Carolina after being down 6-4 at one point. There was a lot of back and forth between the two teams but eventually the match ended in a 7-6 win for the Gators.

This year Florida has won 21-straight doubles matches in a row. Florida was no where close to that record in 2021.

Shelton beat Cernoch in both sets, 6-0 and 6-1. After that, the Gators were up 3-0.

Josh Goodger also won both of his singles sets, 6-1 and 6-2.

At the end Vale helped the team secure the win after winning his last set, 7-6.

Quarterfinals coming up 🔜#GoGators 🐊🎾 pic.twitter.com/pkPyzjHE0H

— Gators Men's Tennis (@GatorsMTN) May 19, 2022

Back in February, Florida and Virginia met at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship. So these two teams are quite familiar with each other. The Cavaliers have not lost a game since meeting up with Florida. They also have a winning streak of 20 matches.

Virginia has only been defeated by Florida, TCU, Ohio State and Baylor. All of these teams qualified for the NCAA Quarterfinals.

The match against Virginia begins at 7 p.m. on Thursday.