With the win, Tennessee (17-6, 7-2 SEC) has won 11 of its past 13 matches. The victory also marks the Vols’ fourth top-20 win in their last five matches.
Florida (12-9, 5-4 SEC) took the doubles point with wins on courts three and two, while the doubles match on court one featuring Tennessee’s No. 2 Pat Harper and Johannus Monday and Florida’s No. 10 Will Grant and Axel Nefve went unfinished, evened at 5-5.
“A win is a win,” head coach Chris Woodruff said. “We knew this would be a tough match and that was certainly magnified today by dropping the doubles point. Florida plays tough and at a fast pace in doubles, so credit to them. In the end, I was proud of our resiliency.”
Tennessee tied the score at 1-1, with Angel Diaz’s 6-2, 6-4, victory over Nate Bonetto on court five. Diaz went up a break early in the match, at 2-0 in the first set, and carried that momentum with him for his 25th singles win of the year. That surpasses his total of 24 singles wins during the 2021-22 campaign.
The Vols’ 2-1 lead was reached after Blaise Bicknell’s ranked singles win on court three, a decisive 6-3, 6-3, decision over No. 102 Jonah Braswell. Bicknell has won three of his past four singles matches.
Florida’s win on court six evened the score once again, at 2-all. Then, at the No. 4 lineup position, 124th-ranked Shunsuke Mitsui battled past Lukas Greif, 7-5, 6-2. On set point in the first, Mitsui won a deuce point to avoid a tiebreak scenario and take the opening set. Mitsui improves to 9-1 (8-1 SEC) at the No. 4 singles spot this year.
The Gators’ 81st-ranked Axel Nefve took the singles match on court over Monday, 7-5, 6-3, and all eyes moved to court two.
There, despite dropping the first set, 2-6, 44th-ranked Emile Hudd roared back for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, win over No. 92 Will Grant. The win is not only Hudd’s second consecutive clinch, but his fourth of the year. That ties him with Mitsui for the most clinches on the team this dual season.
The win marks Tennessee’s first win over Florida in Gainesville since its 4-3 victory at the SEC Tournament in 2019 and its first regular season victory over the Gators since 2011.
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Tennessee faces No. 5 South Carolina in the second match of this road trip Sunday. First serve in Columbia…
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