GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With a 4-2 victory over SEC-foe Mississippi State (5-1) in the championship match of the ITA Kickoff at the Florida Regional, the No. 16 Gators (3-1) have punched their ticket and qualified for the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in Chicago on Saturday afternoon at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
The win marked head coach Bryan Shelton‘s 200th at Florida, as Shelton became the third head coach in program history to win 200 matches joining Ian Duvenhage (221) and Andy Jackson (209). Additionally, Shelton had the highest winning percentage (.741) at 200 wins and was the fastest of the three coaches to 200 wins (270) in program history.
Initially, the doubles point appeared it could go either direction, except the Gators came out on top thanks to tremendous, clutch play at court two and three. No. 10 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac were down a break 1-2, but returned with a break of their own to even the score. The freshman pair converted another break point to distance the score at 4-2 and cruised to a 6-3 victory on court two against Ewen Lumsden/Michael Novansky.
No. 43 Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif worked a massive break point to go up 6-5 and put the ball in the hands of Greif to serve out the set and clinch the doubles point. The senior, Greif, showed his experience and brought home the doubles point, 7-5, over Peter Jovanovic/Gregor Ramskogler to seal a 1-0 advantage for Florida. In both ITA Kickoff matches, the doubles point was clinched by No. 43 Braswell/Greif on court three.
Axel Nefve provided a quick…
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