CHICAGO – In a tight battle with No. 12 North Carolina, the No. 16 Florida men’s tennis team couldn’t hold off the Tar Heels and came up short 4-2 in a consolation match at the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
For back-to-back matches, Florida (4-5, 0-0 SEC) put the pressure on the opposition by winning the first doubles match, but North Carolina (7-3, 0-0 ACC) managed to take courts two and three for the 1-0 advantage. Will Grant/Axel Nefve earned their third ranked win together with an efficient 6-2 take down of No. 37 Casey Kania/Ryan Seggerman at court one. After being tied at 2-2, Grant/Nefve won four straight games and converted on three break points, while saving three break points.
With No. 15 Tanapatt Nirundorn/Togan Tokac falling 6-2 to Brian Cernoch/Benjamin Kittay at court two, the doubles point was up to No. 52 Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif at court three. Looking to clinch their sixth doubles point of the season, the Gators pair was unable to hold serve down 5-4 and dropped 6-4 to Will Jansen/Karl Poling.
The 1-0 deficit didn’t rattle Florida as they picked up the first two singles point via wins on court six and court two, respectively. In his second singles match as a Gator, Olek Orlikowski was firing on all cylinders in the six spot against Peter Murphy. The freshman delivered an efficient 6-1, 6-2 win and converted four of six break points for his first-career victory to initially tie the match for the Orange & Blue.
Four minutes later, No. 94 Grant pushed the Gators ahead with his second Top-20 victory of the season and first of the…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Florida Gators…