No. 20 Gators Push No. 7 Georgia, But Fall Short

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 20 Florida men’s tennis suffered a tough loss to No. 7 Georgia, 4-3, on a chilly Sunday afternoon at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
 
For the seventh straight match, Florida (12-10, 5-5 SEC) jumped on the doubles point and won matches on court one and three against Georgia (16-5, 10-0 SEC) for the 1-0 lead. In their second consecutive match against a top-10 ranked pair, No. 10 Will Grant/Axel Nefve handled No. 7 Trent Bryde/Ethan Quinn with ease. The Gators tandem converted a break at love-40 for the 3-1 lead, after a huge service hold on deuce point in the game prior. Grant/Nefve put the match away with their second break of the match to seal the triumph for their second win over a top-10 opponent this spring.
 
With Georgia claiming the match on court two, the doubles point was left up to Jonah Braswell/Lukas Greif at the three position in a back-and-forth affair against Blake Croyder/Britton Johnston. Producing a pair of holds on deuce in their first two service games, Florida’s duo exchanged breaks with Georgia, beginning at 2-2 for the next four games. Finally, Braswell/Greif supplied the finishing blow to Croyder/Johnston on their last service game for the 7-5 victory and clinched their seventh doubles point of the season.
 
Transitioning into singles, Georgia grabbed control of the momentum by winning four of the six first sets across the courts. The Bulldogs utilized this advantage and took a 2-1 lead with a pair of straight set victories on court one and three, respectively.
 
This left courts two, four, five and…