No. 3 Gators Top No. 6 Demon Deacons

MADISON, WISC. - In the backdraw of the ITA Indoor Championships, third-ranked Florida defeated No. 6 Wake Forest, 4-1 on Sunday evening at the Nielsen Tennis Stadium. The Deacs move to 8-3 overall, with all three of their losses against top-15 squads.

"Congrats to Florida, they have a very good team," head coach Tony Bresky said. "Our guys fought really hard the last couple of days and I think we just ran out of steam tonight when it counted most towards the end of some matches. That's how these tournaments go. We'll certainly learn from it and we are looking forward to the outdoor portion of our season."

Wake Forest started the match strong picking up the doubles point. Florida took the opening doubles match 6-2 on the second court, but Bar Botzer and Morgan Dill evened the score with a 7-5 decision on court three. Freshman Henri Nava and senior Eduardo Nava clinched the initial point for Wake Forest with another 7-5 victory on the top court over the 13th-ranked doubles tandem in Oliver Crawford and Sam Riffice.

Despite a strong start, the Deacons were not able to put anymore points on the board as Florida claimed four consecutive singles matches. The Gators quickly responded and swung the momentum back to its side of the court evening the match at 1-1 with a 6-2, 6-1 decision on court 5 as Josh Goodger defeated Nava. Squire faced fourth-ranked Sam Riffice, falling in two sets 6-3, 6-2.

Florida extended its lead to 3-1 as No. 90 Lukas Grief defeated Wake sophomore No. 100 Siddhant Banthia 7-5, 6-3. Taha Baadi dropped his first set on court three, but rallied to take the second set 6-4. However, 11th-ranked Duarte Vale took the final set 6-3 to hand the Gators their 12th victory of the season.

Melios Efstathiou forced a third set on court five and after falling in a first set tiebreak, Botzer won the second frame to force a third on the top court before the match was clinched.

Wake Forest will return to dual match action on March 1 as it travels to Oklahoma State. The Deacs will open ACC play at home as they welcome Duke on March 4.

FULL RESULTS
Singles
1. #23 Oliver Crawford (UF) vs. #44 Bar Botzer (WAKE) 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, unfinished
2. #4 Sam Riffice (UF) def. Henri Squire (WAKE) 6-3, 6-2
3. #11 Duarte Vale (UF) def. Taha Baadi (WAKE) 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
4. Andy Andrade (UF) vs. Melios Efstathiou (WAKE) 2-6, 6-4, 5-2, unfinished
5. Josh Goodger (UF) def. Eduardo Nava (WAKE) 6-2, 6-1
6. #90 Lukas Greif (UF) def. #100 Siddhant Banthia (WAKE) 7-5, 6-3

Doubles
1. Eduardo Nava/Henri Squire (WAKE) def. #13 Oliver Crawford/Sam Riffice (UF) 7-5
2. #24 Johannes Ingildsen/Will Grant (UF) def. Melios Efstathiou/Taha Baadi (WAKE) 6-2
3. Bar Botzer/Morgan Dill (WAKE) def. Duarte Vale/Josh Goodger (UF) 7-5

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Team Stats

Players Mentioned

Taha Baadi

Siddhant Banthia

Bar Botzer

Morgan Dill

Melios Efstathiou

Eduardo Nava

Henri Squire