No. 26 Alabama Drops Home Match to No. 2 Florida

Friday, April 5

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

6 p.m. CT

Alabama

Florida

Photo by: Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

No. 26 Alabama Drops Home Match to No. 2 Florida

4/5/2019 9:18:00 PM | Men's Tennis

Box Score Results (PDF)Photo Gallery

The Crimson Tide will look to rebound against No. 18 South Carolina on Sunday

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 26 Alabama dropped its home match against No. 2 Florida, 7-0, on Friday night at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. With the loss, the Crimson Tide moves to 13-9 overall and 3-7 in Southeastern Conference play, while the Gators improve to a perfect 10-0 in SEC action and 18-2 overall.

"Florida is number two in the country and number one in the conference for a reason," head coach George Husack said. "For a moment there I thought we had a chance to win the four remaining matches so I think that is something to build on for this Sunday. South Carolina is really good and Arkansas is too. But I think we need to keep building and forging ahead. We're getting better. We got great productivity out of Mazen (Osama) and Patrick (Kaukovalta) today and if we get that, then we're going to be a tough squad."

In doubles action, the Gators went up first after winning on court two. The Tide responded with a 6-3 victory on court one with the No. 28 doubles duo in the country in senior Mazen Osama and sophomore Patrick Kaukovalta defeating Kessler/Ingildsen, 6-3. UF took the 1-0 advantage after putting away the match on court three, 6-3.

Florida continued to put the pressure on UA after picking up two singles victories on courts four and two. The Gators clinched the match following a 6-3, 6-3, result at the No. 6 spot. With the match already clinched, the two teams played out the remaining matches. Osama, Kaukovalta and junior Zhe Zhou all battled in their respective third-set tiebreakers before falling.

Next up, Alabama will host No. 18 South Carolina on Sunday at 1 p.m. CT at the Alabama Tennis Stadium. Admission is free to all fans along with a free cookout provided by the Crimson Racket Club.

Alabama Results

Doubles

No. 28 Osama/Kaukovalta def. Kessler/Ingildsen, 6-3
Crawford/Perez def. Nesterov/Zhou, 6-1
Riffice/Vale def. Roberto/Ortiz, 6-3

Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3

Singles

No. 14 Oliver Crawford def. No. 48 Mazen Osama, 7-5, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8)
No. 89 Johannes Ingildsen def. Edson Ortiz, 6-2, 6-2
No. 43 Andres Andrade def. Patrick Kaukovalta, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(3)
No. 109 Duarte Vale def. Riccardo Roberto, 6-1, 6-0
Lukas Greif def. Zhe Zhou, 6-3, 2-6, 1-0 (10-6)
Jan Soren Hain def. Jeremy Gschwendtner, 6-3, 6-3

Order of Finish: 4, 2, 6, 5, 1, 3

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