GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gators showcased their skills on both the singles and doubles courts in their dual match against the Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. Florida remains perfect against FGCU, improving to 4-0 against the Eagles and their season record now stands at 4-2.

The Gators reclaimed the doubles point for the first time in three matches. The usual pairings were switched up in today’s match, with Henry Jefferson playing with Lorenzo Claverie on court one for the second time and Tanapatt Nirundorn playing with Pablo Perez Ramos on court two for the first time. Jefferson and Claverie defeated Jonathan Baron and Gustav Hasslegren of FGCU in a quick 6-0 match, with Nirundorn and Perez following soon after with a 6-2 win over Tanner Povey and Pablo Pasternostro. Court three was held by the duo of Kevin Edengren and Andreas Timini, and while their match was not played out, the pairing was up 5-3 over Stavros Hadjivarnava and Stefan Correa (FGCU).

Florida started strong in singles with every court claiming the first set over their opponent. The team played to clinch, with the singles points coming from Jefferson on court one, Ramos on court three and Kevin Edengren on court four. Edengren added to the score first, winning 6-1, 6-0 over Gustav Hasslegren (FGCU). No. 32 ranked Ramos moved the Gators to 3-0 with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Pablo Pasternostro (FGCU), and No. 50 ranked Jefferson clinched the victory with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Tanner Povey (FGCU).

Straight from the Courts

Coach Steinberg opening statement…

• “It’s great obviously get back on the winning track. We lost a couple in a row, and to win here is always really special for us. The biggest thing was getting back and winning the doubles point. To be honest, I feel our doubles is the strength of our team, but we haven’t been performing that well, but today they did really well.”

Coach Steinberg on Francesco Cordova seeing playing in his first dual match of the season…

• “That was not an easy position, he hasn’t played in a long time. He’s gone through some injuries, so getting that first set was great. He was down a break, I believe, and I thought he did a great job. The guys were looking down there, he lifted not just himself but everybody by getting that one, and I was happy for him. He’s had a really good week of practice. I thought going in, he was going to play well. Obviously, he had some nerves but fought through them to get that first set.”

Henry Jefferson on carrying this momentum into ITA Indoors and SEC play….

• “We have the national indoors next week. It’s my third year here, and we haven’t made it in the last two years, so that’s really special. We have a pretty good mindset. We’re not just going to go and compete there and just take our participation trophy. We may not be the top ranked team there, but we have a really strong squad, so we’re going to go take it all. Then SEC’s is anyone’s game, I think. There’s lots of strong team, but no one’s kind of an outlier. So just whoever’s going to work the hardest, and March and April are a big couple of months. I think we’ve been working really hard and we’re going to be the team to do it.”

Results
Doubles

ORDER OF FINISH: 1, 2

Singles

• Court 1: No. 50 Henry Jefferson (UF) def. Tanner Povey (FGCU) (6-2, 6-2)
• Court 2: Lorenzo Claverie (UF) vs. Jonathan Baron (FGCU) (UNFINISHED: 7-6 (7-4), 1-1)
• Court 3: No. 32 Pablo Perez Ramos (UF) def. Pablo Paternostro (FGCU) (6-3, 7-5)
• Court 4: Kevin Edengren (UF) def. Gustav Hasslegren (FGCU) (6-1, 6-0)
• Court 5: Andreas Timini (UF) vs. Stavros Hadjivarnava (FGCU) (UNFINISHED: 7-6 (7-3), 2-1)
• Court 6: Francesco Cordova (UF) vs. Stefan Correa (FGCU) (UNFINISHED: 6-4, 2-4)

ORDER OF FINISH: 4, 3, 1

Up Next

With a big win over the Eagles, the Gators look towards ITA National Indoors taking place from Feb. 13-17. While the matches have not been set, the team is traveling to Dallas, Texas to play at the SMU host site. The SMU host site contains top ranked competition, including No. 1 Virginia, No. 2 Ohio State, No.  4 Stanford, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 16 Clemson, No. 22 Arizona State and SMU.