Arkansas Goes 2-1 In Tripleheader At Billingsley

March 19, 2017

Florida Box Score | Omaha Box Score 1 | Omaha Box Score 2

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas men’s tennis team concluded its first home weekend of Southeastern Conference play with a tripleheader at the Billingsley Tennis Center on Saturday, dropping a 4-3 decision to No. 16 Florida and then coming back to sweep a doubleheader with two 5-0 wins against Omaha.

Arkansas (10-8, 2-3 SEC) finishes the busy weekend with a 2-2 record with two shutout wins over Omaha and a pair of 4-3 losses to South Carolina and No. 16 Florida. Arkansas continues its home stand with three more matches next weekend, starting with No. 21 Mississippi State on Thursday at 6 p.m.

No. 16 Florida 4, Arkansas 3

Arkansas won at No. 2 singles to even the match at 1-1 and then at No. 5 singles to even the match again at 2-2, before Florida (11-6, 4-1 SEC) won at No. 1 and No. 3 singles for a 4-2 lead and to clinch the match.

“We played hard again,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “We have not been able to put it all together. I’m very pleased that we recovered from the bitter Thursday loss and put ourselves on the line again and competed. Florida did enough to win and we didn’t.”

Florida clinched the doubles point and took a 1-0 lead in the match with wins at No. 3 doubles and No. 1 doubles, where the No. 4-ranked team of Johannes Ingildsen and Alfredo Perez defeated the No. 56-ranked team of Mike Redlicki and Jose Salazar 7-5.

Salazar, the No. 24 player in the nation, defeated No. 79 Elliott Orkin 6-2, 6-3 at No. 2 singles, to improve to 3-0 against ranked opponents this spring. And then Florida came right back with a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 6 singles.

Within a minute of each other, Johan den Toom finished off a 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 5 singles, while Perez, the No. 10 player in the nation, defeated Redlicki, the No. 6 player in the nation, 6-3, 6-3 at No. 1 singles. Chase Perez-Blanco then clinched the match for the Gators with a 6-4, 7-5 win at No. 3 singles.

With the match already clinched for Florida, Oscar Mesquida closed out a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 4 singles, for the 4-3 final.

Arkansas 5, Omaha 0

Arkansas won all eight singles matches and all four doubles matches on the way to two 5-0 wins over Omaha (5-8). Eight different players recorded singles wins and four different teams recorded doubles wins in the doubleheader, as Arkansas dropped just two sets in singles play.

Jose Salazar, the No. 24 player in the nation, defeated his second ranked opponent of the night and his fourth ranked opponent of the spring, coming back to win in a third-set super-tiebreaker against No. 57 Razvan Grigorescu, 4-6, 7-5, 1-0 (10-5), at No. 1 singles in the first match of the doubleheader.

“Teams need that feeling of winning and winning these two matches is going to help our team on Thursday against Mississippi State,” head coach Andy Jackson said. “Jose beat a very, very good player in an excellent match.”

Notable

Arkansas had played four straight matches decided by one point, defeating Tennessee 4-3 and falling to No. 11 Georgia 4-3, South Carolina and No. 16 Florida by the same 4-3 score.
Jose Salazar, Johan den Toom and Oscar Mesquida all improved to 4-1 in singles matches in SEC play this season.
Jose Salazar (12-3), Johan den Toom (11-4) and Oscar Mesquida (10-5) all have 10-plus wins in singles play this spring.
Jose Salazar is now 4-0 against ranked opponents this spring, defeating No. 18 Spencer Papa (Oklahoma), No. 99 Nathan Ponwith (Georgia), No. 79 Elliott Orkin (Florida) and No. 57 Razvan Grigorescu (Omaha). Salazar is 6-3 overall against ranked opponents this season.

For more information on Razorback men’s tennis, please follow @RazorbackMTEN on Twitter.