University of Illinois
Florida
#18 Illinois Falls to #5 Florida, 6-1
February 12, 2012 | Men's Tennis
Feb. 12, 2012
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The 18th-ranked Illinois men's tennis team (5-3) fell to No. 5 Florida (5-1), 6-1, Sunday afternoon at Ring Tennis Complex. Senior Roy Kalmanovich picked up the lone singes victory for the Orange and Blue and teamed up with classmate Dennis Nevolo for the first time this season to win in doubles play.
"We've made some progress in the doubles but haven't been able to break through," Illini head coach Brad Dancer said. "Roy had a great day, and I think he was one of our leaders in doubles. It was great to see that leadership from him. It shows the tremendous amount of growth you can have over a short period of time, which is great."
The Orange and Blue fell in the first doubles match, but Nevolo and Kalmanovich captured an 8-6 victory over No. 4 duo Billy Federhofer and Nassim Slilam at the No. 1 spot to even the score. Juniors Bruno Abdelnour and Stephen Hoh could not clinch, however, as the Illini dropped their fifth-straight doubles point, losing at Nos. 2 and 3.
The Illini could not recover in singles play, losing the first five completed matches. In the longest match of the day, No. 24 Kalmanovich managed to spoil the shutout with a 7-6(2), 6-4 victory at No. 2 singles, putting Illinois on the board. The win marked his 15th of the 2011-12 season and his fourth this spring.
The Illini are 2-3 when facing top-25 opponents and are also 2-3 when losing the doubles point.
"We have to play our game and implement our game over the opponent," Dancer said. "Today, we did not do a good enough job of that. We were a little passive, so we just have to be more aggressive and take the match to our opponents a little more. We'll continue to focus on that."
The Orange and Blue will open Big Ten play at Nebraska on Friday, March 2 for their sixth match of an eight-match road swing.
Singles
1. #69 Bob van Overbeek (UF) def. #2 Dennis Nevolo (ILL) 7-6 (5), 6-4
2. #24 Roy Kalmanovich (ILL) def. Nassim Slilam (UF) 7-6(2), 6-4
3. Tripper Carleton (UF) def. Stephen Hoh (ILL) 7-5, 6-3
4. Florent Diep (UF) def. Bruno Abdelnour (ILL) 6-4, 6-2
5. #84 Spencer Newman (UF) def. Tim Kopinski (ILL) 6-1, 6-3
6. Michael Alford (UF) def. Ross Guignon (ILL) 6-0, 6-4
Doubles
1. Dennis Nevolo/Roy Kalmanovich (ILL) def. #4 Billy Federhofer/Nassim Slilam (UF) 8-6
2. #41 Tripper Carleton/Spencer Newman (UF) vs. Tim Kopinski/Ross Guignon (ILL) 8-5
3. #25 Andrew Butz/Bob van Overbeek (UF) def. Stephen Hoh/Bruno Abdelnour (ILL) 8-4
Order of finish: Doubles (2,1,3); Singles (6,4,5,3,1,2)
