Feb. 18, 2011
SEATTLE- No. 7 Stanford suffered its first loss of the season on Friday afternoon, dropping a hard-fought 4-3 decision to No. 11 Florida in the opening round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships.
Off to its best start since a 7-0 debut in 2002, Stanford (7-1, 0-0 Pac-10) now falls into the consolation bracket of the event and will play the loser of No. 2 USC/No. 17 Duke on Saturday afternoon.
Florida (7-1, 0-0 SEC) advanced to the tournament quarterfinals for the second consecutive year.
The outcome of the match rested on a third set at No. 1 singles, between two of the nation's top-10 players in No. 7 Bradley Klahn of Stanford and No. 9 Alexandre Lacroix of Florida. After Lacroix won the first set 7-5, Klahn battled back to take the second set 6-4.
Trailing 2-1 in the third set, Lacroix won five of the final six games to claim the decisive set, 6-3.
Florida grabbed a 1-0 lead after winning the doubles point and later went ahead 3-1 following a 6-2, 6-4 victory from Sekou Bangoura over Ryan Thacher on court two.
But Stanford responded, as Greg Hirshman (7-6, 6-0) and Alex Clayton (7-6, 6-4) both notched straight-set wins to knot the match at 3-3 before Lacroix prevailed.
No. 11 Florida 4, No. 7 Stanford 3
DOUBLES
1)No. 11 Klahn/Thacher (STAN) d. No. 15 Lacroix/Slilam (FLA) 8-3
2)Bangoura/Butz (FLA) d. Clayton/Ted Kelly (STAN) 8-5
3)Federhofer/van Overbeek (FLA) d. Hirshman/Lin (STAN) 8-6
Order of Finish: 1, 2, 3
SINGLES
1)No. 9 Alexandre Lacroix (FLA) d. No. 7 Bradley Klahn (STAN) 7-5, 4-6, 6-3
2)No. 43 Sekou Bangoura (FLA) d. No. 52 Ryan Thacher (STAN) 6-2, 6-4
3)No. 64 Alex Clayton (STAN) d. Nassim Slilam (FLA) 7-6, 6-4
4)Denis Lin (STAN) d. No. 74 Bob van Overbeek (FLA) 6-0, 6-3
5)Greg Hirshman (STAN) d. Spencer Newman (FLA) 7-6, 6-0
6)Billy Federhofer (FLA) d. Matt Kandath (STAN) 6-2, 6-2
Order of Finish: 6, 4, 2, 5, 3, 1