Men's tennis overpowers Mississippi St., 6-1

<p>STARKVILLE, Miss. — The No. 7 UF men's tennis team (12-6, 3-3) responded to their first home loss of the season on Friday night by cruising past No. 55 Mississippi State (5-10, 1-5), 6-1, on Sunday. The victory is Florida's second road win and third conference victory of the year.</p><p>The afternoon began on a positive note as all three UF doubles teams came away with victories. Freshman Carlos Cueto and sophomore Alex Lacroix downed Ryan Farlow and Antonio Lastre, 8-3, with relative ease. Sophomores Jeff Dadamo and Johnny Hamui defeated Louis Cant and Artem Ilyushin by the same margin to clinch the doubles point. The 16th-ranked pair of Antoine Benneteau and Joey Burkhardt completed the sweep with an 8-4 win on court one against Chris Doerr and Tanner Stump.</p><p>Florida continued their momentum into singles play, earning victories in the first four singles matches. Burkhardt was first to finish for Florida, rolling past Lastre, 6-1, 6-1 for his 23rd victory of the year and fourth consective win this spring. Dadamo extended the Gators' advantage to 3-0 after knocking out Stump in straight sets, 6-1, 7-5, becoming the only Gator to win both single matches this weekend.</p><p>No. 24 Cueto clinched the match for Florida after defeating No. 108 Farlow, 6-4, 6-1, on court one. With the win, Cueto snapped a three-match losing streak dating back to late February. Benneteau was the fourth of five Gators to win his match in straight sets, upsetting Cant, 6-0, 6-3, to give Florida a 5-0 lead.</p><p>The Gators return to Gainesville for their final two home matches of the season next weekend. Florida will host LSU on Friday at 3 p.m. and Arkansas on Sunday at 1 p.m.</p>