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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.