UF men advance in NCAAs

By STEVEN PONALL

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 15, 2000

GAINESVILLE -- The match with Alabama-Birmingham meant more, but Florida's Justin O'Neal still needed to take a moment to honor his collegiate home.

The senior, who holds UF's record for singles victories with 203, was first off the tennis court Sunday, defeating Tom Dalby 6-2, 6-1 at No. 2. And before the Gators polished off UAB 4-0 to advance to the NCAA round of 16, O'Neal bent down and kissed the court on which so many of his victories had come.

"It was just a little tribute to how much this place meant to me," O'Neal said.

It was also junior Jeff Morrison's last match at Scott Linder Stadium. Morrison, the defending NCAA singles champion, will turn professional after this season.

Sunday, Morrison reeled off nine of 10 games to defeat Martin Woisetschlager 6-3, 6-1, including a stretch of 13 consecutive points.

"Justin joked around about the fact that he started getting emotional there towards the end," UF coach Ian Duvenhage said. "But from my perspective, if you had all players like that, you wouldn't have to do anything. You could just come out here and watch."

The celebration was short, despite a school-record 26th win. Morrison, O'Neal and the rest of the players understand their ultimate goal has not been accomplished: a team championship.

The Florida men, overshadowed by the women's three team titles, are seeking their first.

"All of us are very, very hungry," said Morrison, who served six aces. "You saw a lot more jubilation and joy at this region last year because I don't think we expected to go that far. We have a lot more lofty goals this year."

Florida got the doubles point after Morrison and Nathan Overholser won 8-4 over Dalby and Alex Jung at No. 1 and O'Neal and Olivier Levant beat Andre Van Der Merwe and Woisetschlager 8-3 at No. 2. Freshman Troy Hahn clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Paul Shovlin at No. 6.

The fourth-seeded Gators resume play on Saturday in Athens, Ga., and face Southern Cal, a 4-1 winner over Fresno State. "This helps our confidence for what's to come next," Duvenhage said. "The team we play next will be considerably better than these guys so the stakes just get higher."

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