On the strength of an outstanding 2010 individual fall season and last year’s NCAA runner-up showing, the University of Florida women’s tennis team earned the No. 2 ranking in Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Preseason Poll.
Highlighting a total of seven individual rankings that also were released this week is the No. 1 doubles ranking of the young Gator pair of freshman Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) and sophomore Allie Will (Boca Raton, Fla.).
Will ranked No. 7 in the singles chart that featured five Gators, followed by freshman Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.) at No. 22, freshman Alex Cercone (Seminole, Fla.) at No. 28, junior Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.) at No. 30 and Oyen at No. 96.
Mather and sophomore Caroline Hitimana (Waterloo, Belgium) ranked No. 56 on the doubles list.
Sophomore Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.), who played the No. 1 singles position for the Gators last year and was recognized as the 2010 ITA National Rookie of the Year and the 2010 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, did not compete during the 2010 fall season because of injury and could not earn an individual ranking in January. She is, however, expected to return to the court for the 2011 spring season.
In November, Oyen and Allie Will became the third Gator pair to win the USTA/ITA National Intercollegiate Indoor Championships doubles title, capping the fall season with an impressive 11-1 record as a team. Their No. 1 ranking in the inaugural 2011 poll is the first time a Gator doubles team has earned the top spot since the final 2000-01 ranking when Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnhoff finished the year winning the NCAA Doubles Championship.
Will compiled a 9-2 singles record during the fall and enters the 2011 dual match season with a 57-7 overall singles mark. During the 2010 fall season, Will advanced to the semifinals of the USTA-ITA National Indoor Championships and won the consolation draw of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships en route to being named to represent the United States at the fifth annual Master’U BNP Paribas, an international collegiate competition held in Rouen, France during December.
Janowicz staged an 8-3 singles record, highlighted by winning the ITA Southeast Regional and earning a spot in the USTA-ITA National Indoor Championships. Janowicz downed her roommate Cercone in the regional title match, but Cercone was also awarded a wildcard into the USTA-ITA National Indoor after her successful fall season that she ended with a 12-5 record.
Mather built a 10-3 singles record during the fall and improved to 51-19 in her career. The Gator junior, who played nine matches against nationally-ranked opponents, also earned a spot in the national doubles rankings with Hitimana, as the pair teamed for a 6-1 record, with the lone loss coming against teammates Oyen and Will in the ITA Southeast Region final.
Four Gators will compete in one final individual singles and doubles tournament before turning their focus to the dual match season. Embree, Mather, Cercone and Janowicz are slated to hit the courts at the Freeman Memorial hosted by UNLV, Jan. 13-16.
Florida then entertains the U.S. Junior National Team on Wed., Jan. 19 at 4 p.m., before playing host to UCF on Wed., January 26 beginning at 5 p.m. at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex, where admission to all regular-season matches is free.
ITA Women’s National Team Rankings, Top-25
1. Stanford
2. Florida
3. Baylor
4. Notre Dame
5. UCLA
6. North Carolina
7. Duke
8. Michigan
9. Northwestern
10. California
11. Clemson
12. Miami (FL)
13. Tennessee
14. Florida State
15. Georgia
16. Georgia Tech
17. Texas at Austin
18. Mississippi
19. Southern California
20. Arizona State
21. South Carolina
22. Arkansas
23. Washington
24. Virginia
25. Illinois
Women’s National Singles Rankings (UF only)
7. Allie Will
22. Olivia Janowica
28. Alex Cercone
30. Joanna Mather
96. Sofie Oyen
Women’s National Doubles Rankings (UF only)
1. Sofie Oyen/Allie Will
56. Caroline Hitimana/Joanna Mather
