The top-ranked Gators earned a hard-fought doubles point and collected five singles wins en route to a 6-1 victory against Alabama at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex on a chilly Friday evening.
In Florida’s Southeastern Conference home opener, the Gators needed 80 minutes to collect the doubles point, having to upset the nation’s seventh-ranked tandem in a tiebreaker to take the early 1-0 lead.
Florida (14-1, 3-0 SEC) then received singles wins from freshman Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.), sophomore Caroline Hitimana (Waterloo, Belgium), sophomore Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.), freshman Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) and sophomore Allie Will (Boca Raton, Fla.) to post its 97th consecutive regular-season home victory.
“Alabama is a very good team, we knew that coming into the match,” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “We knew that our doubles teams were going to be tested for probably the second time this season. Having Joanna (Mather) back in the lineup is huge, it’s a world-class team at the two position with her and Lauren (Embree).
“In singles, our players are getting smarter,” Thornqvist continued. “Our freshmen are winning now because of their heads and not just because of their fantastic strokes all the time. That’s a more mature-way of playing and that’s going to help the Gators down the road if we continue to play like that.”
Freshman Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.) was the only player on both team’s lineups that didn’t play doubles and her freshness showed, as she raced out and earned a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 59 minutes against Antonia Foehse the No. 5 position.
Alabama (7-4, 0-2 SEC) collected its only point of the dual match when Alex Clay downed Alex Cercone (Seminole, Fla.), 6-1, 6-4, before the Gators came right back with Hitimana’s 6-2, 6-4 victory over Taylor Lindsey at the No. 6 spot, as there were three consecutive breaks late in the second set before the Gator sophomore ended the trend by holding in the final game and serving out for the win as she moved to 8-0 in dual match singles action this year.
Two minutes later, Embree followed with a 6-4, 6-3 clinching dual match win against Alexa Guarachi on court number two. The first set of Embree’s match featured seven breaks, as the Gator sophomore came out on top as she earned the final break of the frame in the ninth game and held to take the first set. They traded breaks early, before Embree took the lead with another in the seventh game and then ended the match on another, as she won her 12-th consecutive singles match, improving to 12-0 this year, as well as 32-3 in career dual matches.
Oyen then came through with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Courtney McLane at the No. 3 spot that featured only three breaks in the first set and three in the second. The Gator rookie had a chance to tack on another break, holding five match points in the ninth game, but McLane fought all of them off and made Oyen serve out for the win.
On court No. 1, Will took charge late and closed out the dual match with her 6-4, 4-6, 1-0 (10-3) victory against 29th-ranked Mary Anne Macfarlane. Will was able to break Macfarlane in the ninth game of the first set and held for the opening frame. In the second, the Gator had a chance to break again in the ninth game after fending off four game-points, but couldn’t quite close it out, as Macfarlane managed to break Will for the second set and force a tiebreaker, where Will raced out to a 4-0 lead, then took a 7-1 advantage en route to her 12th dual match singles win this year, as she improved to 69-9 in her collegiate singles career, including a 14-0 record in SEC team action.
The Gators took the hard-fought doubles point by winning the matches on courts No. 1 and 2.
The pair of Lauren Embree and Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.) needed just 35 minutes to post an 8-2 victory against Alex Clay and Taylor Lindsey at the No. 2 position, as the Gator pair won their 10th consecutive match and improved to 11-4 this season, including 10-0 in dual match action. Embree and Mather held serve throughout their match and earned breaks in the fourth, sixth, eighth and 10th games to secure the first individual win of the day.
UF’s team of Cercone and Allie Will earned a tough 9-8 (9-7) upset victory over seventh-ranked Alexa Guarachi and Courtney McLane to clinch the doubles point in one hour and 20 minutes. The Gators had a number of opportunities prior to the tiebreak after holding a pair of match points on Alabama’s serve in the 14-th game and another in the 16th. The Tide fought all three off and forced the tiebreak, which was closely contested and neither team leading by more than two points. UF held a 5-3 lead, but Alabama took a mini-break and then held its next two serves for a 6-5 lead. Will held her two serves for a 7-6 advantage and after the Gators were able to earn another mini-break in the 15th point, Cercone held on to serve out the win.
“Alabama’s number one doubles team is very talented and this was the first time Allie and Alex were playing a team of that caliber,” Thornqvist said. “I was very happy to see the decisions we made. We played with courage in the crucial spots. That’s how you beat great teams. You can’t hope that they’re going to lose; you have to do things to win. We poached on a second serve to win it. We played to win the match and I was really happy to see that.”
The victory proved to be important, as UF’s No. 3 tandem dropped their match in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-5), that was just underway when the Gators secured the doubles point. Hitimana and Oyen lost their serve and trailed 7-6, but broke back. Unfortunately, the Tide broke right back and were serving for the match at 8-7, however, the Gators fought off four match-points and capitalized on their first break-point of the game to force the breaker, where neither team led by more than two.
