University of Florida junior Allie Will (Boca Raton) captured the first collegiate singles grand slam title of her career, winning the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships held at the Riviera Tennis Club on Sunday.
The title was the second of two earned by the Gators on Sunday, as junior Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) and senior Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.), the nation’s 12th-ranked doubles team, began the day dominating Virginia’s ninth-ranked Hardenbergh and Vierra, 8-0, to win the consolation doubles championship.
Will, the No. 2 seed in the national singles event, earned a 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-3 victory against Arizona State’s 11th-ranked Jacqueline Cako and became the first Gator to capture a national singles championship since Diana Srebrovic won the 2005 ITA National Indoor Championship.
“It was a fantastic match, just a few inches here and there were the difference. Allie won because she competed so well and was so composed,” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “She handled the flows of ups and downs perfectly. That allowed her to play consistently at a high level throughout the third set. She played excellent tennis to win the match. She competed great. She’s such a good athlete that when she competes well and keeps her composure it makes her so difficult to beat. I’m so proud of her. She’s come a long way from her freshman year, maturity-wise, and today was a culmination of all her hard work.
“It wasn’t necessarily her ground strokes that won the match for her today, it was her head and the way she competed,” Thornqvist continued. “She stuck with a game plan and played at a high level, managing the highs and lows throughout it. Composure won it for Allie today and the result was a grand slam championship.”
The 2010 ITA National Indoor Doubles Champion, Will is the ninth Gator to win multiple collegiate grand slam titles and just the third to claim crowns on the singles and doubles courts, joining Jessica Lehnhoff (2001 NCAA Doubles Champion, 2001 Riviera All-American Singles Champion and 2001 Riviera All-American Doubles) and Nicole Arendt (1990 ROLEX Indoor Singles Champion, 1991 NCAA Doubles Champion and 1991 ROLEX Indoor Doubles Champion).
“Lauren and Joanna were really tentative in their first match at this tournament and were really upset after their loss,” Thornqvist shared. “They played with a completely different mindset the rest of the tournament. They should be one of the better teams in the country and they know that. I thought they sort of took that out on the rest of the field, beating two top-10 teams without barely breaking a sweat. They executed flawlessly after the first round. Winning today was a slight redemption, but certainly not what they came here to do. At least as the winner of the consolation tournament they still earn an automatic berth into the ITA National Indoor Championships (the second collegiate grand slam event) and show what they can do.”
Will and Mather had a chance to win a pair of titles each on Sunday, but fell just short, as Will and sophomore Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) lost in the main draw doubles final to Stanford’s Mallory Burdette and Nicole Gibbs, 6-2, 7-6, and Mather fell in the consolation singles final to Burdette, 6-1, 6,-2.
“Jo had a great tournament but was just outplayed today. It was one of those days when Mallory (Burdette) was hitting on all cylinders from the baseline and it’s difficult to catch up,” Thornqvist said. “I thought Jo played the best tennis of her career during this tournament. She continues to get better every year and is doing really well. She’s a perfect teammate and a perfect leader and I’m so happy that she played like a top-10, top-15 level player.
“The doubles final was fantastic tennis, we just came up short,” Thornqvist continued. “I’m so proud of them and how all of the Gators did during this tournament. The best players in the country were here and the fact that we had a representative in all four final matches today is a credit to how hard they trained and conditioned themselves during the off-season. This was a fantastic tournament for us.”
