On the strength of returning all seven
letterwinners who participated in the 2011 NCAA Championship match, the
Florida women's tennis team is ranked No. 1 in the Intercollegiate
Tennis Association Preseason Rankings.
Florida, the defending NCAA champion, is
ranked No. 1 to start the year for the eighth time since the ranking
system began for the 1985-86 season. It is UF's first preseason No. 1
ranking since the 2003-04 campaign.
The Gators capped their 2011 NCAA title
run with a 31-1 overall record, defeating Stanford, 4-3, in a thrilling
finale held in Stanford, Calif. The Cardinal open the 2011-12 season
ranked second, with Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, Baylor, Georgia,
California, Virginia and Michigan rounding out the top-10.
Florida is scheduled to meet five of
those other top-7 teams during the regular season, playing at Stanford
on Feb. 12, hosting Duke on March 14, hosting North Carolina on Feb. 26,
traveling to Baylor on Feb. 4 and at Georgia on March 4. Georgia also
plays host to the 2012 NCAA Championships, May 17-28.
Five Gators earned a spot in the top-41
positions of the preseason singles rankings, along with two doubles
teams charted among the nation's top 15 tandems in the country.
Junior Allie Will is ranked third and
senior Joanna Mather fourth in the preseason singles chart, while junior
Lauren Embree is 25th.
The Gator trio had a tremendous fall
season, with Will posting a 5-0 record highlighted by winning the
Riviera/ITA All-American Singles Championships, one of the collegiate
grand slam events. Mather, who was 12-4 during the fall, reached the
finals of the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships, while reaching the
finals of the Riviera/ITA All-American consolation draw where she fell
to Stanford's Mallory Burdette, the top-ranked player in the country in
the January 3rd rankings. Embree logged a 7-3 singles record during the
2011 fall, reaching the round of 16 at the Riviera/ITA All-American
Singles Championships and the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships,
where she bowed out in three sets to the eventual champion.
Gator sophomores Sofie Oyen and Alex
Cercone earned the No. 34 and No. 41 spots in the national singles
rankings, as they posted 7-2 and 8-2 records, respectively.
Florida's Oyen and Will were ranked 10th
in the January listing, while the team of Embree and Mather were 15th.
Oyen and Will produced a 3-1 record together during the 2011 fall
season, reaching the finals of the Riviera/ITA All-American
Championships in their only event, falling in a second-set tiebreaker to
Stanford's Burdette and Nicole Gibbs, which tops the national January
doubles rankings.
Embree and Mather captured the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships consolation draw title, winning the final, 8-0.
Florida will send some players to
compete in the Freeman Memorial, which is the last individual singles
and doubles event prior to the NCAA Championships, Jan. 13-15 in Las
Vegas, before opening its 2012 dual match season on Jan. 25, playing
host to Troy at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex beginning at 3
p.m. Admission to all regular-season home matches is free.
