The
top-ranked University of Florida women’s tennis team defeated South Florida, 7-0,
on Tuesday evening and won its 98th consecutive home match at Linder Stadium at
Ring Tennis Complex.
The
Gators, who recorded their 25th straight team victory dating back to last
season, won their 23rd straight in the series against South Florida,
improving to 50-1 all-time against their fellow Sunshine State program.
The
final score wasn’t entire indicative of how competitive several of the singles
matches were.
“Honestly,
I thought we overdid things yesterday,” UF coach Roland Thornqvist said.
“We had an hour and half practice yesterday and did some weights, too. We
weren’t as sharp with our bodies today as we should have been and that affected
our play a little bit. So we’re going to back off tomorrow (Wednesday) and go
light on Thursday and play Pepperdine (on Friday in California) hopefully a
little fresher.”
Senior
Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.) was the first Gator off the singles court,
as she powered past Danielle Mills, 6-1, 6-0 and gave Florida a 2-0 lead in the
team scoring. Mather, who recorded her team-leading 13th singles win of the
season and the 85th of her career, opened the match winning eight of the first
nine points. Mills earned a break in the third game, which would eventually
prevent the double-bagel, as Mather came right back with a break of her own,
dropping just one point en route to the 4-1 lead and won the final 10 games to
secure the win in 54 minutes.
“I
thought she played fantastic,” UF coach Roland Thornqvist said. “Her
opponent gave us a lot of problems last year when she played with Miami, so to
lose just one game to her is pretty impressive. I thought she played okay at
Baylor (UF’s last opponent) and she spent an extra 15 or 20 minutes on her
forehand just trying to be out front a little more and it looked like it really
helped.”
Sophomore
Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) gave Florida a 3-0 lead in the team
scoring 19 minutes later, as she topped Alessandra Bonte, 6-4, 6-1. The two
traded breaks and were on-serve through eight games until Oyen took her second
break for a 5-4 lead and served out to take the opening set. She then jumped
out to a 4-0 lead in the second, before Bonte held in the fifth game, but Oyen
closed out the match by winning the final two games to earn her seventh
consecutive singles victory.
Allie
Will
(Boca Raton, Fla.) provided the hard-fought clinching dual match win with a
6-1, 6-3 decision against Lereto Alonso Martinez. The first two games of the
match were extremely long, but the Gator junior prevailed in both and broke
Alonso Martinez at love for a 3-0 lead. The Bull broke back, but so did Will,
as she then held and broke took the fifth break of the set to take it, 6-1. The
first six games of the second were breaks and Will was the first to hold serve,
as she did so in the seventh game and broke Alonso Martinez, before serving out
to extend her season-opening singles winning streak to nine.
Sophomore
Alexandra Cercone (Seminole, Fla.) won her fifth straight singles match,
topping Fanny Fracassi, 7-6 (4), 6-0, and gave Florida a 5-0 lead, one hour and
46 minutes into singles action. Cercone and Fracassi traded breaks early and the
first set was on-serve entering the ninth game, as the last four were breaks
and headed to a tiebreak, where Cercone won the first two points en route to a
4-1 lead. Fracassi rallied and cut Cercone’s lead to 4-3, but the Gator
sophomore won the next points for a 6-3 advantage and closed out the frame two
points later. That tiebreak win seemed to energize Cercone, who reeled off all
six games of the second set.
Olivia
Janowicz
(Palm Bay, Fla.) rallied to win her 21st consecutive singles dual match,
netting a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory against Lucie Rey and helped Florida to a 6-0
lead.
Lauren
Embree
(Marco Island, Fla.) downed Ecaterina Vasenina, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 and closed out
the Gator team sweep. The first set featured six breaks with four in Embree’s
favor as she claimed the first frame. The next set also contained six breaks,
this time with Vasenina taking charge and forcing a third set. Three of the
first four games of the deciding set were breaks, as Embree emerged with a 3-1
lead and held at love for 4-1. Vasenina held on to her serve in the next game,
but Embree finished strong, losing just one point on her serve and breaking one
last time to capture the win.
Like
its done in each of its previous three dual matches this year, Florida took a
1-0 lead in the team scoring after capturing the doubles point for the 24th
consecutive time dating back to last season.
The
Gators dominated on courts one and two, where the 15th-ranked tandem of Lauren
Embree and Joanna Mather needed just 28 minutes to polish off Fanny
Fracassi and Lucie Rey for the first win of the dual match. Sofie Oyen
and Allie Will, ranked 10th in the country, followed with a 43-minute
victory against Ecaterina Vasenina and Lereto Alonso Martinez, 8-3.
Alexandra
Cercone
and Caroline Hitimana (Waterloo, Belgium) capped off the doubles sweep
with an 8-4 decision against Danielle Mills and Paula Montoya, as the Gators
headed into the locker room before the start of singles competition with the
team lead.
For
the team of Embree and Mather, the sweep marked their third 8-0 decision this
season, as the pair improved to 33-7 during the pairing, including 7-2 this
year.
“I
thought they were really sharp,” Thornqvist said of Embree and Mather.
“Clearly, they’re as good as any doubles team in the country. It’s going to
take a great effort to beat them.”
Oyen
and Will improved to 22-5 in their all-time matches, also moving to 4-0 in dual
match competition this season. On Tuesday, the Gator pair lost just two points
in their first three service games, racing to a 5-1 lead. South Florida fought
back and earned a break in the seventh game, but UF broke right back and Will
lost just one point on her serve to give the Gators a 7-2 lead. The Bulls held
and Oyen served out at love for the victory.
Court
three was the tightest of the three doubles matches, as the first six games
were on-serve until the Gators broke through in the seventh and Cercone held
for a 5-3 lead. Florida broke again and the last three games were held, as
Cercone served out for the 53-minute win.
