The second-ranked Florida women’s tennis team earned their 103rd
consecutive home victory, beating No. 19 Mississippi, 6-1, on Sunday afternoon at
Scott Linder Stadium at Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
Florida (13-1, 6-0 SEC) has now won 31 straight regular season
SEC matches after defeating Mississippi (11-7, 3-3 SEC).
“I think Ole Miss did a great job of competing and made us have
to dig a little bit,” head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “I told the
team that I think we’re getting better every month but there are certainly some
things we can improve on. It’s not like we’re firing on all cylinders. I think
our play today showed that there’s room for improvement. We know what we need to
get better at and we need to just keep hammering away.”
In doubles play, Florida was able to gain an early 1-0 lead
winning on courts one and two in under 50 minutes. On court two, the No. 11
doubles tandem of Lauren Embree and Joanna Mather defeated Erin
Stephens and Gabby Rangel, 8-4. The Gators sealed the doubles point with an 8-3
victory on court one by the third-ranked doubles team of Allie Will and Sofie
Oyen over the fifth-ranked duo of Kristi Boxx and Abby Guthrie.
To complete the sweep of the doubles, Alexandra Cercone
and Olivia Janowicz defeated Iris Verboven and Julia Jones, 8-6, despite
trailing 3-0 early in the match.
In singles play, Mather gave the Gators a 2-0 lead after a 6-3,
6-2 win over Stephens on court three. Shortly after Mather’s win, Embree gained
a straight set victory on court one defeating No. 12 ranked Boxx 6-3, 6-3,
improving the Gators’ lead to 3-0.
Will, ranked No. 1, cruised to a 6-0, 6-1, win on court two over
the No. 72 ranked Caroline Rohde-Moe to secure UF’s win over the Rebels. With
the win, Will now has 100 career singles victories as a Gator.
“I did not know that. That’s great news,” Will said on reaching
the century mark. “I’ve had a lot of good matches here at home and I have not
lost a match here at home so the crowd must be doing something right. It’s a
privilege to be here and I’m just happy that I was able to get 100 wins and
hopefully I’ll have a few before the year is over.”
Oyen dropped her first singles match in her last 14 attempts,
Sunday. Guthrie defeated Oyen, 5-7, 5-7, to give Ole Miss their lone point on
the evening.
Cercone defeated Jones, 6-2, 2-6, 6-3, and Caroline Hitimana
defeated Vivian Vlaar, 6-2, 3-6 (10-1), with both matches lasting over two
hours.
