Second-seeded
Florida advanced to the semifinals of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Championships
after outlasting Miami on the doubles court and then carrying that momentum
onto the singles courts where the Gators earned a 4-0 victory and their third
consecutive trip to the final four on Saturday at the Dan Magill Tennis
Complex.
After
the teams split the doubles results on courts one and two, Alexandra Cercone
(Seminole, Fla.) and Caroline Hitimana (Waterloo, Belgium) clinched the
doubles point with an 8-6 victory that lasted one hour and 46 minutes.
Cercone
and Hitimana were up a break at 4-1 before Anna Bartenstein and Brittany Dubins
were able to get the match back on-serve with the break in the seventh game and
held for 4-all. Cercone then held at love and it stayed that way through the
13th game, which proved to be a pivotal one for the Gators, who took turned
away five break points and capitalized on their second game-point in the
18-point game for a 7-6 lead. Bartenstein then held a game-point on her serve,
but the UF pair fought that off, as well as another and captured the doubles
point on their third match point.
Florida
(25-1) fed off the momentum and needed just one hour and 39 minutes to get
singles wins from Cercone, Olivia Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.) and Joanna
Mather (Duluth, Ga.) to advance to the NCAA Semifinals for the 22nd time in
the last 26 years and produce the 900th win in program history.
"I think winning the doubles point was
huge,” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “I think it really quieted
down the Miami players. I thought we were the better team on all six singles
courts, so I wasn't terribly afraid that losing the doubles point would let the
match slip out of our hands. However, it makes a big difference when we can
come through with great courage like we did at three doubles to win it. I
certainly felt like that set the tone in the beginning of singles."
"We were up 4-1 and then it went to 4-4,
and I think at that point the other matches were close to being finished and it
was not even close on our court,” Cercone shared. “I knew we had a long ways to
go, so at that point Caroline (Hitimana) and I were focused on trying to win
every game that we could, trying to do the right thing and really play the
opponents weaknesses and our strengths. It got really tight, there were some
close calls, and we tried to not let that bother us. Once we got through that,
we got really hyped, we were able to close it out and it was very
relieving."
