The
second-ranked University of Florida women’s tennis team earned a quick 4-0
victory against Kentucky at the Boone Tennis Complex on Friday and won its 11th
consecutive match.
The
Gators (18-2, 11-1 SEC) won the doubles point before Alexandra Cercone
(Seminole, Fla.), Sofie Oyen (Belgium) and Brianna Morgan (Beverly
Hills, Calif.) won their respective singles matches to clinch the team victory.
The remaining matches were abandoned once the outcome was decided.
“We
had to move the match indoors because of the weather and we played well,” UF
head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “Sofie was exceptional today.”
Florida
wraps up its regular season on Sunday, when the Gators travel to Nashville and
play No. 18 Vanderbilt (14-9, 7-5 SEC) beginning at 1:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m.
CT).
With
Friday’s win, the Gators continue to control their own destiny and can capture no
worse than a share of the 2013 Southeastern Conference regular-season title
with a win on Sunday against the Commodores.
Florida
enters the final day of the SEC regular-season tied with No. 3 Texas A&M
(19-2, 11-1 SEC) and No. 4 Georgia (18-2, 11-1 SEC) atop of the league
standings. The Aggies finish at Ole Miss (14-11, 5-7 SEC) and the Lady Bulldogs
host No. 8 Alabama (18-3, 10-2 SEC) on Sunday.
Florida
began Friday’s match winning the doubles point, as the tandem of Oyen and Lauren
Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) defeated Caitlin McGraw and Nadia Ravita, 8-6,
in the clinching match, after the Gator’s Cercone and Olivia Janowicz (Palm
Bay, Fla.) topped Stephanie Fox and CeCe Witten, 8-4, on court two and the
Wildcat’s Khristina Blajkevitch and Jessica Stiles downed UF rookies Danielle
Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) and Morgan, 8-4, at the No. 3 position.
For
Embree, the win was her 112th victory on the doubles court, where she moved
into a tie for the seventh-most in program history with Joanna Mather (2009-12).
Embree and Oyen improved to 21-3 all-time as a pair, including 11-2 this year
in dual match action.
Cercone
was the first Gator off the singles court with a 6-2, 6-0 win against Khristina
Blajkevitch on court three. Oyen followed with a 6-2, 6-2 over Jessica Stiles
at No. 2, before Morgan provided the clinching victory with a 6-1, 6-2 mark
versus Caitlin McGraw at the No. 4 spot.
Embree
was leading her match in the second set on court one, while Janowicz had just
finished the first game of her contest on court five when play was abandoned. Action
at the number six position never started inside the four-court indoor facility.
