The
Gators capped their regular-season home slate with a 4-0 victory against
Mississippi State at Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex on beautiful
Sunday morning in Gainesville.
The
Gators (17-2, 10-1 SEC) won the doubles point before junior Olivia Janowicz
(Palm Bay, Fla.), junior Alexandra Cercone (Seminole, Fla.) and freshman
Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) turned in singles victories to
secure the dual match win.
“We
were good in doubles, especially at positions one and two,” UF head coach Roland
Thornqvist said. “Singles was some good and some lost focus a little bit,
but overall I was happy about the weekend. It’s getting close to the end of
Spring and the fitness is really coming along. We’re moving really well, but I
think we lost focus a little bit today.”
The
win was Florida’s 10th consecutive overall victory, as well as its 119th
straight win at home and its 124th regular-season win at home which includes a
12-0 home record this year.
Included
among the astonishing home win streak is the 53-0 dual match home record compiled
with the help of Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) and Caroline
Hitimana (Waterloo, Belgium), Florida’s two seniors who were honored in a
pre-match ceremony.
“It
was special, for Caroline and I to come out and get a win in doubles and almost
get a win in singles is great,” Embree said. “It was a good team win by
everybody. It was bitter sweet that this is coming to an end. We’ve both had
great careers at Florida and really thankful and blessed for the support that
we’ve both had these four years. We’re not done yet so it’s not too sad, yet.”
Janowicz
gave Florida a 2-0 lead after she downed Petra Ferancova, 6-1, 6-1, in 54
minutes. The Gator junior, who was playing a season-high No. 4 in the lineup
for the third time this year, needed just two breaks - in the second and sixth
games - to win the opening set. Ferancova held to begin the second and halt
Janowicz’s run of three straight games, but that was the only game she would
earn during the second, as Janowicz ripped off the last six to claim her
team-leading 29th singles victory of the season.
Cercone
downed Naomi Tran, 6-2, 6-0, on court three, as the Gator junior won her
seventh straight singles match and improved to 21-7 overall, as well as 12-1 in
dual match action. The two traded breaks early in the first set before Cercone
captured breaks in the sixth and eighth games to take the first frame. She
carried that momentum in the second set, where she continued her run and capped
the victory winning the final 10 games.
“She’s
just solid,” praised Thornqvist of Cercone. “She makes very, very few unforced
errors. The interesting thing with our whole team that we constantly talk about
is that when we makes mistakes we play solid points after and that’s a mark of
a championship team, when we don’t continue to give away points.”
Collins provided the
clinching dual match win when she clocked in a 6-1, 6-3 decision against Lien
Van Geel on court six. The Gator rookie cruised during the opening set and
jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second. Van Geel finally got on the board with
her serve in the fifth game, winning three straight before Collins held in the
eighth game and earned one final break to take the victory.
Florida
won the doubles point for the 12th time this year, as Cercone and Hitimana
blanked Georgiana Patrasc and Roseline Dion, 8-0, before the No. 20-ranked
tandem of Embree and Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) topped
No. 65 Alexandra Perper and Naomi Tran, 8-2, to clinch the initial team point
of the dual match.
The
pair of Cercone and Hitimana were teaming for the just the fourth time this
year and the first in dual match play, but didn’t show any lack of chemistry,
as the Gators needed just 36 minutes to claim the first individual win of the
afternoon.
Two
minutes later, the more veteran team of Embree and Oyen polished off their
victory, as the Gators held serve throughout and earned early breaks in the
third and fifth games for the big lead en route to the clinching doubles-point
decision. Individually, Embree improved to 111-21 all-time on the doubles
court, while the tandem is 10-2 this year overall and 20-3 all-time.
Florida
plays its final two regular-season matches on the road next weekend, when the
Gators travel to Lexington on Friday, April 12 and face Kentucky, before
heading to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt on Sunday, April 14.
