Florida
senior Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.), junior Sofie Oyen
(Leopoldsburg, Belgium) and junior Alexandra Cercone (Seminole, Fla.) lost
their respective first round matches at the NCAA Singles Championships on
Wednesday at the Khan Outdoor Tennis Complex at the Atkins Tennis Center.
Embree
and Oyen continue action in the 32-team NCAA Doubles Championships that begins
Thursday afternoon. The Gator pair, ranked No. 11 in the country, drew
Stanford’s No. 28-ranked Stacey Tan and Ellen Tsay in the first round. The two
doubles teams did not meet during the NCAA Team Semifinal match, as Embree and
Oyen played the No. 1 position and Tan and Tsay the No. 2 spot.
Embree
drew a tough opening-round opponent in No. 21 Jacqueline Cako from Arizona
State and the Sun Devil put the pressure on the Gator senior throughout the
match en route to a 6-3, 6-2 decision.
With
Embree receiving, down 6-3, 4-2 and facing game point, a lightening delay
followed by a rain storm forced the competitors indoors, where after a 36
minute delay, Cako served out one point for the 5-2 lead and then lost just one
point in the next game on Embree, who served back-to-back double-faults in the
final two points of the seventh game.
Nine
of the final 14 games went to duce in the tight contest and Embree wasn’t
without her chances, as Cako played without any pressure against the event’s
No. 1 seed. In the second set, Embree was just 1-for-8 in break point chances,
while Cako a more efficient 4-of-6.
“I
thought Jacqui played extremely well and we didn’t really have the answer for
her play deep to our backhand,” UF head coach Roland Thronqvist said. “I felt
Lauren played with a little bit of pressure, trying to win this tournament.
Jacqui played well and outplayed us.
“I
feel bad for Lauren, she had hopes to win another team and perhaps give it a
run here in the individual championships but it wasn’t meant to be,” Thornqvist
continued. “She’s greatly disappointed now, but when she gets away and thinks
back on her career I’m sure she will be very proud, as we all are.”
Embree
concludes her tremendous collegiate singles career with a 117-16 overall
record, including a 26-3 mark this season.
Her
117 singles wins rank as the 12th most in Gator history, while her career
singles winning percentage of 88.0 percent is the third-highest in program
history.
“She’s
meant a great deal to us,” shared Thornqvist of Embree. “It goes way beyond
winning, as well. The way she prepares, practices, trains, it’s really lifted
the whole boat for four years. People ask all the time how you replace a player
like that, you just don’t. Over time you hope that her footprint lives on and
that everyone has learned to train and act like she has.”
Oyen
dropped her opening round match, 6-3, 6-4, to TCU’s No. 44 Stefanie Tan. Five
of the first six games were breaks and Oyen found herself on the short end of a
4-2 score. She held to bring it to 4-3, but Tan held and broke to close out the
first set. She carried that momentum into the second set, where she raced out
to a 4-0 lead. Oyen stormed back by winning her four straight games, halting
Tan’s six-game run, but Tan held in the ninth game and broke Oyen on last time
to earn the straight set decision.
Oyen,
who was competing in the NCAA Singles Championships for the second consecutive
season, ends her singles season with a 28-9 overall record, while her career
ledger stands at 80-25.
Cercone
easily played one of the longest matches on either the men’s or women’s side,
battling UNLV’s No. 59 Lucia Batta for three hours and 14 minutes before bowing
out, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4. The Gator junior, who capped her season with a 26-10
overall singles record and a 92-29 career spot, fended off one match point two
hours and 26 minutes into the match in the second set, when she was receiving
down 5-4, but came up big to get the break and then held serve in a 14-point
game for a 6-5 lead. Batta held serve to force a tiebreaker that Cercone
captured by taking control midway through and the match headed to a third set.
Cercone
jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the second set, before Batta won three
straight games to take a 3-2 lead. Cercone held serve on a 14-point game,
fighting off one break point, for 3-all. Batta won a quick game on her serve
and Cercone’s service game was interrupted three times during long rallies to
replay the point after a ball from a neighboring court halted action. The Gator
junior couldn’t regroup and lost her serve at love. She dug deep and fought off
two more match points in the ninth game and capitalized on her first break
point and headed to the baseline aiming to get the set back on serve. Batta,
however, won four straight points and took marathon match.
