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No. 2 Florida Women’s Tennis Sweeps Arkansas, Maintains SEC Lead
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The
No. 2-ranked Florida women’s tennis team swept Arkansas, 7-0, on what
became a windy and chilly Friday evening at Linder Stadium at Ring
Tennis Complex, as the Gators maintained their overall lead in the
Southeastern Conference standings with two matches remaining.
The
Gators next play host to LSU on Sunday at 1 p.m. in their
regular-season home finale. With a win against the Tigers, Florida can
clinch at least a share of the program’s 26th SEC regular-season
championship in the 33 years the league has sponsored the sport. The
Gators hold a one-match lead against Alabama, which upset Georgia on
Friday and handed the Lady Bulldogs their second SEC loss of the year.
The Crimson Tide are 8-1 in SEC play, with their only loss coming to
the Gators.
Florida (16-1, 9-0 SEC) won its 11th consecutive
match while extending its program-record home winning streak to 104
straight victories. Friday’s win also was the team’s 34th in a row in
SEC regular-season action.
“I thought we played well and were
really professional in our body language and composure and that was the
highlight of the day,” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “We had
some really good first sets with them and I was really pleased with the
way we handled ourselves.”
The Gators captured the doubles point
as the teams of Alexandra Cercone (Seminole, Fla.) and Sofie Oyen
(Leopoldsburg, Belgium) won 8-1 on court two in 37 minutes before the
veteran pair of Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.) and Lauren Embree (Marco
Island, Fla.) earned an 8-3 victory on court one to clinch the initial
team point for Florida.
Cercone and Oyen needed 37 minutes for
the first individual win of the dual match. It was the first dual match
pairing for Cercone and Oyen, who compiled a 5-1 record together during
the fall season.
For Mather, the doubles victory was the 99th of
her four-year career, needing one more to become the 13th Gator to win
as many. The win also was the 14th straight of the tandem of Embree and
Mather.
Caroline Hitimana (Waterloo, Belgium) and Olivia
Janowicz (Palm Bay, Fla.) completed the doubles sweep for Florida, as
the pair earned a break in the seventh game, which was the lone break
in the 8-game pro set, en route to the 8-6 decision. The Gators
captured the match on their fifth match point opportunity, including
their fourth one in the 12th and final game.
“It was tough to
play in the wind and I thought we handled ourselves well,” Thornqvist
said. “Arkansas has good players. Players who are skilled with big
weapons and I thought we did well.”
Mather played a season-high
No. 2 in the singles lineup and improved to 2-0 in her career at the
No. 2 spot when she earned a 6-1, 6-2 victory against Emily Carbone and
earned her 10th consecutive singles win. Carbone began the match
breaking Mather’s serve, but that would be her only break in the match,
as Mather dominated the rest of the contest to give Florida a 2-0 lead
in the team scoring.
Oyen was the next Gator off the court, as
she produced a 6-4, 6-2 win against Claudine Paulson on court three,
where she was playing for just the second time this season. After the
two competitors exchanged serves to begin the match, Oyen took another
break in the fifth game and the rest of the set was on-serve, as the
Gators sophomore served out for the frame. She then jumped out to a
two-break, 3-1 lead, before Paulson broke back. Oyen, however, dug deep
and won the final three games, capped by breaking Paulson at love to
win the match and give Florida a 3-0 lead.
Janowicz and Cercone
were playing the final point on their respective singles courts, with
Janowicz finished just ahead to produce the clinching dual match
victory, 6-4, 6-1 against Cartherine Parenteau on court six. Cercone
followed seconds later with a 6-4, 6-3 win against Laurie Gingras on
court four that gave Florida a 5-0 lead.
Less than a minute
later junior Allie Will (Boca Raton, Fla.) finished off Stephanie Roy,
6-3, 6-1, and improved to 20-1 on the singles court this year, as well
as 103-11 in her career.
Hitimana was the last off the court, as
she defeated Kate Lukomskaya, 6-4, 6-2, on court five and earned her
50th career singles victory after having won her 49th career doubles
match earlier in the contest.
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