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UF’s Allie Will Wins Singles Title at Riviera/ITA All-American Tennis Championships
PACIFIC PALISADES,
Calif. – University of Florida junior Allie Will (Boca Raton) captured
the first collegiate singles grand slam title of her career, winning
the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships held at the Riviera Tennis
Club on Sunday.
The title was the second of two earned by the
Gators on Sunday, as junior Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) and
senior Joanna Mather (Duluth, Ga.), the nation’s 12th-ranked doubles
team, began the day dominating Virginia’s ninth-ranked Hardenbergh and
Vierra, 8-0, to win the consolation doubles championship.
Will,
the No. 2 seed in the national singles event, earned a 7-6 (4), 1-6,
6-3 victory against Arizona State’s 11th-ranked Jacqueline Cako and
became the first Gator to capture a national singles championship since
Diana Srebrovic won the 2005 ITA National Indoor Championship.
“It
was a fantastic match, just a few inches here and there were the
difference. Allie won because she competed so well and was so
composed,” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “She handled the flows
of ups and downs perfectly. That allowed her to play consistently at a
high level throughout the third set. She played excellent tennis to win
the match. She competed great. She’s such a good athlete that when she
competes well and keeps her composure it makes her so difficult to
beat. I’m so proud of her. She’s come a long way from her freshman
year, maturity-wise, and today was a culmination of all her hard work.
“It
wasn’t necessarily her ground strokes that won the match for her today,
it was her head and the way she competed,” Thornqvist continued. “She
stuck with a game plan and played at a high level, managing the highs
and lows throughout it. Composure won it for Allie today and the result
was a grand slam championship.”
The 2010 ITA National Indoor
Doubles Champion, Will is the ninth Gator to win multiple collegiate
grand slam titles and just the third to claim crowns on the singles and
doubles courts, joining Jessica Lehnhoff (2001 NCAA Doubles Champion,
2001 Riviera All-American Singles Champion and 2001 Riviera
All-American Doubles) and Nicole Arendt (1990 ROLEX Indoor Singles
Champion, 1991 NCAA Doubles Champion and 1991 ROLEX Indoor Doubles
Champion).
“Lauren and Joanna were really tentative in their
first match at this tournament and were really upset after their loss,”
Thornqvist shared. “They played with a completely different mindset the
rest of the tournament. They should be one of the better teams in the
country and they know that. I thought they sort of took that out on the
rest of the field, beating two top-10 teams without barely breaking a
sweat. They executed flawlessly after the first round. Winning today
was a slight redemption, but certainly not what they came here to do.
At least as the winner of the consolation tournament they still earn an
automatic berth into the ITA National Indoor Championships (the second
collegiate grand slam event) and show what they can do.”
Will
and Mather had a chance to win a pair of titles each on Sunday, but
fell just short, as Will and sophomore Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg,
Belgium) lost in the main draw doubles final to Stanford’s Mallory
Burdette and Nicole Gibbs, 6-2, 7-6, and Mather fell in the consolation
singles final to Burdette, 6-1, 6,-2.
“Jo had a great tournament
but was just outplayed today. It was one of those days when Mallory
(Burdette) was hitting on all cylinders from the baseline and it’s
difficult to catch up,” Thornqvist said. “I thought Jo played the best
tennis of her career during this tournament. She continues to get
better every year and is doing really well. She’s a perfect teammate
and a perfect leader and I’m so happy that she played like a top-10,
top-15 level player.
“The doubles final was fantastic tennis, we
just came up short,” Thornqvist continued. “I’m so proud of them and
how all of the Gators did during this tournament. The best players in
the country were here and the fact that we had a representative in all
four final matches today is a credit to how hard they trained and
conditioned themselves during the off-season. This was a fantastic
tournament for us.”
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