Florida Gators
Stanford (NCAA Semifinal)
Women's Tennis Loses 4-1 in NCAA Semifinal
Sunday, May 20, 2001 | Women's Tennis
Mother Nature again played havoc at the NCAA Women's Tennis Team Championships, as rain delayed the semifinal matches two hours Sunday morning. Once the sky finally cleared and the courts at the Lincoln Tennis Center dried, top-seeded Stanford (29-0) defeated No. 4 Florida 4-1.
The Cardinal will play No. 6 Vanderbilt for the NCAA title on Monday at 10 a.m. The Commodores upset defending NCAA champion and No. 2 Georgia 4-2 in the other semifinal. Vanderbilt is making its first-ever appearance in the NCAA final.
Florida (24-3) originally was scheduled to play Stanford in the semifinals on Saturday, but rain forced the postponement of the match.
"Stanford did a better job of taking care of opportunities than we did today, and we had plenty of opportunities," UF head coach Andy Brandi said. "It just seemed that every time we had one of those opportunities, we tried too hard and didn't seem to capitalize. Maybe the saying that, "We wanted to win too badly," was a little too prevalent."
Stanford opened the match winning the doubles point after the Gators failed to capitalize on several opportunities.
The No. 1 doubles match featuring Florida's fourth-ranked team of Whitney Laiho and Jessica Lehnhoff playing top-ranked Lauren Barnikow and Lauren Kalvaria, the began with four straight service breaks. But the teams settled down and each held serve before the Cardinal broke Lehnhoff in the seventh game of the eight-game pro set. The teams again held serve for the next three games, until Stanford broke Lehnhoff and then served out for the match to win 8-4 and give the Cardinal their first doubles win. The loss was the first of the season for Laiho and Lehnhoff, who reeled off 29 straight victories before today's setback.
At the No. 2 position, UF's unranked tandem of Stephanie Hazlett and Julia Scaringe battled third-ranked Laura Granville and Gabriela Lastra. Each player held serve to begin the match, but Florida earned the first break and then held to take a 4-2 lead. The Cardinal held and followed with a break of Scaringe to get the match back on serve. Again the Gators struck back with another break in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead. But Stanford got to Scaringe's serve again and the teams played even until the 16th game, when the Cardinal broke Scaringe for the third time to win the match 9-7 and capture the crucial doubles points.
UF's freshmen doubles team of Annika Bengtsson and Lindsay Dawaf were up one service break leading 6-4 against Sarah Pestieau and Keiko Tokuda when play was abandoned.
"The doubles point was big because it took a lot of pressure off Stanford and put a lot of pressure on us and it showed when we started our singles matches," Brandi said. "It took a lot of juice out of us. Even though we talked about not feeling the pressure of losing the doubles point, I think we still did."
"Losing the doubles point was a little bit of a let down, but we didn't dwell on it too much because the only other time we lost the doubles point all season (at Texas) we swept the singles matches," senior Stephanie Hazlett said. "Being that this was my last match, today's result was very disappointing. I really enjoy college tennis and losing is never easy. I'm proud of everyone on our team. We all fought hard. Stanford was just the better team today."
Hazlett provided Florida's lone victory with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Lauren Barnikow at the No. 4 position. The Gator senior ends her collegiate career with a 102-24 career singles record and a 78-17 mark in doubles.
"I played a good match," Hazlett said about her win. "It was probably the best I've played all week. (Barnikow) played right into my hands because she tried to hit with me and that's what I like. It was a good match for me. I let up a little in the second set and it got back to 4-all, but I closed it out."
Florida's other senior, Whitney Laiho, wasn't as fortunate in her No. 1 singles match against Laura Granville, the top-ranked player in the country and lost 6-0, 7-6 (3) which gave Stanford a 3-1 lead in the team scoring.
"I went out there thinking that I was playing the number one player in the nation in the first set and she totally kicked my butt," Laiho said. "There was nothing I could really do and I didn't feel like I was hitting the ball bad. (UF Coach) Andy (Brandi) told me to step inside the court and play more aggressive and that's what put me back into the match. I feel like I had a few opportunities in the second set (two set points), but didn't capitalize. I think I wanted to win those points so bad that I went for too much."
Junior Jessica Lehnhoff played well in her No. 2 singles match against Lauren Kalvaria, but the Stanford junior was too tough today and gave the Cardinal a 2-1 lead with the 6-2, 6-3 win.
Gator freshman Annika Bengtsson lost to Emilia Anderson 6-4, 6-2 at the No. 6 position, which provided the clinching match point for Stanford.
"This has been a very good year, overall," Brandi said about the team's season. "When you think about all the adversity we have faced, I thought we did a great job of getting to the semifinals of the NCAA Championship with only six players. We succeeded in winning an SEC title and were competitive in every match we played. It's pretty darn good."
Laiho, Lehnhoff and freshman Lindsay Dawaf were selected to participate in the 64-player NCAA Singles Championships, which begins on Tuesday, May 22 at the Lincoln Tennis Center. Laiho and Lehnhoff also were selected to play in the 32-team doubles event.
NCAA Women's Tennis Team Championships
Lincoln Tennis Center
Stone Mountain, Ga.
Sunday, May 20, 2001
NCAA Semifinals
[1] Stanford d. [4] Florida, 4-1
[6] Vanderbilt d. [2] Georgia, 4-2
UF Individual Results only
Singles
No. 1 Laura Granville (1), SU d. Whitney Laiho (7), UF 6-0, 7-6 (3)
No. 2 Lauren Kalvaria (9), SU d. Jessica Lehnhoff (13), UF 6-2, 6-3
No. 3 Lindsay Dawaf (46), UF vs. Gabriela Lastra (17), SU 6-3, 0-6, 2-2 abandoned
No. 4 Stephanie Hazlett, UF d. Lauren Barnikow, SU 6-2, 6-4
No. 5 Julia Scaringe (81), UF vs. Keiko Tokuda (50), SU 3-6, 4-5 abandoned
No. 6 Emilia Anderson, SU d. Annika Bengtsson, UF 6-4, 6-2*
Doubles
No. 1 Barnikow/ Kalvaria (1), SU d. Laiho/ Lehnhoff (4), UF 8-4
No. 2 Granville/ Lastra (3), SU d. Hazlett/ Scaringe, UF 9-7
No. 3 Bengtsson/ Dawaf, UF vs. Sarah Pestieau/ Tokuda, SU 6-4 abandoned
*Clinching match
END OF REPORT
