Florida Gators
NCAA Singles & Doubles - Day 5
W-Tennis Duo Wins NCAA Doubles Championship
Saturday, May 26, 2001 | Women's Tennis
The University of Florida's Whitney Laiho (Newport, RI) and Jessica Lehnhoff (Delray Beach, FL) defeated Stanford's No. 3 seeded Laura Granville and Gabriela Lastra 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the final of the NCAA Women's Tennis Doubles Championships Saturday afternoon at the Lincoln Tennis Center.
"This is a great feeling to end my college career on a note like this," Laiho said. "It's unbelievable."
"I'm so excited to have played with Whitney and to leave each other on a note like this," Lehnhoff said. "This is a memory I will cherish forever. Winning this doubles title is something we have wanted to do all year, and finally, we did it!"
The Gator tandem, the No. 4 seed in the tournament, gave Florida its fourth doubles title in the 20-year history of the event. Laiho and Lehnhoff end the season with a 34-1 record and have a 45-6 career record playing together.
"We knew we had to keep moving towards the net in the final two sets," Laiho said. "We focused on what we needed to do and not what they were doing."
Florida lost the first set 6-4 after the Stanford duo broke Laiho's serve to take a 5-4 lead and then Lastra held serve.
"I got very nervous at the beginning of the match," Lehnhoff said. "I kept thinking about how much we wanted to win this and the importance of it. I wanted to win too badly and I wasn't allowing myself to play. Whitney finally calmed me down and got me to play. That was one of the biggest things in the match, her calming me down."
"I thought they started a little sluggish and a little nervous," UF head coach Andy Brandi said. "They just seemed to be in awe of the situation and by the opportunity that presented itself. At the end of the first set we talked and my comment to them was, 'Do you think you can win and if you do think you can win, you have to start acting like it through your body language and be more aggressive on the court.' They did that from that point on and controlled the match."
In the second set, Florida jumped out to a 2-0 lead after breaking Granville's serve in the second game, but the Stanford duo broke right back to keep the match on serve. With Lastra serving, the Gators jumped out to a 15-40 lead. Lastra served up an ace on the next point, but Laiho sailed a perfect lob over the Cardinal to give UF its second break of the set. Laiho then held serve to give UF a 4-1 advantage. Laiho and Lehnhoff took advantage of several Stanford unforced errors on the Granville's serve to take a 5-1 lead. With Lehnhoff serving for the second set, the Gator pair found themselves facing two break points, but fought them off to force a deciding third set.
In the final set, the Gators jumped on Lastra's serve and lost just one point as they broke her for the fifth time in the match. The teams comfortably held their respective service games for the next four games, as UF led 3-2. On Laiho's serve, the Gators jumped out to a 40-0 lead, but couldn't close it out as the Cardinal forced duce. The Gator tandem finally held the serve on the sixth chance of that game to take a 4-2 lead. Granville served up an ace to open the next game and held serve. Lehnhoff, who struggled with her serve throughout the match, found herself in a quick 0-30 deficit to begin the seventh game. But UF won the next three points and held a game point, but Laiho hit a volley long. The Gators got the game-point back, but Lehnhoff double-faulted. From there the UF duo seemed to get refocused and hit winners on the next two points to take a 5-3 in the final and deciding set. Lastra served and got Stanford to one game point, but the Gators fought that off and forced duce. Then Lehnhoff hit a winner at the net followed by Granville's forehand that sailed long and the Gators clinched the championship.
"The games when they held serve to go up 4-2 and then 5-3 were huge," Brandi said. "Psychologically, that was a huge hole for Stanford to come out of. Those two service holds really put a lot of pressure on (Lastra and Granville) and allowed Whitney and Jessica to be more aggressive."
Earlier in the day, Granville became the first player to successfully defend her NCAA singles title since UF's Lisa Raymond won back-to-back crowns in 1992 and 1993. Granville defeated teammate Lauren Kalvaria 6-3, 7-6 (1) to win the championship.
This is the fifth time a Gator doubles team has advanced to the final and the first time since 1998, when the duo of Dawn Buth and Stephanie Nickitas reached the finals but lost to California's Amanda Augustus and Amy Jensen. Buth and Nickitas won the 1996 and 1997 NCAA doubles titles, while the tandem of Jullian Alexander and Nicole Arendt captured the crown in 1991.
"With no disrespect to the other Florida teams that have won the doubles title, but Whitney and Jessica were very much underdogs throughout the entire tournament in the eyes of everyone else," Brandi said. "And here they are, they best team in the country. I am so proud of the both of them."
NCAA Women's Tennis Team Championships
Lincoln Tennis Center
Stone Mountain, Ga.
Saturday, May 26, 2001
NCAA Women's Tennis Individual Championships
NCAA Doubles Final
[4] Whitney Laiho/Jessica Lehnhoff, UF d. [2] Laura Granville/ Gabriela Lastra, Stanford 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
NCAA Singles Final
[1] Laura Granville, Stanford d. [8] Lauren Kalvaria, Stanford 6-3, 7-6 (1)
END OF REPORT
