Florida Gators
Vanderbilt (SEC Semifinal)
Women's Tennis Advances to SEC Tourn. Final
Saturday, April 20, 2002 | Women's Tennis
The second-seed Florida women's tennis team rallied to defeat third-seeded and sixth-ranked Vanderbilt 4-3 Saturday afternoon to advance to the final of the SEC Tournament. The Gators (18-1) face fourth-seeded South Carolina (16-6) for the title on Sunday at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center at 1 p.m. ET.
The hosting Gamecocks stunned top-ranked and No. 1-seeded Georgia 4-2 in Saturday's second semifinal match to reach the SEC Tournament Final for the first time ever. Florida advances to the SEC Tournament final for the 14th time in the 15-year history of the event, where the Gators have won 10 titles.
Florida won the regular-season match-up against South Carolina 4-2. The Gators own a 22-2 all-time record against the Gamecocks, including a 3-0 mark in SEC Tournament action.
With 17th-ranked South Carolina's win over Georgia, which was the defending SEC Tournament champion, it guarantees that for the fourth consecutive year the No. 1 seed and SEC regular season champ will not win the SEC Tournament. The last time the top-seed in the SEC Tournament won the title was in 1998, when Florida defeated Georgia 5-2.
For the second consecutive day, third-ranked Florida found itself in an early deficit after losing the doubles point and needed to win four of the six singles matches to claim the dual match.
"We let a lot of opportunities slip away in doubles. We had so many chances. We knew we had to do a much better job of taking advantage of openings and opportunities in singles and obviously, we did," UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "I'm just so proud of the team because it's hotter than heck out here and when things go against you and you find yourself down, it's easy to just pack it in. But we did a tremendous job of fighting. Vanderbilt has an unbelievable team. It takes a lot to beat them and we were able to do that twice this year after losing the doubles point both times. That says a lot about our character."
Florida's Julia Scaringe evened the team score at 1-all after a solid 6-2, 6-3 victory over Audra Falk at the No. 6 position, avenging the regular season loss where Falk won 7-6 (4), 6-1. The Gator junior owned the only two services breaks of the first set, taking the third and seventh games en route to claiming the opening set. Scaringe then earned breaks in the third and fifth games of the second set, before Falk produced her first of the match. But Scaringe broke right back to take a 5-2 lead and then served out for the match. Scaringe entered the weekend having lost three consecutive singles matches and four of her last five, but has produced two impressive victories during the SEC Tournament.
"I'm just trying to focus on what I need to do and take one point at a time," Scaringe said. "We knew today was going to be a tough match. After doubles, we agreed to focus on what we all had to do individually and we were able to get the win today because of that."
"What more can I say about Julia. That was an unbelievable win she had today," Thornqvist said. "Her winning today was the difference between us having a 'W' and having a 'L.'"
After Scaringe's match, Vanderbilt regained the lead after Annie Menees defeated Gator sophomore Annika Bengtsson 6-3, 6-2 at the No. 5 spot. Shortly afterwards, the Commodores built a 3-1 advantage when Jenny Miller topped UF's Lindsay Dawaf 6-3, 6-4 at No. 2, putting the pressure on Florida to win the remaining three matches.
About this time, the first set on the remaining courts was being decided and the Gators battled to win all three.
"I felt the momentum swing in our favor once we won the first sets at No. 1, 3 and 4," Thornqvist said. "Today is a tough day with the temperature so hot to turn a first-set loss into a win. I felt that if we could win the first set we would be in good shape to win the match."
At the No. 4 spot, freshman Alexis Gordon won her first set against Aleke Tsoubanso, but found herself trailing 4-1 in the second, down one break.
"I knew I had to start changing some things because they were just weren't working at all," said Gordon on being down 4-1 in the second set. "I worked on just keeping the ball in the court because she was the one making the errors. I just had to take it point by point and not look ahead in the match."
Gordon's plan worked as she fought off several break points en route to winning the final five games of the set, capping the 6-3, 6-4 victory with a powerful overhead smash on match point.
Florida freshman Zerene Reyes then won the 6-4, 6-1 baseline battle against Kate Burson at the No. 3 position to even the team scoring at 3-all.
The No. 1 court provided the decided the victory, as Florida's top-ranked Jessica Lehnhoff rallied from a 4-1 first-set deficit, down two breaks, over 11th-ranked Sarah Riske to force a tiebreak by breaking Riske in the 12th game. Lehnhoff capitalized on two early mini-breaks in the tiebreak to race out to a 3-0 lead. Lehnhoff then double-faulted, but fought back and won the next two points to take a 5-1 lead after Riske also double-faulted. The Gator senior took advantage of her opportunity and won the tiebreak 7-2.
"When I was down 4-1 and she had three game points in the first set, I felt a little lost. But once I got to the tiebreak I knew I had the momentum," Lehnhoff said. "A lot of times players are going to enter the match against me feeling no pressure because of my ranking. I think that sometimes players are going to come out swinging and Sarah did that today. I wasn't playing at the top of my game at the beginning of the match, but I knew I had to be patient and that the opportunities would open up eventually."
Lehnhoff rode the momentum of her come-back win of the first set to jump out to a 3-1 lead in the second. She held serve for the remainder of the match and earned a break in the seventh game, serving out the 7-6 (2), 6-2 win to give Florida the team victory.
Florida found itself trailing 1-0 in the team scoring after dropping the doubles point. At the No. 1 position, Florida's fifth-ranked pair of Lindsay Dawaf and Jessica Lehnhoff opened their match against eighth-ranked Sarah Riske and Aleke Tsoubanos losing their serve and quickly trailed 2-0 in the eight-game pro-set. But the Gators broke back in the fourth game, held and then broke again to take a 4-2 lead. However, UF couldn't hold on the ensuing game, as the Commodore duo won the next four games to take a 7-4 advantage. The Gators earned another break, but couldn't hold serve as Vanderbilt took the match 8-5.
The No. 2 doubles match was the next to finish. UF's Alexis Gordon and Julia Scaringe battled Kate Burson and Annie Menees game for game, as the match was on serve until the Gators earned the first break to take a 6-4 lead. But Vandy broke in the next game and continued that momentum to close out the match with a 8-6 win to give the Commodores the doubles point.
Florida was up one break, leading 7-5 at the No. 3 position when play was abandoned.
SEC Women's Tennis Tournament
Columbia, SC
Saturday, April 20, 2002
Team Results, Semifinals
(4) South Carolina 4, (1) Georgia 2
(2) Florida 4, (3) Vanderbilt 3
UF's Individual Results
Doubles
1- Sarah Riske/Aleke Tsoubanos (8), VU d. Lindsay Dawaf/Jessica Lehnhoff (5), UF 8-5
2- Kate Burson/Annie Menees, VU d. Alexis Gordon/Julia Scaringe, UF 8-6*
3- Annika Bengtsson/Zerene Reyes, UF vs. Jenny Miller/Kelly Schmandt, VU DNF
Singles
1-Jessica Lehnhoff (1), UF d. Sarah Riske (11), VU 7-6 (2), 6-2*
2- Jenny Miller (28), VU d. Lindsay Dawaf (16), UF 6-3, 6-4
3-Zerene Reyes (52), UF d. Kate Burson (121), VU 6-4, 6-1
4-Alexis Gordon (85), UF d. Aleke Tsoubanso, VU 6-3, 6-4
5-Annie Menees, VU d. Annika Bengtsson, UF 6-3, 6-2
6-Julia Scaringe, UF d. Audra Falk, VU 6-2, 6-3
*clinching match/doubles point
END OF REPORT
