The University of Florida women's tennis team fed off a spirited home crowd of 766 and the momentum of winning an emotional doubles point to defeat Duke 4-1 and advance to the final of the NCAA Championships. The Gators (30-2) will play two-time defending champion Stanford on Sunday at 1 p.m. for the national championship.
The Cardinal (25-1) defeated Pac-10 rival California 4-1 in their semifinal match.
Florida advances to its 10th NCAA final, including its third appearance in the championship match at home. The Gators, who have won three NCAA titles, have never captured the title on their home courts. This is the fifth time Florida has played host to the NCAA Championships, the last coming in 1999, when the Gators lost to Stanford in the final. Florida and Stanford also met in last year's final, with the Cardinal winning 4-1 on their home courts.
"It is a great feeling (to return to the NCAA final)," UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "After losing the finals last year, our players were all business about getting back and having the opportunity to play in the last match of the year. We feel really good about this win and we are going to enjoy it for a few hours."
"When I looked at the draw, the first thing I wanted to see was where Duke was, because in my opinion this was about as good as any Duke team I've seen," Thornqvist said. "It took all of our might to beat them at home last time and I knew it was going to come down to the smallest little detail today. I'm really proud because half way through the doubles it didn't look very good."
Florida junior Lindsay Dawaf (Olney, MD) provided the clinching dual match, defeating Saras Arasu 6-3, 6-2 at the No. 3 position. The match was an extremely tough baseline battle, with Dawaf eventually breaking Arasu in the final game to take the victory in one hour and 50 minutes.
Florida sophomore Alexis Gordon (Windsor, CT) staged a remarkable comeback at the No. 5 position against Katie Blaszak 6-2, 7-5 to set up the match-clinching heroics for Dawaf. Gordon won the first set with breaks in the third and seventh games. However, she lost her serve in the fourth game and then again in the sixth game at love, putting Blaszak in a position to serve for the second set. That's when Gordon began to rally. She held off Blaszak in the next game and then again in the ninth before holding to get the set back on serve at 5-all. With Blaszak serving in the 11th game, Gordon fought off one set point and capitalized on her second break-point to swing the momentum completely back in her favor. Serving in the 12th game, Gordon fell behind 30-40, but she refused to give in and forced duce. Blaszak won the next point, giving her a second break-point opportunity. With on-court temperatures officially recorded at 105 degrees, Gordon dug even deeper and won the next two points to complete the second-set comeback and claim the match that gave Florida a 3-1 lead.
"After being down 4-1 and 5-1, my heart kind of sunk," Gordon shared. "[Florida head coach] Roland [Thornqvist] kept on telling me that I had to fight it out, and I knew it. I just had to get my head back into it and do what I did in the first set and just be able to come through. I knew I would be able to come through in the end and fight it out. I just made her play and just get the ball on the court. I didn't try to do anything fancy or big, but I just got the ball back in the court and made her play."
Florida freshman Jennifer Magley (Bradenton, FL) posted her third straight NCAA singles victory, defeating Katie Granson 6-2, 6-1 to give the Gators their first singles victory of the match. There were a total six service breaks in the opening set, with Magley owning four of those, including the final game of the first set. She began the second set holding serve, and then broke Granson again in the next game to carry a one-break lead to the sixth game, where she earned another break to take a 5-1 lead. Magley found herself trailing 30-40 in her next service game, but fought off break point and won on her second match-point.
"At the National Indoors, I lost to Granson 6-0 in the third [set]. That was really a learning experience to me," Magley said. "I have to say that I absolutely abhor losing in anything, whether it is checkers or monopoly. I don't care. I hate losing. Losing isn't always necessarily bad when you learn from it. I felt I learned a lot from that match. Coming into this match, I was motivated not because I lost but just to go out with the confidence knowing how much my skills have improved. I just went out there and took care of business."
Duke's lone win came at the No. 1 singles position, where second-ranked Kelly McCain defeated 47th-ranked Julia Scaringe 6-2, 6-1 to even the dual match at 1-all.
The match began with intense doubles action, as none of the teams on the three courts could establish more than a one-break lead in the eight-game pro-sets. Duke struck first with a break in the opening game on the No. 2 court and rode that all the way to the 11th game, where Kelly McCain and Hillary Adams earned a second break against Alexis Gordon and Julie Rotondi (Hingham MA) to take a 7-4 lead. The Gators broke back against Adams' serve, but couldn't hold off the Blue Devils in the next game as Duke won the match 8-5. That loss snapped a 12-match win streak for Gordon and Rotondi.
The No. 1 doubles match featured UF's Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes, ranked 26th, against Duke's eighth-ranked Amanda Johnson and Julie DeRoo. The Gators earned the first break in the fourth game, after DeRoo double-faulted on break point. But the Blue Devils came back and took Magley's serve. The next three games were played on serve before Duke broke Magley's serve for the second time to take a 5-4 lead. Again, the next two games were played on serve before the Gators broke DeRoo and then Magley held to give UF a 7-6 lead. The Gators then broke McCain for the first time to win the match 8-6 and keep Florida's hopes alive of winning the doubles point.
On court No. 3, UF's Lindsay Dawaf and Julia Scaringe (Marietta, GA) earned the first break against Katie Blaszak and Katie Granson, but the Duke duo broke back in the seventh game. The match remained on serve until the 12th game, where the Gators fought off two game points on Granson's serve and capitalized on their second break-point to earn a 7-5 lead. With Scaringe serving the 13th game, the Gators closed out the match with an 8-5 victory to give Florida the important doubles point.
Duke had won the doubles point in the previous two meetings against Florida this season, which resulted in identical 4-3 final decisions, one for each school.
"I think they were affected by us winning the doubles point," Thornqvist said. "Both times we played them earlier in the year, they beat us in the doubles point. We never had a chance to win the doubles point the first two times. The way our No. 1 doubles team came back to beat them today really set them back. Coming into singles clearly we had momentum right away. We were good enough today to keep the momentum all the way through."
NCAA Women's Tennis Championships Semifinals
Ring Tennis Complex, Gainesville, FL
May 17, 2003
Florida 4, Duke 1
Doubles
1. Jennifer Magley/Zerene Reyes (26), UF d. Amanda Johnson/Julie DeRoo (8), DU 8-6
2. Kelly McCain/Hillary Adams (14), DU d. Alexis Gordon/Julie Rotondi (53), UF 8-5
3. Lindsay Dawaf/Julia Scaringe, UF d. Katie Blaszak/Katie Granson, DU 8-5*
Singles
1. Kelly McCain (2), DU d. Julia Scaringe (47), UF 6-2, 6-1
2. Julie Rotondi (35), UF vs. Amanda Johnson (19), DU DNF (UF led 6-1, 4-6, 3-2)
3. Lindsay Dawaf (28), UF d. Saras Arasu (60), DU 6-3, 6-2*
4. Zerene Reyes (24), UF vs. Julie DeRoo, DU DNF (UF led 6-3, 3-3)
5. Alexis Gordon (14), UF d. Katie Blaszak (69), DU 6-2, 7-5
6. Jennifer Magley (95), UF d. Katie Granson, DU 6-2, 6-1
Order of Finish: Doubles: 2, 1, 3; Singles: 1, 6, 5, 3
END OF REPORT
