The top-ranked University of Florida women's tennis team breezed past Florida Atlantic 7-0 Saturday afternoon at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex in the season opener for both squads.
The Gators got off to a quick start, needing just 28 minutes to win the doubles point. UF's No. 2 doubles pair of Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes blanked Krystel Borg 8-0, one minute before Alexis Gordon and Julie Rotondi defeated Alene Dvorakova and Karolina Roubickova 8-1 at the No. 1 position to secure the first team point of the season.
The No. 3 doubles tandem of Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak completed the doubles sweep with an 8-2 win over Veronika Koksova and Stephanie Beaulieu in 52 minutes.
Florida blazed through five of the six singles matches, winning positions No. 2 through 6 in 53 minutes, dropping a total of three games in those five matches. In fact, all five of those courts had finished while UF senior Julie Rotondi and FAU's Alana Dvorakova were still in the first set of their No. 1 singles battle. That match opened with a pair of service breaks, which was a sign of things to come in the opening set, that eventually featured 10 breaks in the 12 games and was decided in a tiebreaker which Rotondi won 7-3, propelling her to the 7-6 (3), 6-0 victory.
"Dvorakova has posted some good results during her career and she's not going to give you any points," UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "I don't think Julie was as sharp as she wanted to be, but when it came to closing out the big points, Julie came through."
Sophomore Zerene Reyes was the first Gator to record a singles victory, earning a 6-1, 2-0 decision before Veronika Koksova retired from an injury at the No. 3 position.
Senior Lindsay Dawaf played her first match since last year's NCAA Championships and easily defeated Krystel Borg 6-0, 6-0 at the No. 5 spot in 44 minutes. Dawaf sat out the fall rehabilitating off-season surgery.
"It felt great to be out there and playing again," Dawaf said. "I was a little rusty, but that's probably to be expected."
"I thought Lindsay looked very tough today and I was really pleased," Thornqvist said. "She has a lot of pop and energy around her. She's done a lot of work to get ready to play and it showed."
Freshman Nina Suvak provided the clinching point in her collegiate dual match debut, blanking Stephanie Beaulieu 6-0, 6-0 at No. 6 in 46 minutes.
"Nina played very, very well last week at the UNLV tournament and she carried that over into today's match," Thornqvist praised. "I'm not surprised she played as well as she did."
Three minutes later after Suvak's result, sophomore Boglarka Berecz won the final 10 games of her No. 4 match against Tania Rivera to claim the 6-1, 6-0 victory. Four minutes after Berecz's result, Jennifer Magley collected an impressive 6-0, 6-2 win over Karolina Roubickova at the No. 2 position.
The Gators next play host to UCF on Monday, January 26. The match is schedule to begin at 5 p.m. and admission is free.
College Women's Tennis
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
Saturday, January 24, 2004
Final Score: Florida 7, Florida Atlantic 0
Doubles
No. 1 Alexis Gordon/Julie Rotondi (8), UF def. Alena Dvorakova/Karolina Roubickova, FAU 8-1
No. 2 Jennifer Magley/Zerene Reyes (13), UF def. Krystel Borg/Tania Rivera, FAU 8-0
No. 3 Boglarka Berecz/Nina Suvak (33), UF def. Veronika Koksova/Stephanie Beaulieu, FAU 8-2
Singles
No. 1 Julie Rotondi (32), UF def. Alena Dvorakova, FAU 7-6 (3), 6-0
No. 2 Jennifer Magley (16), UF def. Karolina Roubickova, FAU 6-0, 6-2
No. 3 Zerene Reyes (27), UF def. Veronika Koksova, FAU 6-1, 2-0 ret.
No. 4 Boglarka Berecz (t-99), UF def. Tania Rivera, FAU 6-1, 6-0
No. 5 Lindsay Dawaf, UF def. Krystel Borg, FAU 6-0, 6-0
No. 6 Nina Suvak, UF def. Stephanie Beaulieu, FAU 6-0, 6-0*
* clinched dual match
END OF REPORT
