Florida Gators
Central Florida
No. 1 Women's Tennis Tops UCF, 5-0
Tuesday, January 27, 2004 | Women's Tennis
The heavy rain that threatened the Gainesville area Monday evening finally began to arrive, but not before the top-ranked University of Florida women's tennis team was able to post a 5-0 victory over UCF (0-1) at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
The final two singles matches were abandoned once the rain began to fall since the Gators (2-0) already had clinched their 19th consecutive victory, a run dating back to last season. While the rain wasn't present for the majority of Monday's match, swirling and gusting winds bothered the competitors all match long.
"When it's gusty like it was today, it definitely effects how you play because it kind of shrinks the court since it's tough to hit the corners," UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "UCF is a really scrappy team and they hit a lot of balls back so we were aware that we were going to have some close sets. Today really showed us some areas we need to work on to close out points better."
UF freshman Nina Suvak won the first 22 games of her collegiate dual match singles career before finally allowing an opponent to break through. Kristina Lohmos finally won a game off the Gator rookie, who refocused to earn the 6-0, 6-1 victory in 49 minutes and give UF a 2-0 lead.
Senior Lindsay Dawaf looked solid in her second singles match of the season posting an impressive 6-1, 6-1 win over Megan Rosario-Hunter at the No. 5 position. Dawaf opened the match with a break en route to a quick 4-0 lead. Rosario-Hunter finally held, but Dawaf took the next two games and the first set. Rosario-Hunter earned her first break of the match to begin the second set, but that's all she would manage, as Dawaf cruised through the remainder of the set to win the match in straight sets.
Sophomore Boglarka Berecz provided the clinching dual match victory with her 6-0, 6-1 win over Pamela Fernandez at the No. 4 position. Berecz won the first 10 games of the match before Fernandez held serve in the 11th game. However, Berecz continued her baseline attack and emerged with the impressive victory in one hour and 12 minutes.
"I had a really good rhythm on the ball and could finish early," Berecz said. "I stuck to all the tactics I focused on in the match and it turned out well."
On court No. 1, UF's Alexis Gordon roared out to a quick 4-0 lead, winning games three and four at love against Julie Pecastaing, and eventually recording a 6-0, 6-3 win. In the second set, Gordon again jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Pecastaing won a long game to hold her serve. Gordon then held to get within one game of the match, but Pecastaing refused to go quietly and continued to battle by holding serve and then earning her first break of the match. But Gordon proved too strong and broke right back to close out the match.
That was the last match to finish because the rain that threatened to fall all match long finally appeared when the matches on courts No. 2 and No. 3 were still in progress. UF's Jennifer Magley won a tough first set tiebreaker over Anna Westin and the second set was on-serve at 4-all before the match was abandoned at the No. 2 position. Gator senior Julie Rotondi also won a hard-fought first set, 6-3, in her match against Kristina Lohmos and was serving for the match leading 6-5 in the second was play was halted.
The Gators needed just 37 minutes to secure the doubles point, winning on courts No. 1 and No. 2. UF swapped the positions of its top two tandems from Saturday's season-opening match, as Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes assumed the No. 1 position, where they topped Ola Luczak and Anna Westin 8-2. Alexis Gordon and Julie Rotondi then followed with a 8-1 win over Julie Pecastaing and Megan Rosario-Hunter to capture the doubles point for the Gators.
UF completed the sweep of all three doubles positions when the No. 3 duo of Boglarka Berecz and Nina Suvak posted a 8-3 victory over Pamela Fernandez and Kristina Lohmos.
Florida next plays its first road match of the 2003-04 season, traveling to Tampa to face South Florida on Saturday, January 31 at 12:30 p.m.
Women's College Tennis
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
Monday, January 26, 2004
Final Score: Florida 5, UCF 0
Doubles
No. 1 Jennifer Magley/Zerene Reyes (13), UF def. Ola Luczak/Anna Westin, UCF 8-2
No. 2 Alexis Gordon/Julie Rotondi (8), UF def. Julie Pecastaing/Megan Rosario-Hunter, UCF 8-1*
No. 3 Boglarka Berecz/Nina Suvak (33), UF def. Pamela Fernandez/Kristina Lohmos, UCF 8-3
Singles
No. 1 Alexis Gordon (6), UF def. Julie Pecastaing, UCF 6-0, 6-3
No. 2 Jennifer Magley (16), UF led Anna Westin, UCF 7-6 (3), 4-4 did not finish
No. 3 Julie Rotondi (32), UF led Kristina Lohmos, UCF 6-3, 6-5 did not finish
No. 4 Boglarka Berecz (t-99), UF def. Pamela Fernandez, UCF 6-0, 6-1**
No. 5 Lindsay Dawaf, UF def. Megan Rosario-Hunter, UCF 6-1, 6-1
No. 6 Nina Suvak, UF def. Ola Luczak, UCF 6-0, 6-1
*clinched doubles point; **clinched dual match
Order of Finish: Doubles 1, 2, 3; Singles 6, 5, 4, 1
END OF REPORT
