Florida Gators
Texas
No. 2 Florida Women's Tennis Tops Third-Ranked Texas, 7-0
Saturday, February 18, 2006 | Women's Tennis
The second-ranked University of Florida women's tennis team put its home win streak on the line and came away with its biggest victory of the season as the Gators convincingly defeated No. 3 Texas, 7-0, in front of a crowd of 323 fans at the Ring Tennis Complex Saturday.
UF remained perfect on the year (6-0) and extended its streak to 34 consecutive regular season home match wins, while Texas fell to 5-4 in the loss.
The meeting with the Lady Longhorns was the first since Texas defeated Florida, 4-3, in the semifinals of last season's NCAA Championships. With today's win, UF improved to 23-9 against UT all-time.
UF won the doubles point with the same pairs it found success with three days ago against Florida State (also a 7-0 win) to sweep the courts for the second straight match.
"I was really pleased with doubles since it is what we've addressed in practice," said UF head coach Roland Thornqvist. "We haven't had a whole lot of time between Wednesday and now to get the pairings going, but what I'm really proud of is how we've improved. Forty-nine minutes was the longest doubles match and against the No. 3 ranked team in the country gives me a lot of confidence. If we can play like this in doubles, we have a chance to be pretty good."
Whitney Benik and Alexis Gordon teamed on the top court to make quick work of Texas' 31st-ranked Mia Marovic and Kendra Strohm by posting an 8-2 score in 31 minutes.
Five minutes later, the Gators clinched the point when Lolita Frangulyan and Diana Srebovic defeated Kelly Baritot and Courtney Zauft one court lower in the lineup, 8-3, to pick up their team leading fifth dual match victory of the season. Nina Suvak and Keri Robinson rounded out the Gator winners by an 8-4 margin on court three against Marija Milic and Ristine Olson.
"I think they're getting better and getting confidence," Thornqvist said. "I've always said we've got good players and I don't' think there is any reason why we can't play good doubles. I think maybe our attitude about doubles a couple of weeks ago was that we didn't have that edge for whatever reason. In practice we looked good and got better in a short span. Today you saw how a confident doubles team plays."
Singles played out to be more of the same starting when Marovic double faulted into the net to give Gordon a 6-1, 6-1 victory on two in just under an hour.
Suvak (No. 63) outlasted Baritot in the first set, 7-5, before going on to a 6-0 second set score to pick up her first victory on court five this year. Frangulyan (No. 91) clinched the match with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Olson on court six to match Benik for the team's best dual match record at 6-0.
Srebovic (N0. 1) moved the lead to 5-0 with a 6-2, 6-2 against Texas' Petra Dizdar. Benik (No. 52) would win hers as well on four against Zauft 6-4, 6-2. Neither she nor Frangulyan have lost a set this season in their six dual match wins.
UF's 16th-ranked Boglarka Berecz took on the only ranked Longhorn but came away with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over on court three. Berecz and Srebovic lead all Gators with seven wins over ranked foes.
Florida returns to the courts as it travels to North Carolina to take on the No. 11 Tarheels on Sunday, February 26 at 1 p.m. ET.
No. 2 Florida vs. No. 3 Texas
Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Florida
Singles
No. 1 Diana Srebovic (UF) def. Petra Dizdar (UT), 6-2, 6-2
Alexis Gordon (UF) def. Mia Marovic (UT), 6-1, 6-1
No. 16 Boglarka Berecz (UF) def. No. 55 Kendra Strohm (UT), 6-1, 6-3
No. 52 Whitney Benik (UF) def. Courtney Zauft (UT), 6-4, 6-2
No. 63 Nina Suvak (UF) def. Kelly Baritot (UT), 7-5, 6-0
No. 91 Lolita Frangulyan def. Ristine Olson (UT), 6-2, 6-4
Order of Finish - 2, 5, 6, 1, 4, 3
Doubles
Whitney Benik/Alexis Gordon (UF) def. T31 Mia Marovic/Kendra Strohm (UT), 8-2
Lolita Frangulyan/Diana Srebovic (UF) def. Kelly Baritot/Courtney Zauft (UT), 8-3
Nina Suvak/Keri Robinson (UF) def. Marija Milic/Ristine Olson (UT), 8-4
Order of Finish - 1, 2, 3
