Florida Gators
#20 Florida State
Women's Tennis Continues Stronghold on Florida State
Thursday, February 21, 2008 | Women's Tennis
The University of Florida women's tennis team continued its mastery against instate rival Florida State with Wednesday's 6-1 victory at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
The Gators, ranked tied-for-fifth in the latest national rankings released shortly prior to first-serve, improved to 5-1 this season and upped their lead in the all-time series to 48-0 against the 20th-ranked Seminoles, who dropped to 7-1 this season after racing out to the best start in school history.
“Florida State has a really good team. Last year, they gave us all kinds of fits and this year, the outcome on every singles court was still dicey for the first hour and change, so I really liked how our players responded at that point,” UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. “In doubles, I don't think we played as well as we can, but we go the job done on all three courts. We started out pretty fast in singles and it looked like we might get off a few of the courts pretty quick. It was good to see that we were able to push ourselves to another gear when things got close. That, to me, speaks volumes.”
Florida opened the match sweeping all three doubles courts like it has done in every dual match this season. The Gators then captured the dual match an hour and 27 minutes into singles play, as senior Whitney Benik earned the first Florida victory to spot Florida a 2-0 lead, before freshmen Julia Cohen and Marrit Boonstra provided the finishing touches on the team win with victories on their respective courts.
Benik took control early on court No. 4 against Jessica Wente, earning breaks on her first three attempts to take a 4-1 lead before capturing the first set 6-2, holding at love and capping it with a backhand cross-court winner. The second set wasn't as easy, as each of the first four games were breaks and Wente held before earning another break to take a 4-2 lead. Benik broke right back, taking Wente's serve at love and held to even the set at 4-all, before earning one last break and holding serve to earn the victory, 6-2, 6-4.
Cohen's match on the showcase court against Katie Rybakova featured breaks in eight of the nine games played in the first set, with the Gator freshman holding in the sixth game the difference in the frame. Rybakova opened the second with a break, but Cohen broke right back, before the two competitors held on their next trips to the baseline. Rybakova then broke Cohen again to take a 3-2 lead, but Cohen struck back and rode that momentum to winning the final four games to earn the 6-3, 6-3 decision and remain a perfect 5-0 in her collegiate career.
Boonstra traded breaks to open her No. 5 singles match with Ania Rynarzewska, before the Gator rookie broke again in the fourth and eighth games to claim the opening set. Rynarzewska broke Boonstra in the third game of the second and held to take a 3-1 lead. But Boonstra dug deep, holding before breaking the Seminoles at love to get the frame back on-serve. The final three game were breaks, with Boonstra earning two of them, as she captured the 6-2, 6-4 victory that clinched the dual match win for Florida and also remained undefeated in six collegiate singles matches.
“Julia is just tough. What I like about her most is that she is so smart on the court. She will find a way to get under her opponent's skin and do something they don't like,” Thornqvist said. “The mental toughness is what wins championships. Whitney did the same on her court. She has a way to play offense and defense during a match. Marrit continues to win and you like to see that.”
UF sophomore Anastasia Revzina seemed down and out of her match against Federica Suess at the No. 6 spot, before she found a way to force a third set, where she cruised to a 2-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory.
“I really like what Anastasia did today because she did not play well at all in the first set. Her opponent had a beautiful strategy against her and had her in all kinds of trouble,” Thornqvist said. “When she was down 3-2 in the second set, I told her that we needed her to win. From that point on, she was able to elevate her game. I give her all the credit in the world for changing her game and doing everything she needed to do to get the win.”
“My first set wasn't good at all because I couldn't play my game,” Revzina shared. “Usually, I'm more aggressive and going for winners, but today it just wasn't happening so I had to just hit balls back and get them in the court. Then she finally started making mistakes and I was able to get it to a third set, where I felt really good and started to play my game and was able to win it really quick.”
In doubles, it was the No. 3 pair of Julia Cohen and Anastasia Revzina that provided the first win of the day, topping 40th-ranked Katie Rybakova and Ania Rynarzewska, 8-5, in 48 minutes. In a match that featured nine service breaks, the difference came in the final two games where Cohen held at love, capped when she blasted a cross-court winner, before she smacked another winner down the line on their first match point to earn the break and take the win.
The doubles match on court No. 1 also featured nine breaks of serve, that included the first eight games of the match, before Marrit Boonstra held in the 10th game to end the trend and give the Gators the 6-4 lead. Florida capitalized on the momentum, losing just two of the final 10 points, as Megan Alexander served out for the 8-4 win over Carolin Walter and Federica Suess to give the Gators the first team point of the dual match.
Florida next travels to Austin, where the Gators will play 26th-ranked Texas on Sunday beginning at 1 p.m.
Women's College Tennis
No. 20 Florida State at No. T-5 Florida
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Final Score: Florida 6, Florida State 1
Doubles
No. 1 Megan Alexander/Marrit Boonstra (15), UF d. Carolin Walter/Federica Suess, FSU 8-4*
No. 2 Whitney Benik/Lolita Frangulyan, UF d. Jessica Wente/Lauren Macfarlane, FSU, 8-5
No. 3 Julia Cohen/Anastasia Revzina, UF d. Katie Rybakova/Ania Rynarzewska (40), FSU, 8-5
Singles
No. 1 Julia Cohen (74), UF d. Katie Rybakova (46), FSU, 6-3, 6-3
No. 2 Lauren Macfarlane, FSU d. Megan Alexander (58), UF 6-1, 6-0
No. 3 Csilla Borsanyi (26), UF d. Carolin Walter, FSU 5-7, 6-4, 1-0 (10-6)
No. 4 Whitney Benik, UF d. Jessica Wente, FSU, 6-2, 6-4
No. 5 Marrit Boonstra, UF d. Ania Rynarzewska, FSU 6-2, 6-4*
No. 6 Anastasia Revzina (64), UF d. Federica Suess, FSU 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
Order of Finish: Doubles- 3, 1*, 2; Singles-4, 1, 2, 5*, 6, 3
*indicates clinching doubles-point and clinching dual-match victories
MATCH NOTES:
With the win, Florida extends its all-time series lead against Florida State to 48-0 … the Gators won their 60th consecutive regular-season home match and their 46th straight overall at home … UF improves to 178-32 all-time versus other teams from the Sunshine State with today's win its 20 consecutive versus instate foes … the Seminoles' 7-0 start was the best in program history … UF swept all three doubles matches for the sixth time this season
END OF REPORT
