The No. 7 University of Florida women's tennis team advanced to the round of 32 in the ITA National Indoor Championships on Saturday with a 4-0 win over No. 70 Oklahoma State at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
“Overall I thought we played very well today,” said head coach Roland Thornqvist. “We're making the right decisions and executing the things we've been working on in practice. We're doing pretty well right now.”
The UF duo of freshmen Jo Mather (Duluth, Ga.) and Barbara Pinterova (Bratislava, Slovakia) started things off with an 8-1 win on court three over the Cowboy's pair of Alisa Buslaieva and Maryna Tkachenko. At the top position, Florida's 18th-ranked tandem of juniors Megan Alexander (Dallas, Texas) and Marrit Boonstra (The Netherlands) clinched the doubles point with an 8-2 victory over Jo-Anne Karaitiana and Nataliya Shatkovskaya. It was the first time that Alexander and Boonstra had dropped a game in doubles action during the 2009 dual match season, winning their previous two contests with 8-0 scores.
Florida was one point away from sweeping doubles play, but action on court two was stopped when UF claimed the doubles' point on court one. Junior Anastasia Revzina (Moscow, Russia) and freshman Jessica Alexander (Dallas, Texas) had a 7-3 lead over Oklahoma State's Iryna Khatsko and Aleksandra Belova when play was halted.
Pinterova opened singles play beating Oklahoma State's Buslaieva in just 54 minutes by the score of 6-1, 6-1 in the sixth singles position.
“I'm very happy for Barbara,” said Thornqvist. “She keeps getting better and she keeps getting more confident the more she plays.”
Mather broke serve to win her match 6-1, 6-3 over Khatsko on court four to push the Florida lead to 3-0. Jessica Alexander clinched the match for Florida on court five with a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Cowboy's Maryna Tkachenko. The match went back and forth in the first set, and Alexander earned three breaks in the second to put it away.
“It's rare to have three freshmen win the match for us, and we're not trying to make that a habit,” said Coach Thornqvist. “But I was very happy to see that today.”
The remaining matches were halted when Alexander clinched the match on court five. The three Florida players had each won the first set before play was stopped.
The Gators (3-0) will play the winner of Saturday's other first round match between No. 55 Western Michigan and No. 56 South Alabama on Sunday at 2 p.m. The winner of tomorrow's match will advance to the Round of 16 in Madison, Wisconsin, Feb. 13-16.
Women's College Tennis
No. 70 Oklahoma State at No. 7 Florida
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex, Gainesville Fla.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Final Score: Florida 4, Oklahoma State 0
Doubles
No. 1 Megan Alexander/Marrit Boonstra (18), UF d. Jo-Anne Karaitiana/Nataliya Shatkovskaya, OkSt 8-2*
No. 2 Jessica Alexander/Anastasia Revzina, UF vs. Iryna Khatsko/Aleksandra Belova, OkSt DNF (UF led 7-3)
No. 3 Joanna Mather/Barbara Pinterova, UF d. Alisa Buslaieva/Maryna Tkachenko, OkSt 8-1
Singles
No. 1 Marrit Boonstra (34), UF vs. Jo-Anne Karaitiana, OkSt DNF (UF led 7-5, 4-1)
No. 2 Anastasia Revzina (99), UF vs. Nataliya Shatkovskaya, OkSt DNF (UF led 6-4, 3-3)
No. 3 Megan Alexander (78), UF vs. Aleksandra Belova, OkSt DNF (UF led 6-4, 5-4)
No. 4 Joanna Mather, UF d. Iryna Khatsko, OkSt 6-1, 6-3
No. 5 Jessica Alexander, UF d. Maryna Tkachenko, OkSt 6-3, 6-4*
No. 6 Barbara Pinterova, UF d. Alisa Buslaieva, OkSt 6-1, 6-1
Order of Finish: Doubles-3, 1*; Singles-6, 4, 5*
Records: Florida 3-0 * Oklahoma State 0-1
-UF-
