Florida Gators
Riviera/ITA All-American Qualifying, day 2 of 2
Danielle Collins Advances to Main Draw of Riviera/ITA All-American Championships
Wednesday, October 3, 2012 | Women's Tennis
Florida freshman Danielle Collins (St. Petersburg, Fla.) extended the undefeated start to her collegiate career on Wednesday when she defeated UCLA's Kaitlin Ray and advanced to the main draw of the 2012 Riviera/ITA All-American Championships at the Riviera Tennis Club.
The Gator rookie improved to 9-0 in her young career after topping the No. 75th-ranked Bruin, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0, in the third and final round of the qualifying draw en route to capturing one of eight open spots in the main draw of the national singles tournament.
“Danielle had a tough start, dropping that first set, but completely turned it around and won 12 of the next 13 games to get into this main draw,” UF associate head coach Dave Balogh said. “She had to make some adjustments with the style of play and clearly did a pretty good job of that. Danielle is fired up! Her goal was to have a chance to play in the main draw and now she has that opportunity to see how she can compete at the highest level of college tennis.”
Collins joins teammate and senior All-American Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) in the main draw that begins Thursday at the Riviera Tennis Club. Collins and Embree also are paired in the main draw of the doubles event.
Embree is the No. 3 seed in the 32-player singles tournament and will face Arizona State's Jacqueline Cako, ranked 13th, beginning at 12:30 p.m. PT.
Collins begins the singles portion of the four-day event against Alabama's 10th-ranked Mary Anne Macfarlane at 12:30 p.m. PT.
Collins and Embree open the day on the doubles court, where they will face a qualifying pair - still yet to be determined at the time of this release – at 9 a.m. PT on Thursday.
Gator junior Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Beligum) just missed out on competing in the main draw after falling 6-2, 6-3 to Stanford's Krista Hardebeck, the nation's top-ranked freshman.
“Sofie had a tough one today, but Stanford just played too well,” Balogh shared.
The official tournament website is:
http://www.itatennis.com/Events/ITANationalChampionships/WomensAllAmerican.htm
2012 Riviera/ITA Women's All-American Championships - Qualifying
Riviera Tennis Club
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
UF Results Only
Singles, Third Round (Round of 16)
Krista Hardebck, Stanford d. #32 Sofie Oyen (9), Florida, 6-2, 6-3
Danielle Collins, Florida d. #75 Kaitlyn Ray, UCLA, 4-6, 6-1, 6-0
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