Florida Gators
#68 Maryland
No. 2 Gators Top No. 68 Maryland in ITA Kick-Off Championship
Sunday, January 25, 2015 | Women's Tennis
Gainesville, Fla. – The No. 2 Florida women's tennis team captured the ITA Kick-Off Weekend Championship with their second consecutive 4-0 victory, this time over No. 68 Maryland on Sunday afternoon at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
The victory earned the Gators a berth to the ITA National Indoor Championship in Charlottesville, Va., at the Boar's Head Tennis Club hosted by the University of Virginia on Feb. 6 through Feb. 9.
Florida started off strong as they captured the doubles point to gain the early 1-0 match lead. No. 17-ranked Josie Kuhlman and Peggy Porter topped Maryland's only ranked doubles squad, No. 48 Olivia Gaudreault and Alexandra Stanova, 6-2. The Gators' No. 1 doubles duo, No. 7-ranked Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, clinched the doubles point, 6-3, for their second consecutive match.
In singles action, No. 43 Belinda Woolcock defeated Kristina Hovsepyan, 6-2, 6-0, in the No. 4 position to give the Gators a 2-0 advantage. Sophomore transfer Spencer Liang earned her first collegiate dual match singles victory wearing the Orange & Blue with a straight-set victory over Cassandre Thebault, 6-1, 6-2. No. 11-ranked junior Brianna Morgan eased her way to a 6-1 win in set one over Maryland's No. 3 player, Ekaterina Tour, but fell behind, 4-1 in the second set. However, Morgan fought back and won five straight games to garner a 6-4 set two victory and clinch the match for the Gators.
Before they head to Virginia, Florida will return home for a mid-week match against South Florida on Wednesday, Jan. 28 at 3 p.m. at the Ring Tennis Complex.
| 2015 University of Florida Women's Tennis | ||||||
| Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex | ||||||
| Gainesville, Florida | ||||||
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 | ||||||
| Doubles | FLORIDA | vs | Maryland | Winner |
| Score/match length |
| Brooke Austin (7) | Welma Luus | |||||
| No. 1 - | Kourtney Keegan (7) | Nataliya Bredikhina | *UF | 6-3 (:30) | ||
| Josie Kuhlman (17) | Olivia Gaudreault | |||||
| No. 2 - | Peggy Porter (17) | Alexandra Stanova | UF | 6-2 (:25) | ||
| Brianna Morgan | Ekaterina Tour | |||||
| No. 3 - | Spencer Liang | Erica Braschi | DNF | |||
| Singles | FLORIDA | vs | Maryland | Winner |
| Score/match length |
| No. 1 - | Brooke Austin (6) | Alexandra Stanova | DNF | |||
| No. 2 - | Josie Kuhlman (9) | Nataliya Bredikhina | DNF | |||
| No. 3 - | Brianna Morgan (11) | Ekaterina Tour | *UF | 6-1, 6-4 (1:13) | ||
| No. 4 - | Belinda Woolcock (43) | Kristina Hovsepyan | UF | 6-2, 6-0 (:52) | ||
| No. 5 - | Peggy Porter (40) | Welma Luus | DNF | |||
| No. 6 - | Spencer Liang | Cassandre Thebault | UF | 6-1, 6-2 (:58) | ||
| FINAL SCORE: | Florida - 4 | Maryland - 0 | * Clinched victory | |||
| Records: | Florida 2-0 | Maryland 1-1 | ||||
| Order of Finish: | Doubles: 2,1 | Singles: 4, 6, 3 | ||||
| Attendance: 131 | ||||||
Quotes from the Match
Thornqvist's Thoughts – Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
On the young roster…
When you play this many new players and freshmen, you're going to have a little bit more up and down in performance. They're 18. This is their first go-around. And they're playing against players, we have to realize that too, that most of the time they play with nothing to lose when they play against us. So sometimes as an 18-year-old, you play a player on the other side of the net you've never heard of and you think 'hey, I should win easy' and all of a sudden you're four-all, five-all in the first and you can get sort of discouraged. We have to learn really quickly that this is college. These players are well-coached, well-trained and names don't matter, really. But that's experience. If you look at our singles wins, the trademark of this team clearly is going to be we can get a point at any position. We had six different players win their singles matches this weekend and I think that's very important to highlight.
On improvements made from yesterday…
We expect to compete and we really did that. Even in the sets we were losing we kept fighting. Bri [Brianna Morgan] is a great example. She was down 4-1 I believe in the second set and ends up clinching the match for us, 6-4. So even if we're not feeling it forehand and backhand wise, I do expect us to compete. We're good enough players to fight our way out of trouble if we have to. Obviously, today Bri was a great example of that. Josie [Kuhlman], this was her first match. She couldn't really hit the corners with her ball like she normally is used to. Maybe nerves, maybe not playing great, maybe the kid she played was playing well, but she was amazing at the end. Targets, specific targets at the end. She was clinical. You can win by putting the ball where it needs to be, so I thought she did a good job there. Overall I'm really pleased.
Junior Brianna Morgan
On motivation when you fall behind in a set or a match…
I have a set of truths that I have that I repeat to myself that really help me when I'm down to kind of remind me of what I need to do.
On what the veteran players can learn from the newcomers…
I think they [the freshmen] are really mature for being young. I think they just show all of us how to handle things They've been in really tough, pressure situations in the fall and they handled it really well.
Freshman Josie Kuhlman
On making her singles debut…
It was awesome. All of the commotion around was definitely a new experience for me. I didn't play the greatest but I found a way to get back when I was down in the first set and I think it's just all about fighting and it was nice. Being able to play in front of that crowd was a lot of fun.
Numbers of Note
Keep the Streak:
Florida has won 136 consecutive regular season home matches – not including SEC Tournament or NCAA Championship events. The current streak is the longest of its kind in program history, passing the 71 in a row between 1994 and 2001. Additionally, UF boasts an overall program-record home winning streak of 135 matches, including 22 postseason victories. The streak is the longest active home win streak of any NCAA Division I women's team in any sport and the second-longest active home win streak on any NCAA Division I team behind the NCAA-record run by the Ohio State men's tennis team of 191.
Home is Where We Win:
Florida boasts an incredible 470-25 all-time home record when playing in Gainesville, including a 174-2 mark under head coach Roland Thornqvist.
Pick Six:
Pick six different Gators to win a singles match, and they could do it. Across two matches played this weekend, six different players won a singles point for their squad (Austin, Porter and Stojic vs. Elon; Liang, Morgan and Woolcock vs. Maryland).
A Memorable Win Number One:
Sophomore Harvard transfer Spencer Liang earned her first collegiate dual match singles victory for the Gators on her 20th birthday.
FOLLOW THE GATORS:
