Gators Out to Protect Historic Home Winning Streak
Friday, February 20, 2015 | Women's Tennis, Chris Harry
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- When Brianna Morgan came from the West Coast two years ago to play tennis for the Florida Gators, she had zero knowledge of the streak.
“All I knew was Florida had won back-to-back national championships,” said Morgan, the junior from Beverly Hills, Calif. “That was good enough for me.”
Fair enough.
Brooke Austin, on the other hand, knew something about it. Being from Indianapolis, a friend of Austin's in Big Ten country played tennis for the men's team at Ohio State, which currently has won 200 consecutive home tennis matches, the longest such home winning streak of any Division I program in the nation.
The Florida women are next at 136.
“I try not to think about it when I'm out there playing,” Austin said. “But I know our fans take pride in it. They really get up for our matches here.”
And they'll need to over the next two weekends, as the No. 2 Gators (6-1) roll into the meat of their schedule with a Friday match against No. 16 Duke, a Sunday match against No. 10 and perennial juggernaut Stanford, and a visit next weekend from defending Southeastern Conference Champion Alabama to open their rugged league play.
“If the streak still stands after the next couple weekends, then we'll know we have a very good team,” said UF head coach Roland Thornqvist.
Truth be told, the Gators already know they're pretty darn solid, albeit pretty darn young, too, what with no seniors on the squad.
But after getting unexpectedly taken to the brink Wednesday before pulling out a 4-3 victory at Florida State, Thornqvist is seeing some good things from his youthful squad and it's validating the optimism he brought into the season. He knew he had a prize in Austin, now playing No. 1 as a rookie, and experience in Morgan and sophomore Kourtney Keegan, but now freshmen Josie Kuhlman and Peggy Porter are starting to flash, with the results reverberating in both doubles play -- the best and deepest in Thornqvist's 14 seasons, he says -- and on into singles competition.
Now, enter Duke and Stanford this weekend, plus more talk of the streak, which dates to Jan. 27, 2005 and a 7-0 defeat of UCF. The last time Florida lost a match at Linder Stadium was May 15, 2004 against Miami in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
For context: Austin was eight years old at the time.
“It's one of those things where deep down, clearly, it's important to us,” Thornqvist said. “At the same time, it can kill you to emphasize it. I mean, we don't need to put any more pressure on our freshmen and sophomores than what Duke and Stanford are going to bring to begin with. I like to think the streak is there because we play well at home in front of our fans. We're a physical team and this is a stadium that requires physical play.”
The conditions at sunny Linder Staidum will change drastically between Friday for Duke and Sunday for Stanford. Temperatures will be in the mid-40s for the match with the Blue Devils and reach the 80s when the Cardinal come to town just 48 hours later.
Regardless of the weather, bundled up or sun-screen smeared, the crowd will be very much into it.
“We all think about [the streak], but I don't believe we put any added pressure on ourselves because of it,” Morgan said. “If we just go out and do what we've been trained to do, it'll stand for a while.”
For sure, how long the streak stands will come down to what happens between the lines. And there have been some tales along the way that speak to its length; and the Gators' fortitude.
Like the time in 2009, when the Gators were expecting two impact players for the second semester, only to see one turn pro and the other fail to be cleared by the NCAA. Thornqvist, with just five players on scholarship, found two off the UF club team to join his bunch, then shocked second-ranked Georgia with a piece-meal team.
“That was a time when the streak actually helped us,” Thornqvist said. “That team did not want to be the one that ended it.”
Brianna Morgan receives encouragement from head coach Roland Thornqvist during 2013 match at home versus Stanford.
Two years ago, rain forced a home match with Stanford into the indoor complex. The Gators trailed at the time, 3-2, but turned things around when senior Alex Cercone won a match and then a young freshman named Morgan -- seemingly growing up before Thornqvist's eyes -- defeated reigning NCAA runner-up Stacey Tan in a 3-hour, 37-minute marathon that kept the Florida run intact.
Morgan remembers that match. Where she was at the age of 10, when the streak began, not so much.
She smiled.
“Practicing, no doubt,” she said. “To keep the streak alive, right?”
Right.
