Thornqvist Impressed by Fight in Young Gators; Stanford Win Latest Step
Monday, February 23, 2015 | Women's Tennis, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The architect and his assistant watched closely as their latest project neared a close.
So did everyone else at Scott Linder Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
In a matchup between cross-country rivals, owners of four of the last five national championships in women's tennis, Florida and Stanford staged another classic duel.
The outcome hung in the balance as the final two matches played out with the kind of intensity that has become the norm in this rivalry.
Gators head coach Roland Thornqvist kept a close eye on the back-and-forth No. 2 singles match between Florida's Josie Kuhlman and Stanford's Taylor Davidson. Assistant coach Dave Balogh stood courtside as the Gators' Brianna Morgan and Stanford's Caroline Doyle waged battle at No. 3 singles.
Florida needed one victory to clinch the match. Stanford needed both.
The Cardinal pulled even when Davidson, clawing back from a five-point deficit in the tiebreaker of the third set, closed out a 2-6, 6-0, 7-6 (10-8) victory. And then all eyes turned to the Morgan-Doyle match.
The winner would determine the outcome, and of special interest to the orange-and-blue clad contingent on hand, whether Florida's 137-match home win streak would live or die. The streak is the longest active win streak in women's college sports.
“I was really nervous,'' said Morgan, cognizant that more was at stake than just a regular-season victory over Stanford. “I was thinking of the win streak and that I need to win.”
Almost before the crowd had time to process Davidson's comeback and shift its attention to the final match, Doyle double-faulted on match point.
Morgan briefly hesitated, and then reacted to consecutive home win No. 138 for the No. 2-ranked Gators.
“I didn't believe it,'' Morgan said. “I was like, 'is it over?' I couldn't believe that's the way it ended, but I was happy nonetheless because we won.”
Thornqvist pumped his fist toward the fans and joined the Gators' celebration in the most meaningful moment of the 2015 season thus far. Florida's 4-3 victory was a huge test passed for Thornqvist's young team.
While the Gators have remained among the nation's elite the past two seasons, the lineup looks much different than when the Gators won the second of back-to-back national titles in 2012. Not a single player from this year's team was on the roster three years ago.
The two rocks in the foundation are Thornqvist and Balogh. In his 14th season, Thornqvist took over the program in 2001 with difficult tennis shoes to fill in former head coach Andy Brandi, who departed with the all-time highest winning percentage (.915) in the history of women's collegiate tennis.
Thornqvist has done just fine, winning three national titles (2003, '11, '12) – equaling Brandi's total during his 18 seasons – with Balogh as his assistant for the whole ride.
When Thornqvist was hired in the summer of 2001, he was a young up-and-coming coach who had made brief stops at Kansas and North Carolina, his alma mater, as he climbed the coaching ladder.
The 6-foot-6 Swede is now one of the game's most influential and successful coaches. Thornqvist turns 45 on March 3 and displays an enthusiasm of a coach still in love with the game as much as the first day on the job.
His excitement and optimism about this year's team was easy to see in the wake of Sunday's victory.
Brianna Morgan clinched the victory Sunday by winning at No. 3 singles. (Photo: Jim Burgess)
Thornqvist woke up Sunday knowing the match was not going to be easy. And while he does not use the historic home win streak as a point of emphasis, it looms over the court when teams like Stanford visit.
The way he figured it, to feel good about the Gators' chances Sunday, they needed to win the doubles point. Stanford refused to play along, taking the early lead.
Whatever doubts that may have surfaced in Thornqvist's mind were shooed away when Florida swept the first set in each of the six singles matches.
“Against a quality team like Stanford, that's a difficult thing to do,'' he said. “In the back of your mind, you know every time we play them, it's going to go down to the wire. They're too good of a team to just go away. Our athletes had to show some real courage at times and resilience.”
The Gators did that and more as their Nos. 1 and 2 singles players – Brooke Austin and Kuhlman – lost.
A freshman from Indianapolis, it was Austin's first loss at No. 1 in a dual match. Meanwhile, Kuhlman is ranked No. 3 in the country in singles and while also a freshman, she is a fiery competitor that often sets the tone with her determined approach.
Instead, it was the bottom of the lineup that got the job done Sunday. Morgan (No. 3), sophomore Belinda Woolcock (No. 4), sophomore Kourtney Keegan (No. 5) and freshman Peggy Porter (No. 6) all won their matches to fend off Stanford's bid to end the streak.
“I had never heard of it until I got here,'' said Woolcock, who is from Melbourne, Australia. “I'm so happy we can continue it. The whole team deserves it. We work so hard in training and I think it's so nice that we can continue this legacy for Florida.”
As the Gators march deeper into the season, there will be more challenges, starting with reigning SEC champion Alabama at home on Friday.
Since getting swept by North Carolina on Feb. 8 at the National Team Indoor Championships, the Gators have won at Florida State and defeated Duke and Stanford.
Morgan is the team's most experienced player. She celebrated her 21st birthday over the weekend and her family made the trip from California to watch her play Sunday.
She made them glad they did.
“In the third set, it was all determination,'' Thornqvist said. “There was really nothing we could say to her.”
Thornqvist has been around Morgan long enough to know when to chime in and when to leave her alone. He continues to learn about the rest of the lineup.
The Gators are young, but as they showed Sunday, they are talented and can beat the best.
Thornqvist can't wait to see what they do next.
“If you want to win anything, you've got to be tough in the clutch,” he said. “It's a funny sport. We've got one kid in there crying [Kuhlman] and one kid is feeling on top of the world [Morgan].
“We're pretty resilient and we're pretty tough. What it's going to take is that we can't rely on the same person the whole time in these big matches. We need to be able to accrue points out of every position. That's what we're seeing.”
