Florida Gators
#3 North Carolina - National Indoors SF
Gators Fall to Undefeated No. 3 UNC in National Indoors Semifinals
Monday, February 9, 2015 | Women's Tennis
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The No. 2-seeded, No. 2-ranked Florida Gator women's tennis team reached the end of the road in the ITA National Team Indoor Championship semifinals with a 4-0 loss to No. 3-seeded, No. 3-ranked, undefeated North Carolina at the Boar's Head Sports Club Sunday afternoon.
The Gators clawed their way to the semifinal match after battling through their first round match against No. 13 Clemson and their quarterfinal matchup with No. 10 host team Virginia.
However, after losing the doubles point, Florida was unable to recover in their outing against a tough, No. 3 Tarheels team. The Gators fell behind after dropping the doubles point for the second time in three matches. Florida's No. 1 doubles pairing, No. 7 Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan, took control early with a 6-1 win over No. 13 Ashley Dai and Kate Vialle, but the Gators struggled at the No. 2 and No. 3 doubles positions as the Tarheels eased their way to an early 1-0 lead.
North Carolina showed no signs of slowing down in singles, as their No. 3 and No. 4 singles players needed just two sets to defeat No. 43 Belinda Woolcock and No. 40 Peggy Porter, respectively. No. 26 Kourtney Keegan tried to hang on at No. 5 singles for the Gators in an attempt to spark another complete match turnaround, which up to today's match had been characteristic of Florida throughout the tournament, but the Tarheels proved to be too much for the Gators, and UNC's Ashely Dai clinched the win in a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 takedown of Keegan.
| 2015 University of Florida Women's Tennis | ||||||
| Boar's Head Sports Club | ||||||
| Charlottesville, Va. | ||||||
| Sunday, February 8, 2015 | ||||||
| Doubles | FLORIDA | vs | UNC | Winner |
| Score/match length |
| Brooke Austin (7) | Ashley Dai (13) | |||||
| No. 1 - | Kourtney Keegan (7) | Kate Vialle (13) | UF | 6-1 | ||
| Brianna Morgan (25) | Jamie Loeb | |||||
| No. 2 - | Belinda Woolcock (25) | Caroline Price | *UNC | 6-4 | ||
| Peggy Porter | Hayley Carter | |||||
| No. 3 - | Spencer Liang | Whitney Kay | UNC | 6-2 | ||
| Singles | FLORIDA | vs | UNC | Winner |
| Score/match length |
| No. 1 - | Brooke Austin (6) | Jamie Loeb (8) | DNF | 6-7 (3-7), 7-5, 2-2, unf. | ||
| No. 2 - | Brianna Morgan (11) | Hayley Carter (31) | DNF | 3-6, 6-4, 1-3, unf. | ||
| No. 3 - | Belinda Woolcock (43) | Caroline Price (22) | UNC | 6-1, 6-1 | ||
| No. 4 - | Peggy Porter (40) | Whitney Kay | UNC | 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-4) | ||
| No. 5 - | Kourtney Keegan (26) | Ashley Dai | *UNC | 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 | ||
| No. 6 - | Spencer Liang | Kate Vialle | DNF | 5-7, 5-5, unf. | ||
| FINAL SCORE: | Florida – 0 | UNC – 4 | * Clinched victory | |||
| Records: | Florida 5-1 | UNC 8-0 | ||||
| Order of Finish: | Doubles: 1, 3, 2 | Singles: 3, 4, 5 | ||||
Quotes from the Match
Thornqvist's Thoughts – Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
On falling to Thornqvist's alma mater North Carolina in the semifinals…
Playing in the semifinal of any national event is obviously a big accomplishment, but the passing of coach [Dean] Smith (former UNC men's basketball coach) last night magnified the significance of this match against North Carolina even more for me, personally. He was a hero of mine both on the court and off the court. And for any Tarheel, today certainly was a bittersweet day. If we were going to lose to anyone, perhaps losing to the Tarheels today makes the pill easier to swallow.
I felt we competed with everything we had and today UNC was better. We had no answer for them at No. 2 and No. 3 doubles, and although we were able to overcome a slow start in singles yesterday, today, even though we forced some three-set matches, Carolina was strong in the end and we congratulate them.
We're going to head home and look forward to begin the outdoor portion of our schedule. I'm really proud of the team, we've come a long way. Our freshmen certainly showed we have plenty of character, along with the skill to give us great hope for the rest of the season.
Numbers of Note
Florida at Indoors By the Numbers
Following Florida's 2-1 outing this weekend, the Gators improved to 49-13 all-time in National Indoor matches. They've won 49 matches in the 28 years of the event.
Records vs. Indoors Opponents
Florida improved to 2-0 versus Clemson and 1-0 against Virginia in National Indoors matches, but fell to 0-1 against UNC in the national event.
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