Thursday, March 10
Gainesville, FL
5:00 PM
Florida Gators
6
vs
1
Kentucky
Junior Belinda Woolcock clinched the match for the Gators on Thursday night against No. 19 Kentucky
Gators Defeat Wildcats, 6-1
Thursday, March 10, 2016 | Women's Tennis
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - The No. 18 University of Florida women's tennis team moved to 3-0 in SEC play with a 6-1 win over the No. 19 Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday night at the Ring Tennis Complex. The Gators are now 8-2 in dual match play with another ranked opponent slated for Saturday afternoon.
After dropping the doubles point for the first time all season, the Gators would take the first four singles matches against the Wildcats. Junior Kourtney Keegan was the first off of the singles courts in under an hour with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Nadia Ravita. Josie Kuhlman completed her match minutes later over Morgan Chumney, 6-4, 6-1. Junior Spencer Liang defeated Mami Adachi, 6-3, 6-0 and then Belinda Woolcock would clinch the Gator victory on two with a 6-4, 6-3 match win.
The best match of the night would take place on court four between senior Brianna Morgan and Akva Parazinsaite. The Gator fell in the first set, 6-4 to the Wildcat. In the second set, the Beverly Hills, Calif. native cruised to a set victory. The third set saw Morgan get down 5-1. However, a tenacious comeback from the Gator brought the match to six-all. A 10-8 back and forth tiebreaker would end in Morgan's favor to complete UF's night with a win.
Up next, the Orange and Blue face the reigning NCAA Champion Vanderbilt on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Commodores defeated the Gators three times in 2015, the last being in the NCAA Quarterfinals.
Coach Thornqvist's Thoughts
On the match win tonight…
"Overall, I thought we got outplayed in doubles. That was clear. We knew Kentucky was going to be a really tough opponent in doubles. They beat us last year in doubles as well. I just told the team in the locker room that I liked how we responded. It wasn't like 'uh-oh', more like 'alright, let's go' with a little edge and attitude. I thought that made a difference on some of these courts where we just broke out big leads really early and changed the momentum within 15 minutes in singles.
Overall, I was really pleased. We knew they were going to be tough and that we would have compete. Last week, we had two easy ones but we knew this weekend was going to be different. I was really happy to see how we handled ourselves today."
On Brianna Morgan's thrilling comeback victory on Court Four…
"Well at the end there, that was just two great athletes going after it. The team score at that point mattered very little to either one of them. So, it was just two players who wanted to win. It was really great entertainment from two great athletes who used their heads and their legs. I was really proud of Bri to come all the way back at the end, having match point, but she just turned around and played the next point. I was very impressed."
Final Results
#18 Florida 6, #19 Kentucky 1
Doubles-Order of Finish: 1, 2*
Attendance: 217
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After dropping the doubles point for the first time all season, the Gators would take the first four singles matches against the Wildcats. Junior Kourtney Keegan was the first off of the singles courts in under an hour with a 6-2, 6-0 win over Nadia Ravita. Josie Kuhlman completed her match minutes later over Morgan Chumney, 6-4, 6-1. Junior Spencer Liang defeated Mami Adachi, 6-3, 6-0 and then Belinda Woolcock would clinch the Gator victory on two with a 6-4, 6-3 match win.
The best match of the night would take place on court four between senior Brianna Morgan and Akva Parazinsaite. The Gator fell in the first set, 6-4 to the Wildcat. In the second set, the Beverly Hills, Calif. native cruised to a set victory. The third set saw Morgan get down 5-1. However, a tenacious comeback from the Gator brought the match to six-all. A 10-8 back and forth tiebreaker would end in Morgan's favor to complete UF's night with a win.
Up next, the Orange and Blue face the reigning NCAA Champion Vanderbilt on Saturday at 1 p.m. The Commodores defeated the Gators three times in 2015, the last being in the NCAA Quarterfinals.
Coach Thornqvist's Thoughts
On the match win tonight…
"Overall, I thought we got outplayed in doubles. That was clear. We knew Kentucky was going to be a really tough opponent in doubles. They beat us last year in doubles as well. I just told the team in the locker room that I liked how we responded. It wasn't like 'uh-oh', more like 'alright, let's go' with a little edge and attitude. I thought that made a difference on some of these courts where we just broke out big leads really early and changed the momentum within 15 minutes in singles.
Overall, I was really pleased. We knew they were going to be tough and that we would have compete. Last week, we had two easy ones but we knew this weekend was going to be different. I was really happy to see how we handled ourselves today."
On Brianna Morgan's thrilling comeback victory on Court Four…
"Well at the end there, that was just two great athletes going after it. The team score at that point mattered very little to either one of them. So, it was just two players who wanted to win. It was really great entertainment from two great athletes who used their heads and their legs. I was really proud of Bri to come all the way back at the end, having match point, but she just turned around and played the next point. I was very impressed."
Final Results
#18 Florida 6, #19 Kentucky 1
Doubles-Order of Finish: 1, 2*
- #5 Mami Adachi/Aldila Sutjiadi (UK) def. #7 Brooke Austin/Kourtney Keegan (UF) 6-1
- Akva Parazinskaite/Morgan Chumney (UK) def. #22 Josie Kuhlman/Belinda Woolcock (UF) 6-4
- #58 Anna Danilina/Brianna Morgan (UF) vs. Nadia Ravita/Justina Milkuskyte (UK) 5-4, susp.
- #15 Brooke Austin (UF) def. Justina Milkuskyte (UK) 6-2, 6-7(7), 6-2
- #5 Belinda Woolcock (UF) def. #42 Aldila Sutjiadi (UK) 6-4, 6-3
- #37 Kourtney Keegan (UF) def. Nadia Ravita (UK) 6-2, 6-0
- #121 Brianna Morgan (UF) def. Akva Parazinskaite (UK) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(8)
- #108 Josie Kuhlman (UF) def. Morgan Chumney (UK) 6-4, 6-1
- Spencer Liang (UF) def. Mami Adachi (UK) 6-3, 6-0
Attendance: 217
Follow the Gators:
FloridaGators.com
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
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/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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