Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 11 University of Florida women's tennis team fell 4-2 to visiting North Carolina State Monday afternoon in the ITA Kick-Off Championship at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

The match was originally slated for Sunday afternoon but was pushed to Monday after inclement weather altered the schedule.

After dropping the doubles point Florida played with a renewed sense of urgency in singles, putting together a strong performance, but couldn't quite break through for the match win.

Florida won the first two singles matches, but the Wolfpack fought back and earned two-straight wins to jump back ahead, 3-2. Sophomore Ida Jarlksog came through with a big win in a tie-break, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5), to even the count at 3-3.

The verdict of the dual match came down to the tilt between No. 1 players McCartney Kessler and Anna Rogers, who both entered the action ranked in the ITA's top 30. The showdown between No. 29 Kessler and No. 23 Rogers was a highly competitive matchup, but the 2018 All-SEC First Team selection, Kessler, fell 6-7 (4), 7-5, 4-6, and N.C. State claimed the victory.

The Gators and Wolfpack battled back and forth in singles as three of the first six sets went into tie break and two matchups went three sets.

Freshman Marlee Zein got the Gators on the board as she cruised to a 6-3, 6-3 win over the Wolfpacks' Adriana Reami. Fellow rookie Anastasia Kharitonova followed up Zein's performance with another Florida win, knocking off Bianca Moldovan in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Florida's third freshmen in the lineup, Sydney Berlin dropped a 5-7, 0-6 decision to Amanda Rebol of the Wolfpack.
After Tsveta Dimitrova fell to Liz Norman in three sets, Jarlskog won in dramatic fashion to set up a winner-take-all final on court one. No. 9 Jarlskog won in two sets, but it wasn't easy as both of them went into tie break. In set two, Jarlskog trailed in the tiebreak 5-3, but came back to win it 7-5.

Kessler rallied from 4-2 deficit in the final set to tie it at 4-4, but dropped the final two games to concede the match point to Rogers.

N.C. State registered the doubles point by recording victories in the afternoon's first two matches. Kessler/Berlin fell 6-2 to No. 37 Reami/Rebol to begin the day and No. 41 Dimitrova/Jarlskog fell 6-4 to No. 37 Rogers/Smith. The freshmen combo of Kharitonova/Zein saw their match left unfinished as they trailed 5-4.

With the win the Wolfpack, who are receiving votes in Oracle/ITA Top 25, advance to the ITA Division I National Team Indoor Championships held in Seattle next month.

Florida returns to the court Tuesday, Feb. 19 when it hosts Florida State.

Quotes from the Court
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
 
On the competitiveness the team showed in a tight match…
"It is great for us, we need to be in those competitive moments and we talked about this in the lockerroom after the match. We are going to have to have more of these situations where we compete and we need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable, if you will. These matches are invaluable for this team. I am really proud of the way we turned it around in singles and gave ourselves a chance. This N.C. State team is really talented and really good. We have to give them credit because they played really well today. I still will tell you that I feel the same way I did Saturday, we have great talent on this team. We just have to focus on what we can do better but I was really happy to see that we could shake the poor play in doubles and play really,really tough in singles."

Overall thoughts on team's play…
"For us I thought we played two separate matches. In doubles I think we were really poor, not just from the way we played but from the way we looked. From the energy level and the feistiness, we just weren't really there. It looked to me like we didn't think we could win the doubles point. We talked about that in the break and to the team's credit you saw a different team in singles. I thought we were really good in singles in the way we competed, the way we acted and the way we looked. We really gave it all we had. We defended when we had to and stepped up and took the short ball when we could. The message to the team is that we have to learn to play the doubles point with the same passion, the same go-getting attitude that we play with in singles. That's just something we have to decide as a team that we are willing to do."

On the young team continuing to gain valuable experience…
"This is an environment that none of our new players have experienced. This is the first time competing at a level like this for a lot of them and it is going to take getting used to. I saw some tired and disappointed players today but most importantly I saw some fighters and some players that are willing to work."

Doubles Results
No. 20 Rogers/Smith (NCS) defeats No. 41 Dimitrova/Jarlskog (UF) – 6-4 (Second)
No. 37 Reami/Rebol (NCS) defeats Kessler/Berlin (UF) - 6-2 (First)
Zein/Kharitonova (UF) vs. Moldovan/Norman (NCS) - 4-5 (Unfinished)

Singles Results 
No. 23 Anna Rogers (NCS) defeats No. 29 McCartney Kessler (UF) - 7-6 (7-4), 5-7, 6-4 (Sixth)
No. 9 Ida Jarlskog (UF) defeats No. 111 Alana Smith (NCS) 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-5) (Fifth)
Marlee Zein (UF) defeats Adriana Reami (NCS) – 6-3, 6-3 (First)
Liz Norman (NCS) defeats Tsveta Dimitrova (UF) – 7-6 (7-2),1-6, 6-1 (Fourth)
Anastasia Kharitonova (UF) defeats Bianca Moldovan (NCS), 6-4, 6-4 (Second)
Amanda Rebol (NCS) defeats Sydney Berlin (UF) – 7-5, 6-0 (Third)



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