Final Results (PDF)

LAKE NONA, Fla. – The No. 21 University of Florida women's tennis team fought back from a 3-0 deficit to tie things up at 3-3, but could not complete the comeback as it dropped a 4-3 decision to No. 22 UCF Friday at the USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.

No. 32 McCartney Kessler, No. 65 Layne Sleeth and Marlee Zein all collected singles wins but Florida was not able to overcome its loss of the doubles point and the early singles contests.

For Sleeth, the sophomore from Canada shined in her dual match debut as she opened UF's scoring with a clinical 6-2, 6-3 victory on court four over No. 72 Marie Mattel.

The entertaining matchup between the two Sunshine State programs featured a pair of a 3-0 swings for each squad but it was UCF who notched the final win on court six. Despite winning the opening set, UF's Sydney Berlin dropped a hard-fought battle to UCF's Jaleea Leslie on what was the deciding court, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6.

In 2019, Florida fell by the same tally to the Knights in Lake Nona and is now 12-2 against UCF all time.

The Gators got behind early in doubles as court three went to the Knights. Playing together for the first time freshman Amber McGinnis and Sleeth fell, 6-1 with the action then shifting to two very close matches on the first and second courts. Despite getting out to a 2-1 advantage and leading 4-3, Ida Jarlskog and Sara Dahlstrom came up short dropping a 7-5 decision on court two to nationally-ranked Zeleva and Kuznetsova.. Florida's top tandem, No.32 Kessler and Zein, saw its match go unfinished at 5-5 against No. 6 Stolmar and Mattel.

UCF led 1-0 going into singles after claiming the doubles point.

The Knights struck first in singles as well to build a 2-0 edge after the freshman Dahlstrom suffered 6-0, 6-1 setback on court five. UCF extended its lead to 3-0 after court two went in its favor as well. Jarlskog, the senior from Sweden, put together a competitive match but couldn't get past Zeleva who held the upperhand and posted a 6-3, 6-3 win.

Facing a 3-0 deficit, Sleeth got the Gators on the board with a win in straight sets on two. No. 32 Kessler quickly followed Sleeth's lead with a dominant second set as she dispatched UCF's Levshova, 7-5, 6-0. Kessler improved to 2-0 with a win over the UCF junior who entered the matchup ranked No. 90.

After Florida closed the cap to just one at 3-2, the verdict would wait in the balance of courts three and six which both went the distance at three sets.

Zein came through with a pivotal win on court three after dropping the opening set to No. 42 Stolmar. The Texas native dropped the opening frame 6-4 and after winning the second, trailed 3-1 in the third but prevailed with a laudable comeback victory.

With the attention of the teams and the fans in attendance transitioning now to the sixth court, Berlin and Leslie squared off in a winner-take-all showdown. Berlin had her back against the wall early in the third falling behind 3-1 but she showed great resilience to close the gap to 3-2 and 4-3. Facing a 5-3 deficit and with the score tied at 40-40 Berlin saw her second serve ricochet off the net and out of bounds for the double fault as the Knights clinched the win.

The Gators return to the courts Thursday, Feb. 4 when they travel to No. 8 Florida State.

No. 22 UCF 4, No. 21 UF 3
Doubles Results
No. 26 McCartney Kessler and Marlee Zein (UF) vs. No. 6 Rebeka Stolmar and Marie Mattel, 5-5 unfinished
No. 60 Valeriya Zeleva and Ksenia Kuznetsova def. Sara Dahlstrom and Ida Jarlskog (UF), 7-5
Nandini Sharma and Evgeniya Levshova def. Layne Sleeth and Amber McGinnis (UF), 6-1

Doubles order of finish: 3,2

Singles Results
No. 32 McCartney Kessler (UF) def. No. 95 Evgeniya Levshova, 7-5, 6-0
No. 67 Valeriya Zeleva def. Ida Jarlskog (UF), 6-3, 6-3
Marlee Zein (UF) def. No. 42 Rebeka Stolmar, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3
No. 65 Layne Sleeth (UF) def. No. 72  Marie Matte, 6-2, 6-3
Ksenia Kuznetsova def. Sara Dahlstrom (UF), 6-0, 6-1
Jaleesa Leslie def. Sydney Berlin (UF), 3-6, 7-5, 6-3

Singles order of finish: 5,2,4,1,6

Quotes from the Court
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
 
Overall thoughts on the match…
"This was a fantastic match, must have been a great match to watch. We had some huge swings left and right. Obviously we need to really dedicate ourselves to becoming a little bit better in doubles. We talked about that a little bit after, I think we have players who can play at a high level and for some reason we are a little hesitant early and playing to six, there's no time to hesitate. You just have to go get it, there's not time for strategy changes playing six. You know we are a pretty deliberate team and you see in singles we can make tactical changes and we are willing to go deep in count. That's just not how you play doubles. In doubles it has to be fifth gear from the first ball. I think we have to really dedicate ourselves to that.

In singles, obviously getting Layne (Sleeth) back is a huge boost for us. Just the fact that she hasn't played a singles match since the summer and just basically told me today that 'hey I feel good I want to play' and then she wins. The kid is tough, you know. I thought McCartney (Kessler) was outstanding at No. 1 and Marlee (Zein) did a good job of turning it around. We had chances on some of the other courts to get in there. So overall we are obviously not happy losing 4-3 but I do think that we see that there are certainly things that we can really improve and that aren't a huge stretch to improve for us too which I think can really make a difference. In general, it's January, I think we are going to get a lot better as a team. I know our team is going to be bummed all the way home but we are going to train tomorrow and get this taste out of our mouth and be ready for Florida State."



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