FINAL RESULTS (PDF)
 
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The No. 15 University of Florida women's tennis team (10-6, 8-3) extended its winning streak to five matches as it dispatched No. 21 Kentucky, 5-1, Thursday evening at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
 
After seeing their streak of four-straight doubles points come to a close, the resilient Gators put together a clinical performance in singles, securing five victories as they earned another crucial conference win.
 
Taking on its 12^th nationally-ranked opponent this season and ninth-straight, Florida saw Layne Sleeth, Sydney Berlin, Ida Jarlskog Sara Dahlstrom and McCartney Kessler all register singles victories on the night. The freshman Dahlstrom provided the clinching win from court five, capping off a dominant effort in singles for UF.
 
Improving to 6-1 at home this season, the Gators won all of their singles matches in straight sets.
 
In doubles Kentucky struck first with a 6-4 win on court three, where despite a late charge, Dahlstrom and Berlin fell to Tkachenko and Jacobs. The Gators quickly evened the tally at a win apiece when Jarlskog and Sleeth collected a 6-3 victory over No. 66 Girbau and Stevens. Continuing their strong play down the stretch, Jarlskog and Sleeth jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never looked back.
 
The doubles point came down to the top-10 matchup on court one where two of the nation's top tandems met in a highly competitive battle. No. 2 Kessler and Marlee Zein, fell behind 2-0 but battled back to take a 5-4 lead. The Wildcat pairing countered and built a 6-5 edge but Kessler and Zein focused in and forced a tiebreak. UF's tandem started off hot and led 4-1 in the tiebreak, but couldn't hold on as No. 8 Parazinskaite and Arrese strung together six-straight points and secured the 7-4 win in the deciding frame. Taking on their fourth top 10 opponent this season, No. 2 Kessler and Zein saw their nine-match winning streak come to a close despite a gritty effort as they fell to UK's duo which improved to 14-1 on the season.
 
Dropping the doubles point for the first time in five matches, the Gators would need to bounce back in singles and they did just that. Florida put the pedal to the floor from the beginning as it won five of the six opening sets.
 
Sleeth, pushing her record to 6-1 on the season, was the first player to strike in singles, cruising to a 6-1, 6-1 win on court five over Carla Girbau. Not too long after, Berlin broke through for a 6-3, 6-2 win against Mailen Morante on court six. It was the junior's fourth-straight win.
 
Jarlskog made the score 3-1 in favor of the Gators when she put the finishing touches on a 6-3, 6-0 victory on court three. Jarlskog, whose last six matches had gone unfinished, snapped No. 71 Sedi Jacobs' four-match winning streak.
 
Dahlstrom and Kessler's matches would conclude within seconds of each other but it was Dahlstrom's tally that would serve as the clincher.
 
The Sweden native built a 5-0 lead in set one, but had to fight hard for the 7-6 win. In her second set she was dominant, notching a 6-0 victory. A few seconds following Dahlstrom's win, No. 7 Kessler cashed in herself. The senior rattled off her fifth-straight win with a 6-4, 6-3 triumph over No. 47 Akva Parazinskaite.
 
No. 36 Zein saw her matchup go unfinished at 6-7, 1-3 versus Carlota Molina.
 
The Gators improved to 43-3 all time against the Wildcats.
 
UP NEXT: The Gators return to action Saturday, April 3 for Senior Day against Vanderbilt. First serve is slated for 11 a.m. ET and seniors McCartney Kessler and Ida Jarlskog will be honored in a pre-match ceremony beginning at 10:45.
 
No. 15 Florida 5 , No. 21 Kentucky 1

Doubles Results
No .8 Akva Parazinskaite and Fiona Arrese def. No. 2 McCartney Kessler and Marlee Zein (UF), 7-6
Ida Jarlskog and Layne Sleeth (UF) def.  No. 66 Carla Girbau and Elizabeth Stevens, 6-3
Ana Tkachenko and Sedi Jacobs def. Sydney Berlin and Sara Dahlstrom (UF), 6-4

Doubles order of finish: 3, 2,1

Singles Results
No. 7 McCartney Kessler (UF) def. No. 47 Akva Parazinskaite, 6-4, 6-3
No. 36 Marlee Zein (UF) vs. Mailen Morante, 6-7, 1-3 (Unfinished)
Ida Jarlskog (UF) def. No. 71 Sedi Jacobs, 6-3, 6-0
Layne Sleeth (UF) def. Carla Girbau, 6-1, 6-1
No. 111 Sara Dahlstrom (UF) def. Fiona Arrese, 7-6, 6-0
Sydney Berlin  (UF) def. Mailen Morante, 6-3, 6-2

Singles order of finish: 4, 6, 3, 5,1
 
Quotes from the Court
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
Overall thoughts on the match…
"We do a much better job now than we did in January and February sort of compartmentalizing the doubles point whether we win or lose it. Clearly today that was really evident. I thought we got off to great starts for the most part in singles and kept it going. We are becoming a tough team to beat in singles. Like we just don't generally beat ourselves and now I think we feel fit and healthy. When we don't beat ourselves, it takes a really good team to get through us. I can just tell as a team that we just feel completely differently now. We believe in ourselves completely differently than we did in February and it's really cool to see.
 
Kentucky is a great doubles team, we knew that going in. Losing that doubles point obviously was disappointing but we just moved on. It's a crap shoot and you sort of have to treat it that way whether you win or lose. You can't be too high when you win the doubles point or too low when you lose it. I thought we did a really good job today, I was really happy with it."
 
On the team coming together…
"I think that having Layne (Sleeth) healthy has added a lot to the team and that coupled with Sydney (Berlin) just being an unbelievable player at six, now there are no holes in the lineup. Like we are coming at you at all six spots, and we are becoming a terrific doubles team. So some of those losses we took in February, we would sort of would like to have a mulligan there honesty. But I also thought this team grew from that. It could have been easy for us to really dig ourselves in a deep hole mentally and feel sorry for ourselves. I thought we tried to stay as positive as we could even though we took some of those losses. We kept seeing teams in the rankings that perhaps that we thought we were just as good as. Ultimately, I think in the end it's going to come down to playing good tennis and I thought our team did a really good job of keeping their eye on that ball. That's why we are playing almost a little bit better every week."
 
On the team's quick turnaround and matchup with Vanderbilt Saturday…
"You know obviously Vanderbilt is really good and has had some really good wins this year. Over the years we have had some fantastic battles with them. In my 20 years at Florida, they have been one of the tougher teams for us to beat. We are going to try to treat it as just another match. In our preparation tomorrow we will probably be hitting on a couple doubles things and keeping it short. We want to have fresh legs for Saturday and be ready to go the distance if we have to."

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