Sunday, March 27
Gainesville, Fla.
1 PM
Florida Gators
4
vs
3
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Mississippi State
No. 16 Women’s Tennis Secures Sixth-Consecutive Victory on Sunday Afternoon
Sunday, March 27, 2022 | Women's Tennis
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida women's tennis secured their sixth-consecutive victory of the season on Sunday afternoon, defeating No. 54 Mississippi State, 5-2, on a windy day at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
Mississippi State (10-10, 1-7 SEC) came out firing on all cylinders to begin doubles play. At the two doubles slot, the Gators' (14-4, 6-2 SEC) duo of No. 34 Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee fell to Emma Antonaki and Marta Falceto, 1-6, giving the Bulldogs an early advantage.
Following the conclusion of the doubles match on court two, Sara Dahlstrom and Emma Shelton were in a good position to pull the Gators back into it, leading Alex Mikhailuk and Alessia Tagliente, 5-3, but the MSU duo of Tamara Racine and Chloe Cirotte managed to hold off a surge from McCartney Kessler and Marlee Zein on court one, claiming the doubles point with a 6-3 win.
With four wins needed in singles competition to win the match, No. 22 Kessler continued to be a steady presence for the Orange & Blue. Facing off with No. 95 Emma Antonaki, Kessler earned her 11th-consecutive singles victory, downing the Bulldog in straight sets: 6-3, 6-3.
On court five, Dahlstrom gave the Gators their first team lead of the day, defeating Alessia Tagliente 6-4 in a close first set before swiftly earning a 6-2 second set to push the UF lead to 2-1. No. 58 Zein continued to ride the momentum for UF, opening with a 6-3 set victory over No. 123 Racine before finding herself locked in a 3-3 battle in set two. Down 15-40 while the set was tied at 3-3, Zein came back to claim the game, eventually reeling off two more games to take the set and match, 6-3.
Carly Briggs would play clincher on Sunday afternoon, completing a perfect weekend in singles play for the junior. After cruising to a 6-0 opening set victory, the Tennessee transfer had to fight for the second set victory. Mississippi State's Mikhailuk pulled even late in the set at 6-6, forcing a tiebreaker. After an even 2-2 split, Briggs pushed down on the gas pedal to open up a 6-3 advantage before taking the tiebreaker, 7-5, to secure the match for the Orange & Blue.
Florida is now on a six-game winning streak and has surpassed their win total from each of the last two full seasons, earning their 14th victory on Sunday with five matches remaining in the regular season. During the 2018-19 and 2020-21 seasons, UF ended with 13 wins.
The Gators will be back in action on Friday, Apr. 1, when they travel to Lexington, Kentucky, for a 12 p.m. ET matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats.
SINGLES
No. 22 McCartney Kessler def. No. 95 Emma Antonaki (MSU): 6-3, 6-3
No. 58 Marlee Zein def. No. 123 Tamara Racine (MSU): 6-3, 6-3
Chloe Cirotte (MSU) def. Alicia Dudeney: 7-5, 6-2
Carly Briggs def. Alex Mikhailuk (MSU): 6-0, 7-6(5)
Sara Dahlstrom def. Alessia Tagliente (MSU): 6-4, 6-2
Marta Falceto (MSU) def. Sydney Berlin: 6-7(4), 6-4, 12-10
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6
DOUBLES
Tamara Racine/Chloe Cirotte (MSU) def. McCartney Kessler/Marlee Zein: 6-3
Emma Antonaki/Marta Falceto (MSU) def. No. 34 Alicia Dudeney/Bente Spee: 6-1
Sara Dahlstrom/Emma Shelton vs. Alex Mikhailuk/Alessia Tagliente (MSU): 5-3, unf.
Order of Finish: 2, 1
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
On the singles performances this weekend…
"For the past two weeks I've been really impressed by the play of McCartney (Kessler), Marlee (Zein), and Carlee (Briggs), they are leading the way every time out and these last four matches, just dominating performances. We really turned up the heat in practice after indoors and it's now starting to show. Our attitudes in singles are now like pros and it's just nice to see that extra work, and hard work, is now paying off.
On a tough doubles point on Sunday…
"Winning the doubles point, playing to six, is just a treacherous proposition to begin with. Frankly, you can be the better team and still lose doubles points, the thing for us is that we want to play better doubles. We can become a better doubles team, and at this point in the year, that's certainly something we will continue to look at because I do believe that we're farther ahead in our singles play than we are in doubles. But, the message I told our girls is, it's almost April and there's not a lot of teams in the country that still have something to look and pay attention to where they can get this much better like we can in doubles. If we can do a good job in training on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then into next week and the next, our doubles play can continue to improve by several factors. If that's the case, then we're going to be tough to beat."
On where the Gators sit heading into the back half of SEC play…
"I think we're improving and that's our goal. We knew when we saw the schedule that the first two weekends of the SEC season were going to be a really tough road match and a matchup with the favorite to win the conference during the second weekend in Georgia. It was really important for us to be matter-of-fact about things and continue to look at our performances and improvement in our performance. Ultimately, if we can do that, we will be able to play with anyone at the end of the year and that's what we're shooting for."
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Mississippi State (10-10, 1-7 SEC) came out firing on all cylinders to begin doubles play. At the two doubles slot, the Gators' (14-4, 6-2 SEC) duo of No. 34 Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee fell to Emma Antonaki and Marta Falceto, 1-6, giving the Bulldogs an early advantage.
Following the conclusion of the doubles match on court two, Sara Dahlstrom and Emma Shelton were in a good position to pull the Gators back into it, leading Alex Mikhailuk and Alessia Tagliente, 5-3, but the MSU duo of Tamara Racine and Chloe Cirotte managed to hold off a surge from McCartney Kessler and Marlee Zein on court one, claiming the doubles point with a 6-3 win.
With four wins needed in singles competition to win the match, No. 22 Kessler continued to be a steady presence for the Orange & Blue. Facing off with No. 95 Emma Antonaki, Kessler earned her 11th-consecutive singles victory, downing the Bulldog in straight sets: 6-3, 6-3.
On court five, Dahlstrom gave the Gators their first team lead of the day, defeating Alessia Tagliente 6-4 in a close first set before swiftly earning a 6-2 second set to push the UF lead to 2-1. No. 58 Zein continued to ride the momentum for UF, opening with a 6-3 set victory over No. 123 Racine before finding herself locked in a 3-3 battle in set two. Down 15-40 while the set was tied at 3-3, Zein came back to claim the game, eventually reeling off two more games to take the set and match, 6-3.
Carly Briggs would play clincher on Sunday afternoon, completing a perfect weekend in singles play for the junior. After cruising to a 6-0 opening set victory, the Tennessee transfer had to fight for the second set victory. Mississippi State's Mikhailuk pulled even late in the set at 6-6, forcing a tiebreaker. After an even 2-2 split, Briggs pushed down on the gas pedal to open up a 6-3 advantage before taking the tiebreaker, 7-5, to secure the match for the Orange & Blue.
Florida is now on a six-game winning streak and has surpassed their win total from each of the last two full seasons, earning their 14th victory on Sunday with five matches remaining in the regular season. During the 2018-19 and 2020-21 seasons, UF ended with 13 wins.
The Gators will be back in action on Friday, Apr. 1, when they travel to Lexington, Kentucky, for a 12 p.m. ET matchup with the Kentucky Wildcats.
SINGLES
No. 22 McCartney Kessler def. No. 95 Emma Antonaki (MSU): 6-3, 6-3
No. 58 Marlee Zein def. No. 123 Tamara Racine (MSU): 6-3, 6-3
Chloe Cirotte (MSU) def. Alicia Dudeney: 7-5, 6-2
Carly Briggs def. Alex Mikhailuk (MSU): 6-0, 7-6(5)
Sara Dahlstrom def. Alessia Tagliente (MSU): 6-4, 6-2
Marta Falceto (MSU) def. Sydney Berlin: 6-7(4), 6-4, 12-10
Order of Finish: 1, 5, 2, 4, 3, 6
DOUBLES
Tamara Racine/Chloe Cirotte (MSU) def. McCartney Kessler/Marlee Zein: 6-3
Emma Antonaki/Marta Falceto (MSU) def. No. 34 Alicia Dudeney/Bente Spee: 6-1
Sara Dahlstrom/Emma Shelton vs. Alex Mikhailuk/Alessia Tagliente (MSU): 5-3, unf.
Order of Finish: 2, 1
QUOTABLES
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
On the singles performances this weekend…
"For the past two weeks I've been really impressed by the play of McCartney (Kessler), Marlee (Zein), and Carlee (Briggs), they are leading the way every time out and these last four matches, just dominating performances. We really turned up the heat in practice after indoors and it's now starting to show. Our attitudes in singles are now like pros and it's just nice to see that extra work, and hard work, is now paying off.
On a tough doubles point on Sunday…
"Winning the doubles point, playing to six, is just a treacherous proposition to begin with. Frankly, you can be the better team and still lose doubles points, the thing for us is that we want to play better doubles. We can become a better doubles team, and at this point in the year, that's certainly something we will continue to look at because I do believe that we're farther ahead in our singles play than we are in doubles. But, the message I told our girls is, it's almost April and there's not a lot of teams in the country that still have something to look and pay attention to where they can get this much better like we can in doubles. If we can do a good job in training on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then into next week and the next, our doubles play can continue to improve by several factors. If that's the case, then we're going to be tough to beat."
On where the Gators sit heading into the back half of SEC play…
"I think we're improving and that's our goal. We knew when we saw the schedule that the first two weekends of the SEC season were going to be a really tough road match and a matchup with the favorite to win the conference during the second weekend in Georgia. It was really important for us to be matter-of-fact about things and continue to look at our performances and improvement in our performance. Ultimately, if we can do that, we will be able to play with anyone at the end of the year and that's what we're shooting for."
FOLLOW THE GATORS
SOCIAL: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram
JOIN THE CONVERSATION: #GoGators
Team Stats
#1 Doubles Match
.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
#2 Doubles Match
#3 Doubles Match
Order of Finish:
2,1
#1 Singles Match
12
Emma Antonaki / 0 (95/-) [MS]
33
66
#2 Singles Match
12
Tamara Racine / 0 (123/-) [MS]
33
66
#3 Singles Match
12
Chloe Cirotte / 0 [MS]
76
52
#4 Singles Match
12
Alexandra Mikhailuk / 0 [MS]
06
67
#5 Singles Match
12
Alessia Tagliente / 0 [MS]
42
66
#6 Singles Match
123
Marta Falceto / 0 [MS]
6612
7410
Order of Finish:
1,5,2,4,3,6
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
/ Women's Tennis
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