GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida women's tennis was unable to fend-off a veteran Pepperdine team on Friday evening, falling to the No. 25 Waves, 4-0.
 
It was a high-level doubles competition from the start and the Gators (5-2, 0-0 SEC) came out in aggressive fashion, grabbing a 2-1 lead on all three courts to begin. Matched-up against the No. 1 doubles tandem in the nation of Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, Carly Briggs and Alicia Dudeney battled to a 3-3 stalemate before the Waves took a 4-3 advantage and didn't look back, taking court one, 6-3.
 
Courts two and three found themselves in familiar positions, both seeing ties at 3-3 midway through their respective matches. In similar fashion to the top court, Anna Campana and Nikki Redelijk of Pepperdine (4-2, 0-0 WCC) grabbed the lead after the tie and held on for the 6-3 clincher. Rachel Gailis and Bente Spee were making a late push at the two doubles position, ending with a 4-5 deficit.
 
The Gators brought the energy to start singles play, jumping out to 2-1 leads on all but one court in the opening sets. Pepperdine didn't let that phase them, however, as No. 29 Tjen managed to pull away from No. 61 Briggs in the first set, 6-3. The two would go back-and-forth to a 3-3 draw into the second set, but again Tjen managed to create space to win 6-3, 6-3, and push Pepperdine's lead to 2-0.
 
On court three, No. 16 Broadus managed to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Dahlstrom while Anna Campana clinched the match for the Waves on court six, defeating De Oliveira 6-4, 6-3 hard-fought two-setter.
 
Florida will now look to focus on Southeastern Conference play, matching up with No. 7 Texas A&M on Friday, March 3 at 5 p.m. ET inside the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
 
Quotes from the Court
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
"I'm proud of our fight and today, you can tell, with their four grad transfers and a junior, that they have been in these matches way more than our freshmen. We're a bunch of freshmen and sophomores and you can tell we were trying to land some jabs today, we were up a break in a spot in doubles, and they were just able to absorb what we gave them, and then they kept leaning on us and leaning on us and solved that riddle. I thought they were really impressive."
 
"From our end, we need to be in these matches more where everything is nip-and-tuck so that we become more durable to where there is more grit and accept that fact that there are going to be small margins, and when there's small margins that we make the right decisions. I think that was probably the biggest difference. Their experience showed, because with small-margin play out there, they were able to make better decisions at key times. They gave us some losses today from players who haven't lost from us. I was very impressed with how they played. Sometimes you have to just shake their hand and say, 'hey, today we got beat.' They were a very impressive group."
 
"It doesn't change my opinion of our team one bit. That's the message I shared in our locker room, that there's a lot of room for growth with this team and the more we play these tough matches, the more experience we get, the better we're going to be and the talent will shine at the end. A lot of disappointed athletes in that room now, which is good, but we're going to keep working and keeping staying on our path. That'll be our goal."
 
Singles
No. 29 Janice Tjen (Pepperdine) def. No. 61Carly Briggs: 6-3, 6-3
Alicia Dudeney vs. No. 35 Lisa Zaar (Pepperdine): 4-6, 3-3
No. 16 Savannah Broadus (Pepperdine) def. No. 83 Sara Dahlstrom: 6-1, 6-2
Rachel Gailis vs. Bunyawi Thamchaiwat (Pepperdine): 5-7, 3-4
No. 106 Anastasia Sysoeva vs. Nikki Redelijk (Pepperdine): 6-2, 3-5, unf.
Anna Campana (Pepperdine) def. Emily De Oliveira: 6-4, 6-3
Order of Finish: 1,3,6
 
Doubles
No. 1 Savannah Broadus/Janice Tjen (Pepperdine) def. Carly Briggs/Alicia Dudeney: 6-3
Rachel Gailis/Bente Spee vs. No. 27 Bunyawi Thamchaiwat/Lisa Zaar (Pepperdine): 4-5, unf.
Anna Campana/Nikki Redelijk (Pepperdine) def. Sara Dahlstrom/Emily De Oliveira: 6-3
Order of Finish: 1,3
 
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