UF senior Carly Briggs, here getting some real-time pointers from Coach Roland Thornqvist, has won five straight matches at No. 2 singles.
Gators' Streak to be Tested on Lengthy SEC Road Swing
Thursday, April 6, 2023 | Women's Tennis, Chris Harry
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By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — On March 18, the Florida women's tennis team was ranked 18th when it took the home court at Alfred Ring Stadium to face Kentucky. The Gators had suffered a couple early season losses, including a pair to No. 2-ranked and Southeastern Conference favorite Texas A&M, but had strung together consecutive league wins against No. 34 LSU, No. 32 South Carolina and No. 23 Vanderbilt to seemingly right the UF ship and get the program back on track in its quest to return to national prominence.
That's when Kentucky came to town ranked 68th.
The Wildcats left with a 4-2 victory, handing the Gators what is believed to be the worst loss in program history relative to the ITA computer rankings. Yes, there were mitigating factors, starting with Sara Dahlstrom, UF's No. 1 singles player, being out due to an illness and a couple teammates feeling under the weather. Still, the Gators lost the doubles point and spent singles play trying to claw back, but eventually losing for the fourth time in 12 matches. Roland Thornqvist
"Kentucky really played well, really out-competed us, and it just became the perfect storm," Florida coach Roland Thornqvist recalled. "But when I think back on that match I think about how our players responded."
Rightfully so. The UK match was on a Sunday. On Wednesday, No. 3 Michigan came to town and the Gators waxed the Wolverines 4-1. That was March 22 and Florida has not lost since, stringing together a run of five consecutive victories, as the Gators, now ranked 17th, head into a crazy SEC home stretch of four straight road matches (plus the SEC Tournament) to wrap the regular season, starting Friday afternoon at No. 15 Tennessee.
The last four victories have all been in SEC play — at Mississippi State and Ole Miss, then last weekend at home against Missouri and Arkansas — by a combined score of 21-7. The Gators had a tough one in Starkville, before winning 5-2, but handled the next three opponents by a combined 16-3 count.
So what happened? What flipped the switch?
The Gators will say their growth has been a combination of a relatively young team (two seniors in the lineup) experiencing in-season maturation and growth, along with a mindset adjustment that very well may have been hatched in the aftermath of that Kentucky loss.
Or as Thornqvist put it, "It think what happened was more between the ears than anything on the court. That's just how this sport is sometimes."
UF's players talked themselves into a different place.
"Honestly, in the locker room afterward I told everyone that this could end up being good for us," said senior Carly Briggs, who has won five straight singles matches playing at No. 2. "What we did not need to do is get too high or too low about anything, but rather just control what we could control. Energy might have been a problem that day, but it wasn't going out against Michigan. We had nothing to lose and a lot to prove, but we also knew we were capable of winning. Again, controlling what we could control; our energy, cheering on our teammates and not being negative."
During the five-game winning streak, UF's singles and doubles lineups have remained the same, thus fostering some consistency and providing the Nos. 3-6 singles players — sophomores Alicia Dudeney (3), Emily De Oliveira (5) and Bente Spee (6), plus talented freshman Rachel Gailis (4) — to gain valuable experience.
Sophomore Alicia Dudeney has gone 10-2 in singles play, with eight consecutive wins.
"For freshmen, it does take a while to get used to the dual matches because they're so different than anything you would do before coming to college. Even the non-freshmen, after playing matches, you build up confidence and get more in a groove," said Dudeney, who dealt with the unique team tennis transition last year after coming from the United Kingdom. "But especially after our tough, tough loss against Kentucky, I think we just got more motivated for it not to happen because we know what we're capable of doing."
Those capabilities were on display against Michigan and have been ever since. That said, the Wolverines were the last ranked opponent Florida faced, so a case can be made that the No. 17 team in the country has merely taken care of business. That's a good thing, of course, but a program with the pedigree of Florida — seven NCAA titles, including four under Thornqvist — aspires to much more. Getting back to national prominence and dominance has been the charge of this team since the fall season.
"Ro always tells us that is the goal, to get back to where we were," Dudeney said. "He was the coach of some of those teams. He knows what it takes to reach that level and says we have some of the same skill and work ethic ethic as some of those teams had." Carly Briggs
The Gators' last national championship was in 2017. Their best finish since was last year's run to the Sweet 16, which ended in a 4-0 sweep at No. 1 North Carolina. UF has its sights set on building on (and bettering) last season.
"Are we 16 or 6? We're going to find out the next couple weeks," Thornqvist said. "I think we're feeling good because we're competing so well and that's such a big thing in college tennis; competing even if you're not hitting the ball well. That gives you hope, especially on the road."
And the road — at Tennessee, on Sunday to No. 5 Georgia, then Alabama, Auburn and finally Arkansas for the SEC Tournament — is the only place the Gators will be over the next six weeks. If the team continues its upward trend, continues competing, UF will have a chance to play a couple more home matches in the NCAA Tournament.
"The Michigan match proved what we can do. Everyone, especially the younger players, know that now," Briggs said. "We're going to play some higher ranked teams the next couple weeks, but rankings are just a number. It's about going out and playing the ball."
