Florida Gators

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Rachel Gailis has 22 singles wins in her first season with the Gators, including 10 consecutive entering Friday afternoon's NCAA Tournament match at No. 1-seed North Carolina.

Yet, the most telling part of a conversation with Gailis about her first season at UF centers on a loss. Like many of her ilk, Gailis doesn't speak in gushy tones about the win streak or how it has boosted her confidence and made life more enjoyable. Oh, no. Get that chatter out of here.

A defeat sent Gailis, one of the country's elite recruits in the 2022 class, into a darkness that she perhaps didn't know even existed.

"I got to a really bad place,'' she said. "I was losing matches I shouldn't be losing, and I also didn't play my game. I was super tentative, super negative."

"She got wounded a little, losing that match,'' Gators head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "You could tell that she took it really personally. It affected her mood in training for a while. We had to work hard to get that to change."

The loss of record was a No. 3 singles match against Kentucky's Carlota Molina on March 19. Gailis lost the first set and won the second but eventually fell 3-6, 6-1, 3-6.

The defeat stung, but to Gailis, it was as if a swarm had attacked instead of a rogue bumble bee.

"It was probably the hardest loss of my career,'' she said. "As a team, that was the first time I got clinched on. After that, I was pretty negative."

Failure has not been a regular visitor in Gailis' life. She got into tennis when she was 5 because her older brother played. She pestered the instructor to let her take a shot at one of her brother's practices.

She did, and her brother soon quit the game. Meanwhile, Gailis was a young standout on the rise.

"I hit the first one over the net,'' she said. "Everyone went crazy. I thought I was the best tennis player in the world."  Gailis fell for the game, which became her life in many ways. She grew up home-schooled and practiced under the watchful eye of her coaches and father, Alex Gailis, who sat in the stands Saturday above Court 4 at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

In Florida's 4-1 win over Georgia Tech to advance to the NCAA Super Regional Round, Gailis dropped the first set to Alejandra Cruz as Thornqvist sat on a bench by the court. Thornqvist sensed what Gailis needed to get rolling, and by the time her 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 comeback was complete, Thornqvist had walked down to Court 5 on the other side of the playing area.

"I could just tell, 'She is going to handle this.' I don't need to be here,'' Thornqvist said. "I try to make her smile when she plays. That loosens her up. It's easier for her to swing and play big tennis. If she's tight and super serious, she doesn't play as well, quite frankly."

Gailis finds comfort in the arrangement that Thornqvist has emphasized to help Gailis adjust to the college game.

"We communicate really well,'' Gailis said. "He knows how to talk to me. He knows when I'm anxious, when I'm upset, or rattled. I love when he's on my court. He knew at that point to let me figure it out on my own. As soon as I got a clear mind, I was able to see what I had to do better."

The big turnaround for Gailis happened following her loss to Molina.

Not only was her forehand as cranky as a 2-year-old earlier in the season, but her attitude needed an adjustment. Team tennis is a new phenomenon for Gailis. She never considered going the college route until late in high school when former Gators assistant coach and standout Lauren Embree started to recruit her.

Gailis credits Thornqvist and her teammates for helping pull her out of her own head. Meanwhile, a hitting session with her father also helped.

"It took me back to why I play tennis, and it took a lot of the pressure off me," she said. "They just told me the tennis won't get better if the mindset doesn't. It was just all about mindset."

By the end of March, Gailis started to win and hasn't lost since.

When Gailis is grooving, her strong forehand sets the pace. She arrived at Florida with a formidable game and lofty goals. She wants to play on the professional tour and has worked hard toward that vision for more than a decade, taking classes online at Florida Virtual School and practicing daily.

She changed courses when she decided late in high school to play in college.

"College tennis is amazing right now,'' Gailis said. "It's the right way to do it. I wouldn't change a second."

And Gailis has delivered the goods the Gators expected when they signed her. She owns a 22-7 singles record, and is 14-2 playing at No. 4 singles.

"We got an incredible ball striker, super talented tennis player," Thornqvist said. "But we needed to teach her how to play and not just to hit. That's exactly what this first year has been about: how to compete, how to make decisions, how to handle mistakes, and how to train properly every day so you can become not only a better player but more confident.

"I start on her court. My prediction is that sophomore year, I won't have to do that."

If you listen closely to Gailis talk about how she beat Georgia Tech's Cruz, you understand why Thornqvist feels that way.

Gailis' mindset matches her game.

"After the first set, I began to focus a little more on playing instead of hitting,'' she said. "I focused on using my different tools at the right time. In the first set, I was being too negative.

"Even though I probably wouldn't have said this a few months ago, I think everything I went through at the beginning of the season was good because now I know how to handle that."

Some lessons are tougher than others.