Gators hosts No.17 Alabama in Sunday's Match

Sunday, March 17

Gainesville, FL

12 PM

Florida Gators

University of Alabama

Florida looks to extend their win streak to three on Sunday as they face Alabama.

Gators hosts No.17 Alabama in Sunday's Match

Saturday, March 16, 2024 | Women's Tennis

Florida moved to 3-2 in conference after dominating win on Friday evening.

By: Asia Horton

GAINESVILLE, FL. – No. 16 Florida will host the No. 17 Alabama Crimson Tide at Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Sunday at noon. Florida is coming off a 4-1 home win against No.13 Auburn and is looking to extend their two game SEC win streak of the 2024 season.

GATOR SUCCESS
Rachel Gailis (9-3, 4-1 SEC) secured the biggest win of her tennis career on Friday evening. No.45 Gailis defeated No.14 Carolyn Ansari in straight sets in the matchup. Rachel also secured two other top-30 wins for the Gators ahead of this match. Gailis recorded both victories on Florida's home courts defeating No.29 Dasha Vidmanova of Georgia and Tennessee's No. 27 Sofia Cabezas.

Malwina Rowinska (2-4, 1-3) secured her first win of the SEC season defeating Ali Despain. The freshman had a strong performance, snagging 6-3 in both sets to secure her victory.

Sara Dahlstrom is currently the only undefeated Gator in SEC action (4-3, 3-0 SEC) and has two top-30 wins. Dahlstrom defeated No. 29 Mia Kupres from Texas A&M and most recently defeated Georgia's Alexandra Vecic ranked at No. 25.

ABOUT ALABAMA
Alabama is currently ranked seventeenth in the nation with an overall 13-2 record and only dropping one match in conference play at 4-1. The Crimson Tide have defeated, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Missouri making Florida its second top-20 matchup since SEC play started.

Alabama has three ranked singles players on its roster and one ranked doubles teams. No. 32 Loudmilla Bencheikh (12-11, 1-4 SEC), No. 83 Petra Sedlackova (16-10, 4-1 SEC), and No. 116 Ola Pitak (7-3 overall).

Loudmilla Bencheikh /Anne Marie Hiser are also ranked in the double's category at No. 20.

LAST TIME OUT
The Gators will enter Sunday's match with a 7-7, 3-2 SEC record after playing Auburn on Friday evening. Florida opened with an impressive performance in doubles. Duo Rachel Gailis/Bente Spee snagged the first win for the Gators blanking Adeline Flach / Ali Despain 6-0. The doubles point was secured with a 6-3 win from Qavia Lopez/ Carly Briggs over Selin Ovunc /Carolyn Ansari.

Over on the singles side, the momentum carried over from doubles. Florida won 3 of 4 matches to secure their third SEC win.

Rachel Gailis posted the first win for the Gators, defeating Carolyn Ansari 6-2, 6-3. Malwina Rowinska notched the second point for Florida, defeating Ali Despain in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. Carly Briggs fell to DJ Bennett after forcing a third set. Bennett took the first set 6-4 and Briggs responded with a 6-1 victory in the second. Briggs ran out of steam in third, dropping to Bennett 1-6. The final point for the Gators came from Qavia Lopez who fought hard to clinch her victory against Adeline Flach with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 win to give Florida its fourth point of the day and secured the 4-1 win.

MATCH COVERAGE
Full coverage of this match can be found through the following links:
Live Stream
Live Stats

ITA RANKINGS
Florida finds itself ranked No. 16 in the latest Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. Three Gators are ranked in singles competition: Rachel Gailis at No. 45 , Carly Briggs at No. 79, and Sara Dahlstrom cracked into ITA rankings at No. 80.

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