Lauren Embree has always said that watching is 10 times worse than playing. But down 4-0 to Stanford’s Mallory Burdette in the third set of a match that would decide the 2010-11 national championship, Embree had her doubts.
So did her best friend, standing courtside. Minutes earlier, Joanna Mather had lost her match and, she thought, potentially the national championship. Florida’s hopes rested on Embree’s small yet powerful shoulders.
Mather was shaking from the cold. Her best friend was shaking from nerves.
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Roland Thornqvist has a philosophy about doubles teams.
The tall, Swedish head coach of the Gators has stuck by his belief that best friends don’t necessarily make the best doubles teams. With a 270-31 record as coach, it’s hard to challenge Thornqvist’s beliefs.
“I don’t like to do that because they see enough of each other,” he said. “Sometimes when you play and you would lose, it’d create some drama.”
But with Embree and Mather, he made an exception.
“They’re really good friends, and, at first, I was apprehensive, perhaps they were too good of friends, but their record speaks for itself,” he said.
Although Embree and Mather quickly became friends upon Embree’s arrival in the summer of 2009, they were not doubles partners initially and wouldn’t play together in a match until April of that season.
In 2010, the spring of Embree’s freshman year, she was playing with Anastasia Revzina, a senior. The duo was fantastic, going 14-2 during the dual match season.
Mather played with Caroline Hitimana and Claire Bartlett, going a combined 10-3 with those pairings. But before the April 9 match against Tennessee, Thornqvist made a switch.
“We found that they really communicated, and that’s really the key to any pairing,” he said. “They complement each other where Joanna is very powerful, Lauren has a lot of courage and likes to move off of Joanna’s pace.”
From there, the duo of Embree and Mather has been as dominant as any doubles team in the country. They have won 45 of 46 matches, including a perfect 20-0 record this season. It’s been almost two years since they lost to Mississippi’s Gabby Rangel and Connor Vogel.
As important as their complementary tennis styles are, Embree, Mather and Thornqvist all agree that chemistry is the most vital part of their success.
As they have grown on the court both in singles and doubles, they have grown closer together. Now, they are best friends and roommates. They can often be seen interacting on Twitter, with Embree (@lembree888) and Mather (@JoMather1) exchanging pictures, jokes and encouragement.
At times, the girls said, they have an almost telepathic ability to know where the other one will be.
“Most of the time, I know what Lauren is going to do, what balls she’s going to cross on, or whether she’s going to try to lob or hit the ball,” Mather said.
Said Embree: “She’s pretty athletic, so if she does something weird, I know somehow it’ll go in. Because we’ve been playing with each other for so long, I think we both know what’s going to happen. Sometimes we don’t even call plays.”
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If all goes well, Embree and Mather have six team matches remaining. Next month, they will likely have the opportunity to help No. 2 UF win its second consecutive national title.
That certainly won’t be the end of their friendship, but it will be the end of their doubles partnership as Gators.
Mather will graduate in May with a degree in management. She plans to pursue tennis professionally before going to graduate school down the road.
“I’m not ready for a job yet,” she said with a laugh.
Embree will return for one final season in Gainesville, where she will be a senior leader of a Florida team that will have the talent to again compete for a national title.
But for the first time in two years, she will be searching for a new doubles partner.
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As soon as Embree won the next two games against Burdette, Mather knew the direction of the match had changed.
“When she won those two games at 4-2, Mallory started making more mistakes and Lauren was just so solid, and I just remember thinking ‘Lauren’s got this’.”
Embree won four of the next six games, throwing the match into a deadlock. Two of the nation’s top players were going into a third-set tiebreak — first to seven, win by two.
They went back and forth, on mini-runs and mini-collapses. Leading 7-6, Embree was returning serve.
After a rally, Burdette loaded up to deliver a forehand. It sailed wide. Out.
During the celebration that followed, Embree eventually found Mather, crying. That led her to tears as well. It was a feeling unlike anything they had ever felt.
“Looking back on how hard our team worked and how hard we pushed each other and stayed together as a team meant so much to all of us,” Embree said.
“Just being able to trust each other and trust ourselves and then everything paying off,” Mather said.
“It was amazing.”
UF tennis players Joanna Mather, front, and Lauren Embree compete in a match against Ole Miss on March 25.
