Between the Southeastern Conference Tournament in April, the NCAA Team Championships and now the doubles and singles championships, Allie Will is familiar with the courts of the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga.
On Friday, however, a Bulldog on her home court ended Will’s bid to win the singles title.
Georgia’s No. 12 Chelsey Gullickson upset Will 6-1, 6-4 in the round of 16.
The loss caps off a rough week of singles play for Will. On Tuesday she had her 26-match winning streak snapped by Stanford’s No. 83 Lindsay Burdette in the teams’ championship match.
Will is not done with the NCAA Tournament, though, as she and senior Marrit Boonstra advanced to the quarterfinals of the doubles championship by defeating Stetson’s No. 57 duo of Carolina de los Santos and Valentina Galbarini.
The No. 5 team benefitted from the changed format of the NCAA tournament as opposed to a dual-match season doubles match. De los Santos and Galbarini won the first set 7-5 and would have been awarded the victory if it were the regular season.
But Will and Boonstra bounced back to win the second and third sets 7-5 and 6-4 to claim victory in the match.
The Gators’ lone remaining participants of the singles and doubles championships should face a much tougher challenge today against the top-ranked duo, Tennessee’s Natalie Pluskota and Caitlin Whoriskey. Pluskota did not play when the Gators and Volunteers squared off in Knoxville on April 9. Whoriskey and Marie Sorbello defeated Will and Boonstra 8-6.
