The No. 3 Gators women’s tennis team (27-2) may have gotten a preview of how the rest of its NCAA Tournament matches will play out.
After winning the doubles point, the top half of Florida’s lineup proved to be too much for No. 17 Mississippi (17-6) and provided the three singles wins necessary to give UF the 4-1 victory to advance to the round of eight.
The deciding match for the doubles point came at court No. 1 after the Gators and Rebels split the sets at Nos. 2 and 3.
The No. 5 doubles team of freshman Allie Will and senior Marrit Boonstra were challenged but prevailed over the No. 12 duo of Kristi Boxx and Karen Nijssen 8-6.
Boonstra and Will did not slow down in singles.
The No. 65 senior picked up where she left off in Athens, Ga., the site of her SEC Tournament MVP performance, and defeated Connor Vogel 6-1, 6-2 to give UF a 2-0 lead.
Boonstra now has a 16-match singles winning streak going into Saturday’s quarterfinals.
The team’s leading winning streak belongs to No. 8 Will, who now has won 25 singles matches in a row with her 6-1, 6-2 victory over No. 115 Karen Nijssen at court No. 2.
Instead of the 4-0 wins the Gators became used to in the first two rounds of the tournament, Mississippi fought back and Florida found itself in a pressure situation.
The Rebels managed to get on the board when Abby Guthrie defeated No. 102 Anastasia Revzina 6-4, 6-4 at the No. 4 spot.
As sophomore Joanna Mather and freshman Caroline Hitimana were trailing their third sets at Nos. 5 and 6, all eyes were on freshman Lauren Embree to clinch at No. 1.
Instead of facing the possible pressure of being in a third set with the match tied 3-3, Embree captured the victory by winning her second set tiebreaker to defeat No. 44 Boxx 6-4, 7-6.
“This is the first time a pressure match has come down to Lauren’s court,” UF coach Roland Thornqvist said. “Even though there were other matches still being played, in the back of her mind I think she thought that she would be the one to clinch.”
Embree and the rest of the Gators might be breathing a sigh of relief when they look at the tournament bracket.
One of the two teams in the tournament that defeated UF in the regular season was knocked out in the round of 16. Instead of a rematch with Northwestern, which defeated Florida 4-3 at the ITA Team Indoor Tournament in Madison, Wis., the Gators will now take on Miami.
Saturday’s match against the Hurricanes will be the first meeting for the two teams since 2007.
The No. 6 men’s team takes on tournament host Georgia today at 6 p.m.
