Florida will be well represented in the college tennis scene today, as members of both the men’s and women’s teams will compete in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in Flushing, N.Y.
Hosted by Columbia University, the tournament features some of the best players in the country from NCAA Divisions I, II and III as well as junior colleges.
Senior Alexandre Lacroix, UF’s lone men’s representative in the tournament, has put in an intense seven days of preparation for the high-profile event and has a good chance of winning, coach Andy Jackson said.
“He’s one of those 10 guys who could win it,” Jackson said. “But of those 10, any could lose in the first round.”
Lacroix will take on Columbia’s Haig Schneiderman, the 2009 Ivy League Rookie of the Year, in the first round.
The women’s team will be represented by sophomore Allie Will and three freshmen — Alex Cercone, Olivia Janowicz and Sofie Oyen.
While No. 5 Will continues to show she is one of the top players in the country, coach Roland Thornqvist is most excited about the development of the freshmen.
“In my 10 years here, this is probably the best fall performance and improvement I’ve seen,” he said. “We have three freshmen who have done very, very well, perhaps outperformed my expectations this early.”
The tournament will be a good test of how good UF really is, Thornqvist said.
“That’s generally perhaps the toughest event that we play all year,” he said. “Every player in that event has qualified by either winning their respective regional or by virtue of doing well at the All-American or being top 10 in the country.”
Men travel west: Michael Alford, Andrew Butz, Billy Federhofer, Bob van Overbeek and Nassim Slilam will travel to Austin, Texas, to play in the Texas Invitational this weekend.
Jackson said the tournament will allow players to get more match experience against some top-10 competition in Texas, Baylor and Texas A&M.
Women hosting Fall Classic: Four Gators will stay home this weekend as UF hosts the Gator Fall Classic.
Joanna Mather, Claire Bartlett, Brittany Borsanyi and Caroline Hitimana will compete against players from Florida State, Florida International and South Florida.
Although the team has no seniors, Thornqvist is pleased with its performance this fall.
“We lost a lot of leadership from last year’s team,” he said. “But so far, from a performance standpoint, we haven’t really lost anything, perhaps gotten even better.”
