The No. 1 UF women's tennis team continued its streak of dominance
in conference play with a 7-0 rout over Ole Miss Friday at
Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center in Oxford, Miss.
The Gators (16-1, 5-0 SEC) were led by sophomore star Allie Will,
who captured the 70th singles win of her career with a
straight-sets win against the Rebels' Kristi Boxx.
While Will powered through her singles match, the outcome was never
in doubt for Florida. The Gators roared into Oxford sporting six
singles players ranked in the top 90 of the ITA rankings, while Ole
Miss (8-6, 1-4) had no ranked singles players on the court.
The only concern for the Gators was whether a layoff of close to
two weeks would negatively affect the team's concentration.
“Overall, I’m very pleased," coach Roland Thornqvist said. "After a
layoff, sometimes you don’t strike the ball as cleanly as you want
to, but we always talk about being mentally tough and competing our
way through a set.”
Despite a 13-day break since UF’s last action, Thornqvist really
didn't have much to worry about. The last time Florida had such a
long layoff was after the Indoor Championships, and the Gators have
reeled off six wins in a row since then.
Will was hardly challenged in her match, something that came as a
bit of a surprise because she lost to Boxx in the fall. Aside from
her easy win and Lauren Embree's straight-sets victory, the Gators
had to fight for their points.
“There were a lot of close matches and a lot of close sets and I
thought we managed ourselves five-star," Thornqvist said.
"We had three three-setters and looked physically fit in all three.
The other matches, with the exception of Allie’s, were competitive
as well.”
