Fresh off their team national championship win over Stanford, three Florida women's tennis players took their first step towards a possible singles title.
Of the five Gators in the field of 64 at the NCAA Singles Championships, No. 6-seed Allie Will, junior Joanna Mather and sophomore Lauren Embree all made it out of the first round with straight-set victories.
"I am excited to be in the singles draw for the first time in my career," Mather said. "I feel like I played pretty well today. It was good to be back out there after I lost my singles match [Tuesday] and feel the ball as well as I did."
Will improved to 34-4 on the year with her 6-3, 6-0 dismantling of Virginia's Emily Fraser, while Mather also won in convincing fashion after defeating Marshall senior Michaela Kissell 6-2, 6-1.
"I played very aggressive today and had a lot of fun today," Will said. That's why I was successful. I'm looking forward to another match tomorrow, as well as playing doubles with Alex."
Both of Florida's freshmen in the tournament, Olivia Janowicz and Alex Cercone, saw their rookie seasons end in a loss.
In the last UF match of the day, Embree stayed perfect in singles competition on the season as she upset the nation's sixth-ranked player, Bianca Eichkorn of Miami, 7-5, 6-4.
On Thursday in the second round, Mather will take on top-seeded Jana Juricova from California. Will is slated against Kristi Boxx of Mississippi and Embree will wait on the winner of Florida State's Katie Rybakov and UCLA's Noelle Hickey.
The men's team also had a sixth-seeded player in senior Alexandre Lacroix advance to the second round with his 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 first-round win over Tulsa's Japie De Klerk. With his 110th singles victory, the senior slid into a tie with Greg Oulette for the fourth most in school history.
Also competing for UF on the men's side was Sekou Bangoura Jr., who dropped his first career singles championship to No. 8-seed Henrique Cunha of Duke University in straight sets.
Lacroix will join Bangoura in doubles action on Thursday against California's Nick Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt and will also play his second round singles match facing Jose Hernandez of North Carolina.
