The UF women’s tennis team advanced to the NCAA Tournament final with a 4-0 win over UCLA on Monday.
The Gators will face Stanford today at 7 p.m. for the NCAA Championship, a rematch of last year’s final.
While the score made the match seem like a easy win, Florida again had to dig deep again in singles play, a common theme in the three matches the Gators have played in Palo Alto, Calif.
“We played our best tennis of the week so far [Monday],” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “We finally got off to a good start in singles and that made a big difference.”
After winning the doubles point, Florida got singles wins from Lauren Embree on Court 2, Alex Cercone on Court 5 and Allie Will on Court 1. Each win came in straight sets.
“[Will and Embree] were really good tonight, we’ve relied on these two superstars all year long and today was no different,” Thornqvist said.
The win gave Florida its 30th win of the year, the seventh time in program history the Gators have reached that plateau.
Today’s rematch against Stanford is what the whole season has been leading up to for Florida. The Gators have only lost two team matches in the past calendar year — both to Stanford. The first was in last year’s NCAA Tournament final, and this season’s only loss came in the final of the ITA Indoor Championships.
“Obviously we’re proud, this is what we’ve worked for,” Thornqvist said.
“We played during this week with a heavy, heavy burden. We played with the whole world on our shoulders like we had to get here and anything else would be a failure.”
The No. 2-seed Gators have had to work on staying focused against lesser teams all season, but that won’t be a cause for concern against No. 1 seed Stanford, which has cast a shadow over the Gators all year.
The match will be a challenge for Florida, as Stanford is the only undefeated squad in the nation and hasn’t lost at him since 1999.
“Stanford has to be the favorite — they haven’t lost here in 11 or 12 years,” Thornqvist said.
“Hopefully we’ll play our best tennis of the year [today].”
