As the action continued on Day 2 of the USTA/ITA Southeast Regional Championships Saturday, so did the Gators women’s tennis team’s improvement.
Although Florida didn’t see another undefeated day, the Gators did advance junior Lauren Embree, senior Joanna Mather and sophomores Olivia Janowicz and Sofie Oyen to Sunday’s quarterfinals.
Top-seeded Embree started the day with a 6-0, 6-2 victory against UGA’s Alina Jerjomina and finished it with another 6-0, 6-1 singles win against Ecaterina Vasenia of South Florida.
Her trip to Sunday’s tournament quarterfinals also clinches her at-large bid to the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships due to her top-15 preseason ranking at No. 5.
“Lauren played some of the best tennis I’ve seen in a while, actually,” UF coach Roland Thornqvist said. “She’s worked really, really hard, and I think she’s felt in the past few weeks that she hasn’t seen the fruit of the hard work, but I think it’s starting to shine through a little bit here.”
UF’s doubles team of Janowicz and junior Caroline Hitimana will also compete tomorrow after a 9-8 (3) victory against the tournament’s top-seeded Georgia Tech duo.
“We’re starting to figure out what we’re good at and how to get to those positions to utilize what we’re good at, and we were able to do that in the tiebreaker,” Thornqvist said.
For Florida, that means keeping Janowicz in the backcourt to hit backhands so Hitimana can stay up at the net.
Janowicz also had a notable day on the singles courts. After a 6-1, 6-1 win in the morning against a Georgia State player, Janowicz battled for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory in the afternoon.
“I was very impressed with Olivia and the fact that she could win that,” Thornqvist said. “She played a really tricky player, somebody who plays a little unorthodox and does things to Olivia she doesn’t particularly like. … I thought she did a really good job keeping her head even though her head was spinning in the first set trying to figure out what was going on.”
Doubles play begins Sunday at 9 a.m. and will be followed by main draw singles at 10:30. Three Gators — Oyen, Janowicz and Mather — will face the second, third and fourth-seeds of the tournament, respectively, but Thornqvist likes the idea of such a challenge.
“(They will be) tough matches. If you play to get to the quarterfinals here, you’re playing some high-ranked accomplished players, so I’m happy to see that all four of our tennis players are playing players from other teams,” Thornqvist said.
“It’s always more pleasant for us to play somebody else. I think it’s easier for our players to sleep, too, knowing that we’re going to play somebody we haven’t seen. So it’s going to be a great test for us.”
