Junior Allie Will has spent her last few months jumping back and forth between two worlds of tennis.
After a national championship season as the 2011 Southeastern Conference Player of the Year capped in May, Will worked up to a summer on the pro circuit before making her way back to Gainesville for fall practice.
After Sunday’s performance, Will, No. 2 in the ITA individual rankings, can add her first collegiate singles grand slam title to her list of recent accomplishments after winning the main singles draw of the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
“It’s a mighty big event to win,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “The best players in the country are all there, and it’s at a beautiful venue in Riviera Country Club, so it doesn’t really get much better than that. It just proves to you that you’ve got what it takes.”
Will defeated No. 11 Jacqueline Cako from Arizona State for the title in a 7-6 (4), 1-6, 6-3 victory to become the first Florida tennis player to win a national singles title since 2005.
Thornqvist said much of Will’s success came from combining her physical talent with a more composed mental game.
“I don’t think she’s ever put it all together over the course of four days before,” Thornqvist said. “The will is always there, no pun intended, and she’s always had a great desire. Sometimes that great desire has gotten in her own way. She wanted it too much. This week she was maybe a little more matter-of-fact about it.”
Will also finished her time across the country with a runner-up finish in the tournament’s doubles draw with sophomore Sofie Oyen.
The pair dropped the doubles championship to Stanford’s No. 11 pairing of Mallory Burdette and Nicole Gibbs in a 6-2, 7-6 finish, but the No. 4 pairing of Oyen and Will had not played together in a competitive match since the spring season.
Also, Oyen’s doubles play was the first time she had served after suffering a front shoulder strain this summer and dropping her first singles match in the tournament.
“She’s got phenomenal hands, great touch and compact strokes, and she likes targets, so her game is perfectly suited for doubles,” Thornqvist said of Oyen. “The fact that she was able to just jump in right away with Allie was a little bit of a surprise to me. But they won the indoors last year, so I know that they have that kind of talent level to win these championships.”
Florida tennis player Allie Will won the singles title at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif.
