Joanna Mather and Lauren Embree may not have started on their best footing at the USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships on Thursday, but redemption wins were soon to follow.
Although the Gators’ doubles pair started their morning in Flushing, N.Y., with a disappointing first-round loss, both Embree and Mather rebounded with three-set singles wins in the afternoon rounds.
“Our singles play was outstanding,” UF coach Roland Thornqvist said. “We looked very fit, very determined with great body language. I thought we were outstanding in both third sets really.”
Embree’s 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 win against Michigan’s Emina Bektas and Mather’s 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (4) defeat of Tulsa’s Sam Vickers advanced both Gators to the highly-competitive round of round of 16.
The pair’s rebounding wins were complete turnarounds from their morning play, when Tennessee’s Natalie Pluskota and Kata Szekely handed UF a 3-8 loss that seemed oddly familiar to Embree and Mather.
“I thought perhaps we played our first round today the way we played our first round at All-American: a little tentative,” Thornqvist said. “We hit the ball in the court hoping that they would miss. It’s tough to get a win like that.”
Thornqvist pointed to the team’s drive as a setback in the loss and said that sometimes their desire to win is so strong it can actually get in the way of the pair’s play.
But that drive was channeled into third-set and tiebreak composure when it came to singles play.
“When we talk about being championship tough and having championship composure, that’s exactly what both players had today,” Thornqvist said.
And that toughness will come in handy for the two tomorrow, especially for Mather.
Mather will once again face off against Georgia’s Chelsey Gullickson, the same player who defeated her in straight sets before winning the finals against Embree in the Southeast regional two weekends ago. Embree is slated to play Southern Methodist’s Marta Lesniak.
Senior Allie Will, who comes in at No. 2 in the preseason ITA rankings, also qualified to compete in the championships but elected to instead play in a WTA event in Phoenix, Arizona, to get started on her world ranking.
