When a championship team returns all of its starters the following season, one word immediately comes to mind — repeat.
For the No. 1 Florida women’s tennis team, a second straight national championship is clearly in the crosshairs. The Gators will begin their road back to the NCAA Championships on Wednesday when they host Troy at 3 p.m. in Linder Stadium.
Under the guidance of Roland Thornqvist, who could notch his 250th victory as Florida’s coach with a win Wednesday, the Gators are returning all seven players from last year’s team.
Thornqvist, however, says that expectations this year are no different than in years past.
“Our players almost every year in my 11 years here have had the same goal,” he said. “We don’t really talk about those things, honestly. We try to make each month its own chapter and try to improve individually month by month.”
With the team returning every player, the Gators are more mature and deeper than they were last year and have become close-knit.
“We’re great friends on the team,” junior Lauren Embree said. “We don’t have any problems, so that just really helps the team and that’s probably a big part (of) why we did so well last year.”
Embree is one of three Gators currently ranked in the top 25 nationally. Joining the 25th-ranked Embree are No. 3 Allie Will and No. 4 Joanna Mather.
Beyond those three, No. 34 Sofie Oyen and No. 41 Alex Cercone will also play major roles on the team.
Yet where many teams lag behind in the fifth and sixth slots in their singles rotation, the Gators are extremely strong. Junior Caroline Hitimana and sophomore Olivia Janowicz were a combined 32-3 in singles play last year. Earlier this month, Hitimana won the consolation singles title at the Freeman Memorial Championship in Las Vegas.
It’s all part of the Gators’ pedigree, says Thornqvist.
“That’s why we try to recruit successful junior players, players who are not only skilled but they’re used to winning.”
With nationally ranked teams like North Carolina, Duke, Stanford and Baylor on the schedule, repeating as national champions will be no cakewalk.
“It’s very hard to repeat, and we have the same team, so we’re all just going to work as hard as we can and hopefully the hard work will pay off,” Embree said.
Following Wednesday’s opener, the Gators have a home match against UCF before opening a daunting month of February during which they play No. 2 Stanford, No. 8 North Carolina, No. 18 Florida State and No. 42 South Florida.
“Every time we set out to practice, our goal is obviously May,” Will said. “But we have a lot of tough teams to play before then, and I think the goal is just to get better every day and be as well prepared in May as we possibly can.”
UF senior Lauren Embree won her first Grand Slam tournament of her collegiate career on Sunday. Embree defeated Virginia's Julia Elbaba in three sets to clinch the Riviera/ITA All-American Tournament.
