In its second clean sweep in as many matches, the No. 1 Gators women’s tennis team looked crisp, dominant and ready to face its first ranked opponent of the year. The 7-0 victory over UCF brought Florida to 2-0 on the season ahead of a challenging 10- day schedule
“We showed some great athleticism,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “There were a few times in the first sets where we made a few mistakes but overall I thought we did really good.”
Earlier in the week, Thornqvist discussed becoming a better ball-striking team, creating more offense in order to shorten points. While the team takes pride in its conditioning and athleticism, improving the effectiveness of its shots has been a point of emphasis.
“What I really liked, and I think Allie (Will) really exemplified this in the second set, we went for our shots and even if we missed them, we turned around and played them again,” Thornqvist said.
After winning all three doubles matches to secure the first point, the Gators continued their overpowering ways in singles. Leading the charge was junior Lauren Embree, who played at No. 1 for the first time this season. Embree shut out UCF’s Genevieve Lorbergs 6-0, 6-0 in just 50 minutes, her second clean sweep in as many matches.
“I definitely feel like I’m playing better and more confident,” she said. “These past two matches I’ve been serving really well, and I feel like I’ve been trying to work on being aggressive and shortening the points a little bit.”
Junior Caroline Hitimana also shut out her opponent, beating Josephine Haraldson 6-0, 6-0. The Gators saw their singles lineup shuffled slightly from last week, and sophomore Olivia Janowicz did not play against the Knights. Instead, senior Joanna Mather saw her first singles action of the season. Though she appeared to have a bit of rust at first, Mather quickly found her stroke and defeated Jenna Doefler 7-5, 6-0.
Now, the road to a repeat becomes much tougher for the Gators. Saturday, the team will travel to Waco, Texas, where it will play No. 5 Baylor. After that trip, Florida will face No. 42 South Florida, No. 26 Pepperdine, and No. 2 Stanford within eight days.
“Baylor is much better than the two teams we’ve played up to this point,” Thornqvist said. “If we can be there mentally, be resilient, handle some ups and downs, then I think we have a great opportunity.”
