One week, they masquerade as national title contenders. The next, they play like pretenders.
Finding an identity has been a season-long task for the No. 10 Gators, one that will likely continue into this weekend’s Southeastern Conference Tournament.
Florida (14-8, 7-4 SEC) has had impressive wins and challenging losses, right up to the last week of the season. When they travel to Starkville, Miss., this weekend, not only will they be searching for a championship, they will be looking to jell as a team.
“We are not a mature team with a lot of definition and security, knowing where points are going to come from. The consistency of the day is going to be the most important thing,” coach Andy Jackson said.
“That’s always the case, but it’s even more the case when you have a little bit of non-identity with your team. You’re still searching for your identity even though you have talent, but you don’t know where the points are going to come from.
“Until we solidify that, then everybody hitting on the same cylinders is going to be the key factor.”
UF has had flashes of brilliance this year. Even in losses, Jackson has seen bright spots. For instance, of the eight losses the team has suffered this year, six have been against teams currently ranked in the top 10. Of those losses, three were 4-3 decisions.
A priority for Jackson and the Gators is getting each player to perform at his top level. Doing so at the same time is a challenge, but Jackson believes it is possible. Namely, he said, it involves being detail-oriented in practice.
“It’s something that coaches work on and talk about with our teams,” he said. “I think there is such a thing as luck in sports, but the teams that take care of a lot of details and all try to play together on the same day are the ones that are getting luckiest. Sometimes we’ve been getting unlucky this year when it really isn’t un-luck — it’s a thing where we can do something.”
Senior Nassim Slilam echoed Jackson’s feelings, saying that for this year’s team to be successful, all players must find a way to play high-quality tennis simultaneously. To this point, there have been very few matches in which that has happened.
“My only concern is for us to be able to play well at the same time,” Slilam said. “We all played well this year at one point. We’re trying to play better at the same time. We have to do it like we did last year, bringing seven guys playing great. “
Embree wins SEC honor: For the second time this year, junior Lauren Embree was named the SEC Player of the Week. Her 6-1, 6-1 victory over South Carolina’s Jaklin Alawi was Florida’s first point of the match. The Gators went on to defeat the Gamecocks 4-1. Undefeated in singles conference play, Embree also won the honor the week of March 5.
Florida senior Nassim Slilam hits a return against Andrew Adams of South Carolina on April 14. Slilam said it’s important for all of the Gators to play well at the same time.
