With no prior NCAA individual tournament experience, freshman Danielle Collins was an unlikely candidate to advance to the main draw of the Riviera/ITA All-American Tournament. But on Wednesday, she did just that.
Collins extended her undefeated streak to nine matches with a win against No. 79 Kaitlin Ray of UCLA. Even though she lost the first set, she bounced back by winning 12 of the next 13 games (4-6, 6-1, 6-0).
“Danielle had a tough start, dropping that first set, but completely turned it around,” UF associate head coach Dave Balogh said. “She had to make some adjustments with the style of play and clearly did a pretty good job of that.”
After notching three consecutive wins in both the pre-qualifying and qualifying rounds, Collins will compete in the tournament’s main draw, which runs today through Sunday. Collins became the first Gator to advance to the main draw after starting in the pre-qualifying round since Florida began competing in the Riviera in 2001.
“Danielle is fired up,” Balogh said. “Her goal was to have a chance to play in the main draw, and now she has that opportunity to see how she can compete at the highest level of college tennis.”
Collins is a perfect 9-0 in singles to start the season. She has outscored her opponents 114-54 in games.
She has been forced to play a third set only twice.
Collins joins sixth-ranked All-American Lauren Embree, who was guaranteed a spot in the main draw, as the only Gators competing. In addition to their spots in the singles draw, the duo will compete as a doubles team beginning today at 9 a.m.
Embree, the No. 3 seed, will face Arizona State’s 13th-ranked Jacqueline Cako. Collins will face Alabama’s 10th-ranked Mary Anne Macfarlane. Both matches are today at 3:30 p.m.
Junior Sofie Oyen competed in the third round of the qualifying draw but came up empty-handed. She lost (6-2, 6-3) against Stanford’s Krista Hardebeck, the nation’s top-ranked freshman.
“Sofie had a tough one today,” Balogh said, ”but Stanford just played too well.”
