At the 2012 USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships in New York, Florida’s women flourished. Senior Lauren Embree, junior Sofie Oyen and freshman Danielle Collins all flew in to the big city with high expectations, and they all responded well Thursday afternoon.
Each member of the trio won in straight sets, advancing to the round of 16 with ease.
Embree, Florida’s All-America senior, kept her winning streak alive, moving to 6-0 for the fall.
No. 1-seeded Embree posted a 6-3, 7-5 victory against Ole Miss’ Caroline Rohde-Moe. Embree improved her career record in singles to 97-13.
After reaching the draw as an at-large bid, Oyen defeated Columbia’s Nicole Bartnik 6-3, 6-4.
Collins, a freshman, continued her superb play in the fall, beating Princeton’s Amanda Muliawan 6-3, 6-3. She improved her collegiate singles record to 12-2.
The display impressed Florida coach Roland Thornqvist, who has seen his fair share of players succeed in this tournament.
“We were more aggressive today than on any other first day at the national indoors than I can remember,” Thornqvist said.
But Florida’s coach understands the competition is still steep.
Embree is up against fifth-ranked Zsofie Susanyi of Cal, Oyen is up against Stanford’s Krista Hardebeck — the NCAA’s top-ranked freshman — and Collins will face Tennessee’s 18th-ranked Brynn Boren.
“Competition is going to be even tougher tomorrow and we must continue to play aggressive tennis,” Thornqvist said.
Florent Diep represented the Gators men’s team on Thursday afternoon but did not come out victorious. Diep lost 6-2, 6-4 to Baylor’s Julian Lenz.
Diep held a 3-2 lead in the second set before losing four of the final five games.
