The No.1-ranked Florida women’s tennis team grabbed its third straight 7-0 victory to open the season, the latest coming against No.15 Baylor on Saturday.
Florida senior Lauren Embree snagged her 100th doubles match win, teaming up with Sofie Oyen to beat the Bears 8-5.
“It’s cool (of winning her 100th doubles match),” Embree said. “That’s a lot of matches and a pretty cool stat.”
However, it was Alexandra Cercone and Brianna Morgan who clinched the doubles point to set the Gators with a 1-0 lead before singles matches began. Cercone and Morgan took down Baylor’s Megan Horter and Alex Leatu with an 8-3 score.
“We showed a lot of class today; Baylor’s a great team,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “They fight really hard and are more skilled in doubles than I anticipated. I thought we showed quality to get out with the doubles point.”
Singles play proved successful for Morgan as she posted a 6-1, 6-1 victory within 54 minutes. The freshman earned the straight-set win against Baylor’s Leatu holding for the final six games of the second set and posted up a 2-0 score for the Gators.
Cercone held her opponent to a 4-point deficit in the first set, ending with a 6-2 score. In second set play, Cercone broke in an aggressive final game to win it all with another 6-2 score.
“I felt that I had to deal with a little bit of adversity when I was up 5-0 in the second set and [Baylor’s Jordaan Stanford] came back and won two games,” Cercone said. “I was a little nervous, but I kept focused and finished out strong.”
Florida freshman Danielle Collins came out with her third singles match win, grabbing a 6-4 win in the first set and a 6-0 shutout in the second.
Top-ranked collegiate player Sofie Oyen used breaks to her advantage, grabbing a 6-4 result in the first set and setting opponent Megan Horter off a break. In the second set, Oyen held in the final two games and won it all with a 6-3 score.
Florida’s Olivia Janowicz overcame a tough three-set match to gain the Gators their sixth point of the day. Janowicz sped through the first set, winning 6-2. However, the second set proved difficult as Janowicz fell behind in a 5-7 score, where opponent Victoria Kisialeva held serve and forced a third set. The third set super tie-break ended with a Florida win at 1-0 (10-5).
Embree was the last off the court forcing a close victory at 6-4 in the first set. The 6-7 score in the second set left Embree in trouble as it went into a ten-point tie-break. Opponent Ema Burgic forced a third set, where Embree finally took the win with a 10-7 break and sealed Florida’s 7-0 victory.
Florida faces its first away match in North Carolina to play No. 3-ranked Duke on Feb. 17.
“I like the way we’re playing in doubles, we’re going to continue with these three pairings,” Thornqvist said. “There are some things in singles that we all can improve on, and we’ll try to hone in on some of those details in the coming two weeks.”
Florida coach Roland Thornqvist (right) congratulates junior Sofie Oyen (left) and former Gator Allie Will (back) during a match against Duke on March 14, 2012.
