Coming off trips to North Carolina and California, the UF women’s tennis team will begin its first and only home event of the fall season today at 9 a.m.
Coach Roland Thornqvist hopes to use the Bedford Cup, a four-day event at the Ring Tennis Complex, to evaluate the development of the team.
“We’ll get a good look at our players at home and, hopefully, we’ll have a little bit of a crowd,” Thornqvist said. “We’ll be able to sleep in our own beds. We’re going through a stretch now when we’re playing almost every weekend.”
The Bedford Cup will feature players from nine colleges in the state of Florida. Among those competitors will be the Gators’ freshmen trio of Kourtney Keegan, Stefanie Stojic and Belinda Woolcock, as well as senior Olivia Janowicz, who is the tournament’s top seed.
Janowicz has 98 career singles wins. However, during the Riviera/ITA All-American, she lost in the final round of the qualifying draw to North Carolina’s Jamie Loeb, the eventual main draw champion. Janowicz has time to regroup and prepare with a first-round bye in both singles and doubles on Thursday.
Stojic will be the only Gator participating in the first round of the Cup. She will faces South Florida’s Olaya Garrido-Riyas.
Stojic and Woolcock will be making their home debut for the Gators. The Australia natives should figure prominently ino UF’s lineup this season.
“We had a good month of practice in September and hopefully now reap the rewards of that hard work,” Thornqvist said.
After the Bedford Cup, the women’s tennis team will play in the USTA/ITA National Indoor Championships in Flushing, N.Y., and the Dick Vitale Intercollegiate Clay Court Classic in Lakewood Ranch to close out the preseason.
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Olivia Janowicz prepares to return a serve in a match against Duke in 2011.
