The No. 3 Florida women’s tennis team traveled to Las Vegas over the weekend to participate in the 14th annual Freeman Memorial Women’s Tennis Championships at the Fertitta Tennis Complex.
Meeting them were six opponents, five of which were ranked in No. 2 Southern California, No. 4 North Carolina, No. 8 Stanford, No. 9 UCLA and No. 16 Duke.
The Gators found early singles success.
No. 56 sophomore Josie Kuhlman defeated Duke’s Christina Makarova 6-2, 6-0, and No. 110 sophomore Anna Danilina took down Duke’s Jessica Ho 7-6, 6-3. No. 51 senior Brianna Morgan defeated No. 112 Chloe Oullet-Pizer from UNC 6-3, 6-1, while No. 73 junior Spencer Liang bested Stanford’s Caroline Lampl 4-6, 6-1, 7-6, and No. 25 junior Kourtney Keegan defeated UCLA’s Alaina Miller 6-4, 6-1.
Three Gators moved on from the round of 16.
Morgan defeated UNLV’s Carol Yang 6-2, 6-2. Liang won by default against No. 28 Beatrice Capra from Duke, and Danilina bested No. 68 Jessica Aney from UNC 7-5, 6-3.
Danilina was the only Gator to make it to the semifinals, defeating Stanford’s Melissa Lord 6-0, 6-3. Morgan fell to No. 29 Kaitlyn McCarthy from Duke 6-2, 6-4, and Liang was defeated by No. 42 Giuliana Olmos from USC 6-2, 6-2.
Danilina fell just short in the semifinals, losing a close match to Olmos 6-7, 7-6, 7-6.
In doubles action, Liang and Porter defeated Stanford’s Elizabeth Yao and Paulette Wolak 6-1, while Danilina and Morgan defeated Duke’s Capra and Samantha Harris 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.
Both teams fell in the next round, with Liang and Porter dropping to UNLV’s Aiwen Zhu and Carol Zi Yang 6-1 and Danilina and Morgan falling to Stanford’s Lord and Kimberly Yee 6-1.
The tournament style of play is nothing new to the Gators, as the Fall season was all tournaments. In the Spring season, Florida will switch to team play.
Last year’s team, which consisted of every current UF player minus Danilina, boasted a 24-4 record along with an NCAA team quarterfinal appearance and individual NCAA singles and doubles championship semifinal appearances.
The Gators are also the early favorites to win the 2016 Southeastern Conference title, according to the preseason SEC Coaches Poll. In order to accomplish that feat, the Gators may have to go through Vanderbilt, the reigning NCAA champion.
The Commodores bested the Gators in all three matchups last season.
This year, however, the Gators have three players ranked in the top 25 in singles rankings. Junior Belinda Woolcock comes in at No. 3, sophomore Brooke Austin at No. 11 and Keegan at No. 25.
The doubles team of Austin and Keegan are ranked at No. 5, and the team of Kuhlman/Woolcock place No. 15.
But the Gators have a difficult schedule ahead, as they’ll play 17 teams that have a preseason ranking.
The dual-match season kicks off Jan. 27 at 4 p.m. against South Florida at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
Follow Jake Dreilinger on Twitter @DreilingerJake
The Florida women's tennis team huddles prior to its win against Maryland on Jan. 24, 2015, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
