She was put in the same situation before.
Senior Brianna Morgan found herself in a third set of the final match against a formidable opponent.
Against then-No. 4 USC on Feb. 7, Morgan was able to pull out the victory.
But after blowing a 5-3 lead on Friday in the second set and ultimately losing that set 7-5, Morgan was down 4-2. Morgan tied the score at four apiece, but couldn’t hold on as she fell 6-4 and California earned the victory.
No. 7 Florida (5-1) fell to No. 1 California (10-0) 4-3 in Berkeley at the Hellman Tennis Complex on Friday.
“I thought we fought super hard, but we needed to be more assertive to finish the match on several courts,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release.
“Today was just not our day.”
The doubles point was the closest it had been all season.
In uncharacteristic fashion, the Gators found themselves trailing in doubles play.
The duo of sophomore Anna Danilina and Morgan fell to Cal’s Lynn Chi and Maria Smith 6-4. Florida quickly took the second doubles match, with the No. 7 tandem of sophomore Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan defeating No. 6 Maegan Manasse and Denise Starr.
In the final doubles match, No. 19 sophomore Josie Kuhlman and junior Belinda Woolcock clinched the point for the Gators with a close 7-5 victory over No. 52 Klara Fabikova and Olivia Hauger.
Singles was even more back-and-forth.
For the first time in dual-match play, No. 67 Danilina dropped her singles match, losing to Cal’s Karla Popovic 6-1, 6-1.
Florida swiftly bounced back, winning the next two matches.
No. 6 Woolcock defeated No. 5 Fabikova 6-2, 6-0 and No. 10 Manasse dropped to No. 12 Austin 6-3, 6-3 to give the Gators a 3-1 lead.
California would pick up the next two matches, with No. 80 Starr defeating No. 72 Josie Kuhlman 6-3, 6-4 and Lynn Chi defeating No. 30 Keegan 6-7, 6-3, 6-3 to tie up the score at 3-3.
In the final match, Morgan dropped to Hauger 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 and California edged Florida at the end 4-3.
“It was a really tough loss. A big credit goes to Cal though, who were able to dig themselves out of the hole,” Thornqvist said. “It looked like the outcome of the match was in doubt and that affected our play.”
Next, Florida travels to play No. 14 Stanford on Sunday at 3 p.m.
Contact Jake Dreilinger at jdreilinger@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @DreilingerJake.
UF’s Brianna Morgan returns a serve during Florida’s win over USF on Jan. 27, 2016, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
