Senior Brianna Morgan has found herself in the same situation a few times this season: A third set in the last match.
One was against Southern California, where she came out on top. Another was against California, where she came up just short.
This third set was different. Florida had already won the dual match, but for the first time this season for Morgan, it went to a tiebreaker.
What ensued was a hard-fought, heavily contested match point that saw Morgan come out on top as the No. 18 Florida (8-2) women’s tennis team defeated No. 19 Kentucky (11-3) 6-1 on Thursday at the Ring Tennis Complex.
"At the end there, there were just two great athletes going after it, and team score at that point mattered very little to either one of them," coach Roland Thornqvist said. "You saw two players who really, really wanted to win."
But for the first time this season, Florida dropped the doubles point.
The Kentucky duo of Mami Adachi and Aldila Sutjiadi kicked things off for Kentucky, defeating the No. 7 tandem of sophomore Brooke Austin and junior Kourtney Keegan 6-1.
The doubles match between No. 22 sophomore Josie Kuhlman and junior Belinda Woolcock and Kentucky’s Akva Parazinskaite and Morgan Chumney was back-and-forth early on. After the score was tied at 3-3, Parazinskaite and Chumney took the next two games to go up 5-3. Despite winning the next game, UF couldn’t hold on, dropping the set 6-4 and giving Kentucky a 1-0 lead.
Florida then swept singles play.
No. 37 Keegan dominated Nadia Ravita, defeating the Wildcat 6-2, 6-0 to tie the score at 1-1.
The start of No. 108 Kuhlman’s match against Chumney was close, as neither side could get an edge. After the score was tied at three, Kuhlman took three of the next four games to take the first set 6-4.
The second set was all Josie, as she went on to defeat Chumney 6-1 and give the Gators a 2-1 lead.
Junior Spencer Liang got the start against Adachi, and she came out strong.
She gave Florida a 3-1 lead with a 6-3, 6-0 victory, leaving Florida one point away from picking up the win.
That point would come from No. 5 Woolcock, as she kept control of her match from the start to win 6-4, 6-3.
After winning the first set 6-2, No. 15 Austin was taken to the brink in the second set in her game. And in a set that saw three ties and a tiebreaker, Kentucky’s Justina Milkuskyte took set two 7-6.
In the final set, Austin opened up a 4-0 lead and held on to it, giving the Gators a 5-1 lead overall.
Morgan dropped the first set of her match against Parazinskaite 6-4. But she would bounce back strong in the second, taking it 6-1.
The third set, though, was a different story.
Finding herself down 5-1, Morgan wouldn’t go down easily. She worked from near defeat to even up the score at 6-6.
In a tiebreaker where neither player could take a solid lead, Morgan used everything she had left, including some key returns, to get the late edge over Parazinskaite to win the match 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 and secure the singles sweep.
The Gators take the court again Saturday against No. 5 Vanderbilt at 1 p.m. at the Ring Tennis Complex.
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.
