Nearly three months ago, Florida met Stanford in a road match to close out the non-conference schedule.
Florida took the doubles point, and looked poised to finish the match with a win.
But four singles victories on the first four courts propelled the Cardinal to a 4-3 victory over the Gators.
That would be the last time Florida would lose a match this season.
The stage is set for the next chapter of the Florida-Stanford rivalry.
The Gators (23-2) will face Stanford (16-5) in the NCAA Tournament’s Round of 16 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, at 1 p.m. at the Michael D. Case Tennis Center.
After its win over Florida, Stanford went 9-3 to close out the regular season, losing in close 4-3 matches against Arizona State, Pepperdine and California.
The Cardinal are led by the No. 5 doubles team of Taylor Davidson and Caroline Doyle and No. 31 Melissa Lord and Carol Zhao.
In addition, No. 25 Zhao, No. 46 Davidson and No. 67 Doyle lead Stanford in singles.
Zhao, Davidson and Doyle each picked up a victory in the Florida game on Feb. 28.
And history is also on Stanford’s side.
In the NCAA Tournament, Florida has gone 3-10 against Stanford. The last time the Gators beat Stanford in the tournament was in the 2011 finals.
Florida and Stanford have a combined 23 NCAA titles between the two programs, and UF will have its hands full with a team that outplayed Florida this season.
But the UF team that took on Stanford three months ago is a different team than what Florida is now.
Florida’s top doubles pairing of Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan recently reached No. 3, their highest ranking since being No. 1 in the Fall.
Austin is ranked No. 4 in singles after falling to No. 15 in March. Belinda Woolcock is sitting at No. 11, Keegan at No. 40 and Anna Danilina at No. 63.
The winner of the Florida-Stanford match will advance to the tournament’s quarterfinals.
Contact Jake Dreilinger at jdreilinger@alligator.org or follow him on Twitter at @DreilingerJake.
Brooke Austin hits an open-stance backhand during Florida women's tennis' 4-0 win against Elon on Jan. 24, 2015, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
