In what coach Roland Thornqvist described as “high-level tennis throughout,” the Gators women’s tennis team defeated No. 3 Pepperdine 5-2 Saturday to earn its first road victory of the season and earn Thornqvist his 450th all-time win.
“I thought we were outstanding,” Thornqvist said in a release. “We competed really, really well.”
Florida had a rough start to its weekend after Friday’s match against No. 22 Southern California was cancelled due to rain.
With this news, Florida was forced to turn its attention immediately to Pepperdine, which houses three top-25 singles players and two doubles teams in the top 10.
The Gators earned their first point of the match in doubles play, which has proven to be the team’s strength early in the season. The pair of Josie Kuhlman and Belinda Woolcock were first off the court after defeating Dzina Milovanovic and Ashley Lahey 6-4.
Anna Danilina and Ingrid Neel then continued their dominance, defeating the No. 8 doubles team of Apichaya Runglerdkriangkrai and Luisa Stefani 7-5. Danilina and Neel are now 3-0 as a pair.
The defending national champion doubles team of Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan continued to battle this weekend as they did not finish their third consecutive doubles match. The pair was tied 5-5 with the No. 3 team of Christine Maddox and Mayar Sherif Ahmed when the match was ended.
The Gators continued to fight in singles play, as four sets went to tiebreakers with Florida winning three of them.
Kuhlman continued her accomplished start to the season as she was first off the court for the second consecutive time, defeating Laura Gulbe 6-4, 6-1. Austin was next off the court, defeating Runglerdkriangkrai in dramatic fashion 7-6 (9-7), 6-3.
Ingrid Neel was handed her first singles loss of the season Saturday, losing a close match to No. 21 Lahey 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. Keegan was the deciding factor in the match, capturing a 6-1, 7-6 (7-0) win over Milovanovic.
Although Florida won the match at 4-1, the game continued as Danilina defeated No. 22 Sherif Ahmed 7-6 (7-4), 6-4, and Woolcock was also handed her first singles loss of the season, going down to No. 8 Stefani 2-6, 6-1, 6-3.
Altogether, Thornqvist said he was pleased with what he saw from his team this weekend.
The team will return home this week before heading to Connecticut to compete in the National Team Indoor Championships Friday through Monday.
“Overall, I think we were able to do the right things under pressure,” Thornqvist said in a release. “We had to come in, had to play great defense at the right time and keep our poise. I'm just really proud of how we performed and look forward to coming home for a couple of days and then set sail to the National Indoor Championships.”
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
UF women’s tennis coach Roland Thornqvist smiles during introductions prior to Florida’s win over USF on Jan. 27, 2016, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
