After attending a family funeral and missing Friday’s match against Arkansas, Kourtney Keegan met her team in Missouri on Saturday.
With no shoes and no racquets, Keegan was forced to borrow equipment from other players. However, according to coach Roland Thornqvist, she played without complaint or excuse on Sunday.
“That tells you all you need to know about that player,” he said. “No ego. ‘Hey, just give me whatever you’ve got, and I’ll go out and do my job for the Gators.’… What an attitude. You’ve got to love that.”
It’s this kind of attitude and willingness to play for their team that has helped propel the Gators forward this season. Sitting at second in the SEC with a 16-1 record, the Gators recorded their seventh sweep of the season against Missouri on Sunday. But that wasn’t the only highlight from this weekend.
On Friday, the Gators narrowly defeated No. 18 Arkansas 4-3. This was Florida’s 13th win over a top-25 opponent this season. And it was in large part due to Brooke Austin.
It all came down to Austin after Arkansas had tied the game at 3 all, as she came from behind and won in a thrilling tiebreaker set to give Florida the win. More than her physicality, Thornqvist attributes her play to her “professional” focus throughout the end of the match.
“She didn’t look at me one time the last 20 minutes,” he said. “In three years of Brooke being with us, that’s the most focused I’ve seen Brooke in competition. And that’s why she was successful.”
Thornqvist is now making it his personal mission with Austin to get her back to the state of mind she was in during the final set of the Arkansas match. He wants to use Austin’s set as a teaching moment to the rest of the team before postseason play.
“Everybody was there seeing that and how she was able to handle the pressure from behind and the crowd,” he said.
The Gators will more than likely have other opportunities to play in high-pressure situations as conference play continues. Thornqvist said in his 16 years coaching at UF, he’s never seen a conference tougher than the SEC this season.
“We’re being battle tested every week,” Thornqvist said.
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
UF's Kourtney Keegan hits a forehand during Florida's 4-2 win against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
