After a dominant win over No. 2 Stanford to win the national championship on Tuesday, the Gators women’s tennis team has already seen its fair share of upsets in the individual singles and doubles tournaments. Only two Gators out of the five selected to play in singles remain after two rounds, as only one doubles team remains after the first round.
Josie Kuhlman, Belinda Woolcock and Anna Danilina advanced to the second round of play only to see Kuhlman drop a 6-4, 7-5 decision to Pepperdine’s Mayar Sherif Ahmed.
Danilina and Woolcock will live to fight another day as the two continued their commanding play. Danilina, who has now won 15 straight singles matches, dominated Texas Tech’s Felicity Maltby 6-1, 6-1.
Woolcock reached the round of 16 for the second consecutive year in singles competition with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Stanford’s Melissa Lord. Lord was the only player to score for the Cardinal in Tuesday night’s 4-1 loss to the Gators in the championship. However, staying true to her Most Valuable Player accolade in the NCAA Team Championships, Woolcock was able to handle Lord with ease.
"It was a solid, well played match, I didn't have to do anything special,” she said in a release. “I just focused on staying positive and getting the result that I wanted."
Meanwhile in doubles competition, the Gators got upset once again as Danilina and Neel dropped a difficult 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 match to Georgia Tech’s Paige Hourigan and Kenya Jones.
However, the defending doubles champions are moving on as Brooke Austin and Keegan dominated Michigan's Kate Fahey and Alex Najarian 6-2, 6-2.
The action will continue today as Woolcock is slated to play Joana Valle Costa of LSU at 11 a.m. while Danilina will take on Georgia’s Ellen Perez at 10 a.m.
In doubles, Austin and Keegan will face off against Shannon Hudson and Giulia Pairone of Arkansas at 3 p.m.
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
UF's Belinda Woolcock hits a serve during Florida's 4-2 win against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
