After taking two weeks to practice what they learned at the Riviera ITA All-American Championships, Florida’s women’s tennis players traveled to Athens, Georgia, on Thursday for their next tournament. The Gators will play in the ITA Southeast Regional Championships — a competition that includes 17 schools from Florida and Georgia.
The Regional Championships mark the Gators’ fourth tournament of the season.
Last year, senior Josie Kuhlman and now-graduated Belinda Woolcock captured the doubles title in the Southeast Regional Championship in a three-set match against Eleni Christofi and Kennedy Shaffer of Georgia.
This year, qualifying action began on Thursday with the main draw starting on Friday morning.
The Gators will start competition on Friday in the main draw of singles play. Seniors Peggy Porter, Anna Danilina, Brooke Austin and freshman Katie Kubicz are representing the Gators in Athens.
This season, the women’s team is 15-13 in singles play and 3-3 in doubles play.
“Matches are really good, win or lose,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “They tell the tale of what it is we need to improve. Sometimes when we play points in practice, it’s not the same pressure, so tendencies are more easily masked.”
Doubles play will begin at 9 a.m. on Friday with the round of 32 in the main draw.
The duo of Danilina and Porter will take on No. 8-ranked pair of Andrea Lazaro and Mina Markovic of Florida International. The pair of No. 3-ranked Austin and Kubicz will compete against Jemi Aguilar and Naiya Oden of Florida Atlantic.
Singles play will follow, starting with the Round of 64 at 11 a.m.
The first matches for singles play will feature No. 5-ranked Austin vs. Arianne de Winter of Georgia Southern and Kubicz vs. Arijana Korac of Stetson.
Porter will take the court at 12:30 p.m. against Nicole Dzenga of South Florida. No. 2-ranked Danilina will follow against Brooke Milner of Stetson at 2 p.m.
Florida’s players will also be battling for a spot in the Oracle ITA Fall National Championships in Indian Wells, California. No one on the women’s team has claimed a spot so far, only adding to the pressure for the defending national champions.
“It will be interesting to see how well we can support each other and how well we can do as a team,” Danilina said. “I think we have really good players and I’m excited to see how the freshmen do.”
Note to readers: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the tournament was being played in Atlanta instead of Athens, Georgia.
You can follow Mari Faiello on Twitter @faiello_mari, and contact her at mfaiello@alligator.org.
Anna Danilina returns a backhand during Florida's 4-2 win against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
