Of the four Florida women’s tennis players who competed in the Freeman Memorial in Las Vegas over the weekend, three of them were freshmen looking to make an immediate impact on the team. Overall, UF’s first-year players mostly fell flat.
Victoria Emma was the lone bright spot for Florida, making it all the way to the semifinals before falling to UCLA’s Jada Hart (6-1, 6-4). She only played two matches to get there, however, as a walkover in the first round gave her a bye.
The other two freshmen competing — McCartney Kessler and Katie Kubicz — were eliminated in the first round of the tournament. Kessler dropped her match to North Carolina’s Alexa Graham (6-1, 4-6, 6-4), while Kubicz fell to UNLV’s Izumi Asano (6-4, 6-3).
Kessler made it to the semifinals in the consolation bracket but was disqualified from the match. Kubicz won her first match in consolation play against Stanford’s Naomie Rosenberg (6-4, 6-3), but was quickly defeated in the ensuing round by Petra Granic of Texas (6-3, 6-2).
Peggy Porter, the lone senior of the group, had arguably the worst performance of the weekend. Porter was eliminated in the first round of the regular bracket by Oklahoma State’s Vladica Babic (6-3, 6-2) before losing again in the first round of the consolation bracket to Pepperdine’s Evgeniya Levashova (6-0, 6-1).
The doubles draw didn’t look much better. The team of Porter and Kubicz was eliminated in the first round by North Carolina’s Makenna Jones and Chloe Ouellet-Pizer (7-5) and the team of Emma and Kessler was also eliminated in the first round by Caroline Lampl and Kimberly Yee of Stanford (6-4). Porter and Kubicz made it to the semifinals in the consolation bracket but were defeated by UNLV’s Anna Bogoslavets and Samantha Li (6-3).
“We learned a lot from this weekend and I think everyone’s determined to work really hard to get ready for the season,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release. “Although our performances were too up and down, there’s no question we have the ability to improve a lot in the next few weeks.”
Florida will come back home to Gainesville for ITA Kick-Off Weekend starting Jan. 27 when it goes up against Cal State Fullerton.
A story from floridagators.com contributed to this report.
Follow River Wells on Twitter @riverhwells and contact him at rwells@alligator.org.
Coach Roland Thorqvist watched his players struggle over the weekend in their season-opening tournament in Las Vegas. “Although our performances were too up and down, there’s no question we have the ability to improve a lot in the next few weeks," Thornqvist said.
