When the ball popped into the air, senior Anna Danilina began a backwards gallop. She raised her racket as high as her arm would allow and spiked the ball across the center of the court. Her opponent, Kentucky’s Emily Fanning, could only watch helplessly.
“(Fanning) came up with a lot of really good shots,” Danilina said after the match. “I thought I handled them pretty well.”
Danilina’s 6-2, 6-0 victory helped give Florida a 4-0 win over Kentucky. With UF’s win over the Wildcats and Vanderbilt’s victory over South Carolina on Thursday, the regular season SEC championship will be decided on Saturday when UF faces off against the Commodores in Gainesville at noon for the last match of the season.
Doubles play started off fairly evenly. Kentucky won the first game on all three courts.
UF began to take control late, however. Near the end of doubles play, it boasted a 5-3 lead on all three courts. Freshman McCartney Kessler and senior Josie Kuhlman won their match on Court 3 first 6-3. Just seconds later, senior Peggy Porter and freshman Katie Kubicz got the job done on their end by the same score.
Up 1-0 to begin singles play, Danilina’s convincing victory doubled the Gators’ lead. Kuhlman followed suit, winning her match against opponent Justina Mikulskyte 6-3, 6-2. Kessler, who at one point in the second set was down 3-1, finished the job with a 6-3, 6-3 win in her match against Kentucky’s Mami Adachi.
The Gators now look ahead to the season’s final game on Saturday. Coach Roland Thornqvist asserted that the team will be ready when the regular season SEC Championship goes on the line.
“Saturday is gonna be fun,” Thornqvist said. “(Vanderbilt) has all the talent in the world. We’re just going to give them hell.”
Follow River Wells on Twitter @riverhwells and contact him at rwells@alligator.org.
Senior Anna Danilina is the only Gators women's tennis player left in the NCAA Division I Championships.
