Anastasia Kharitonova hadn’t been in a situation like this before. She held a third-set lead on Sunday with the match on the line. The Moscow-product needed just one more game to seal the victory over UCF, but faltered and couldn’t hang on to complete Florida’s comeback.
The No. 48 Gators women’s tennis team fell 4-3 to the No. 30 Knights on Sunday night in Lake Nona, Florida. After a back-and-forth contest that saw the Gators take an early 1-0 lead after capturing the doubles point, Florida’s singles play couldn’t protect it and ultimately lost in the contested match.
"I was really pleased with our performance in doubles. We did put in some great work this past week and we focused a lot on it and I think our group really responded to it,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release. “Tonight it came down to one of our freshmen (Kharitonova), who had the lead and lost it, but really it's going to be a great learning experience for her and the team as a whole.”
Florida fell to 0-2 when winning the doubles point and 3-4 on the season.
The freshman duo of Marlee Zein and Kharitonova notched the first doubles victory for Florida in a dominating 6-1 win over UCF’s Nandini Sharma and Natalia Serrano, while the transfer tandem of Ida Jarlskog and Tsveta Dimitrova clinched the point by defeating Marie Mattel and Rebeka Stolmar on court two. Sophomore duo Victoria Emma and McCartney Kessler lost its third consecutive doubles match as a pair.
Florida’s singles play quickly lost the Gators’ lead with Dimitrova, Zein and Kessler all falling to give UCF three points for the match. No. 52 Emma defeated Mattel in straight sets on court four to give Florida its second point.
Georgia-Tech transfer Jarlskog has been UF’s most consistent player this season holding a 5-1 singles record on the two main courts while also notching two doubles wins. She provided that grit on court one at Lake Nona on Sunday night bringing the Gators back from a 3-2 deficit by defeating Valeriya Zuleta in a three-set thriller 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
All 2,000 fans in attendance focused in on court six where Kharitonova faced off against UCF’s Sharma with the match victory on the line. Kharitonova dropped the first set but fought back to take the second and took an early lead in the third. She had the opportunity to seal the win but Sharma proved too difficult to put away. Sharma rallied back and won three consecutive games to take the match 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 and improve to 9-2 on the season.
“It's going to be a long trip home for us, clearly, but we are going to have to continue to work and look towards the long term because we are getting better,” Thornqvist said. “We may not see it now, but I really feel like we are improving."
Follow Victor Prieto on Twitter @victorprieto_11 and contact him at vprieto@alligator.org.
Sophomore Victoria Emma won her singles match, but she and McCartney Kessler lost their third consecutive doubles match as a pair. The Gators women’s tennis team fell 4-3 to the No. 30 Knights on Sunday night.
