Ida Jarlskog has been a dominant force for Florida this season.
She recently was named SEC Player of the Week. She leads the Gators with a team-high six singles victories. And she provided clutch play down the stretch again, sealing a 4-1 match victory for Florida over Ole Miss.
No. 43 Florida (4-4) defeated the Rebels (3-4) at the Ring Tennis Complex in Gainesville after dropping its last match in a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to UCF. Jarlskog’s three-set clincher defined the day for Florida, where it picked up the doubles point for the second consecutive match and controlled singles play en route to its first victory in conference play.
"We are starting to see scar tissue we talked about a few weeks ago,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release. “We are starting to be tougher. . . now we've found our legs again and we are discovering that we can win with our minds and our legs. That's a powerful thing to figure out on the court because we have such good athletes.”
Florida has put its freshmen in a position to succeed early in the season.
Anastasia Kharitonova and Marlee Zein commanded doubles play early leading to a 6-1 victory over Alex Bortles and Cameron Kriscunas. Both Zein and Kharitonova notched singles victories of their own. Zein defeated Bortles in straight sets (6-4, 6-3) while Kharitonova defeated Allie Sanford (6-3, 7-6 (7-4)) to notch the second and third points for Florida. Kharitonova picked up her fifth singles victory of the season, with Zein trailing not far behind at three.
The transfer duo of Jarlskog and Tsveta Dimitrova tallied the second doubles victory over Ole Miss’ Anna Vrbenska and Tereza Janatova (6-3), which solidified the doubles point for Florida.
No. 33 McCartney Kessler was just a game away from defeating Tea Jandric to claim the match victory for Florida, however Jarlskog’s comeback victory (6-2, 5-7, 6-4) in which she trailed 2-0 in the final set claimed the fourth and final point for Florida.
Florida recorded its first victory of the season where it won the doubles point, losing the prior two matches.
“I'm really pleased. Ole Miss is talented and they have veterans that know how to win SEC matches,” Thornqvist said. “I've been saying this for a while now but we are really starting to play well now.”
Follow Victor Prieto on Twitter @victorprieto_11 and contact him at
vprieto@alligator.org.
UF women's tennis coach Roland Thornqvist said he was pleased after the Gators defeated Ole Miss 4-1 on Friday to open SEC play.
