Sydney Berlin focused Boston College’s Laura Lopez into her sights.
The freshman had an opportunity to close out her first NCAA Tournament match with a first round victory for the Gators women’s tennis team. The lefty capitalized, clinching a 4-1 win over the Eagles and advancing Florida to the second round to face the winner of Kansas and Denver on Saturday.
"We had good body language throughout the match,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release. “We played with a lot of confidence in doubles today, and I really liked that. Then in singles, we got off to great starts on many of the courts, and we never looked back.”
No. 24 Florida (13-11, 7-6 SEC) entered Lawrence, Kansas, as the second highest ranked team in its four-team division. The Gators were matched up with Boston College (16-11) on Friday, a team making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 22 years. It was an early morning match on the indoor courts.
Florida took an early lead in doubles play, thanks to its two duos playing their first tournament match with Florida. Freshmen Marlee Zein and Berlin started the match right, dominating Elene Tsokilauri and Natasha Irani in a 6-1 win. Transfer-tandem Ida Jarlskog and Tsveta Dimitrova quickly followed suit on Court 2, beating Yufei Long and Loren Haukova 6-1 to seal the opening point for the Gators.
It was more of the same in singles.
No. 15 Jarlskog, the only current Gator to have made it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in the past, commanded No. 70 Long on Court 1 in a 6-0, 6-0 win. She picked up her team-high 14th win of the season, giving Florida its second point of the match.
No. 30 McCartney Kessler gave the Gators complete control with her straight-set victory on Court 2 over Kylie Wilcox (6-3, 6-3) shortly after. The sophomore claimed her 12th win of the season and gave the Gators a 3-0 lead.
Florida couldn’t hold on for the sweep, as sophomore Victoria Emma fell on Court 3 to Jackie Urbinati 6-2, 6-2 to give Boston College its only point. On Court 6, Berlin took the first set over Lopez with a swift 6-3 win. She then won six of the next eight games, sending Boston College back to Massachusetts while keeping Florida alive in the NCAA Tournament.
“We have the right attitude to move forward,” Thornqvist said. “Obviously tomorrow is going to be a formidable challenge whether we play Denver or the host team in Kansas, which had a record year. We are going to cherish the challenge. We are going to keep on keeping on with our worker bee mentality and see what happens."
Follow Victor Prieto on Twitter @victorprieto_11. Contact him at vprieto@alligator.org.
The Florida women's tennis team advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with Friday's 4-1 win over Boston College.
