After a tough start to her freshman season at Florida and a seven-match skid, Noémie Oliveras secured her first conference singles victory.
Oliveras would earn her first SEC win at UF against Arkansas junior Anet Koskel on court five. After taking the first set 6-3, Oliveras had to fight for the second set. Koskel fought back to tie the second set at five and forced Oliveras to have to win two more games to secure victory.
The freshman from St. Étienne, France, pushed through and took the second set 7-5 to secure victory and Florida’s third point on the night.
“It’s difficult to get that first one you know,” Nilsson said. “She needed to get that to make her feel like ‘you know what? I can play and get more of them.’”
With this victory for Oliveras, she helped Florida secure a 6-1 win over Arkansas on Friday in Gainesville, improving Florida’s record to 8-8.
The Gators came into the weekend contest off a tough series of results from last weekend’s match. Florida recorded two losses at home, with a 4-3 upset to Missouri on Friday and a 5-2 deficit to then No. 15 Vanderbilt. These defeats saw UF drop nine spots in the new ITA rankings, placing head coach Per Nilsson’s team outside the top 25 at No. 31.
The visiting Razorbacks have had a tough start to their spring campaign. Arkansas has dropped 11 of its last 12 matches and holds a 1-8 record against conference opponents. Last time out, the Razorbacks were swept 4-0 at No. 21 South Carolina.
Despite their poor recent form, the visitors made the Gators work for the doubles point in Friday’s matchup.
Florida took the first doubles match on court one. Senior pair Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee faced Arkansas senior Olga Bienzobas and junior Carolina Gomez Alonso. The No. 60 Gator pair fell 1-2 early but crawled back to tie the match at three games each and later took down Bienzobas and Gomez Alonso 6-4.
On the other hand, the Razorbacks took their first doubles match on court two, where their pair of junior Koskel and senior Race O’Donnell took a 4-2 lead over Florida junior Rachel Gailis and walk-on freshman Reagan Parker. Despite cutting the deficit to 5-4, Gailis and Parker were unable to finish the comeback, falling 6-4 to Kosket and O’Donnell.
With the doubles point on the line, all eyes were on the tight contest between Florida’s freshman pair of Oliveras and Talia Neilson-Gatenby and Arkansas’ freshman pair of Jimena Gomez Alonso and Katarina Pavlechova. Even after falling behind 4-2, the UF freshman crawled back to tie the match 6-6 and force a tiebreaker.
The pair took an early 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but lost the following four points to give the Razorbacks a 5-4 lead. Neilson-Gatenby and Oliveras pulled through to win the next three points to take the tiebreaker 7-5 and match 7-6 on court three, securing the doubles point for UF.
The Gators continued their success into singles, extending their lead to 2-0 on court one. Florida’s No. 39 Gailis defeated No. 74 C. Gomez Alonso with ease 6-1, 6-1. For Gailis, she extends her singles win streak to six matches, all coming on court one.
The Razorbacks secured their first point of the meet on court six where J. Gomez Alonso took on Florida’s Parker. After taking the first set 6-3, the Arkansas freshman cruised to victory by dominating the second set 6-0. With this defeat, Regan is 0-3 in singles against SEC opponents since walking onto the team on March 14.
As mentioned earlier, Oliveras defeated Koskel in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 on court five.
To secure Florida’s fourth point, No. 91 Dudeney defeated Bienzobas on court two. After a tight first set that favored Dudeneny, the UF senior took the second set 6-4 to secure a straight sets victory. Dudeney, just like Gailis, extends her singles win streak to six consecutive matches.
“They’re really putting in the miles at practice,” Nilsson said. “They really bought into what we’re doing and what they should be doing.”
Nilsson added that the work the two put in during practice should serve as a model to their teammates, in how trusting the process will lead to results.
On court four, Spee defeated O’Donnell in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 to push Florida’s lead to 5-1 in the match. With this result, Spee acquires her fourth win in singles on the season
To end things off, Neilson-Gatenby prevailed over Pavlikova in a three-set thriller. The UF freshman took the first set 6-2 with ease, but Pavlechova bounced back to take the second set 6-3. Neilson-Gatenby took complete control in the third set, defeating the Arkansas freshman 6-1 and securing a 6-1 victory for the Gators over the Razorbacks.
The Gators are now 8-8 on the year and will look to ride momentum on the road against No. 10 Oklahoma on Sunday.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the Spring 2025 women's tennis beat reporter and a first-year journalism sports & media major. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams.
