In a match with few positives for Florida, senior Alicia Dudeney provided a spark, continuing her recent dominance in singles.
Coming into Friday’s match, Dudeney had taken care of business on court two in singles for the Gators. The senior from the United Kingdom entered the afternoon riding a six-match win streak that started March 14. Four days later, she made her ITA singles rankings season debut at No. 91 before climbing up 16 spots to No. 75 in this week’s rankings.
Dudeney continued her success in her matchup against Tennessee junior and No. 34 singles player Catherine Aulia. After taking the first set 6-3, Dudeney fought off Aulia’s attempts at a comeback, taking the second set 6-4 to secure a straight-sets victory and extend her singles win streak to seven matches.
Despite Dudeney’s upset victory, the Gators fell short 5-2 against the No. 6 Lady Volunteers in Knoxville, Tennessee, dropping UF’s conference record to 4-8 with just 12 days remaining until the SEC tournament.
Florida came into Friday’s game having lost three of its last four matches, all against SEC opponents, with two of those losses coming at home. During this two-week span, the Gators saw their ITA ranking drop from No. 21 to 34.
Last time out, Florida head coach Per Nilsson was forced to play with only five players against No. 10 Oklahoma on the road, with freshman Nikola Daubnerova and Dudeney missing the match due to undisclosed reasons. As a result, the Sooners dominated the Gators on Sunday in a 4-0 sweep.
Conversely, the Lady Volunteers came to the meet off recent success. Led by 2024 National Wilson ITA Coach of the Year Alison Ojeda, No. 6 Tennessee came into the day with a 14-4 overall record and won five of its previous six matches, defeating three top-25 ranked opponents. Their only loss in that span came last Sunday against No. 2 Texas A&M at home, where the Aggies prevailed 4-1.
The Lady Volunteers started Friday’s match strong by taking the doubles point.
Florida’s freshman pair of Noémie Oliveras and Reagan Parker took on Tennessee’s freshman pair of Conley Raidt and Saray Yli-Piipari on court three. The Lady Volunteers pair took a commanding 4-1 lead in the match, and there was no looking back from there. Raidt and Yli-Piipari went on to defeat the UF freshmen 6-1.
The home team secured the doubles point on court two, where Tennessee’s junior pair Catherine Aulia and Leyla Britez Risso faced Florida’s junior Rachel Gailis and freshman Talia Neilson-Gatenby. The Lady Volunteer No. 38 duo took an early 3-1 lead in the match, and despite the efforts of Gailis and Neilson-Gatenby, cruised to a 6-3 victory. With this result, Gailis and Neiilson-Gatenby are now 0-3 this season together in doubles.
Similar to its doubles performance, Tennessee dominated Florida in singles starting on court three, where No. 69 Britez Risso defeated Neilson-Gatenby in straight sets. After taking the first set 6-2, Britez Risso wore down Neilson-Gatenby to take the second set 6-1 and extend UT’s lead to 2-0 on the day.
The Lady Volunteers added to their lead on court five. Yli-Piipari faced Oliveras, and after taking the first set 6-4, the Tennessee freshman secured a straight-sets victory, taking the second set 6-3. For Oliveras, she dropped her fourth singles match in the last five competitions.
To secure the victory, UT senior and national No. 7 Elza Tomase defeated No. 21 Gailis in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 on court one. This result marked Gailis' first singles loss since March 9, when she was defeated by Texas A&M senior and national No. 3 Mary Stoiana in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
As previously mentioned, Florida secured its first point of the day on court two, where No. 75 Dudeney upset No. 34 Aulia in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4.
Tennessee grabbed its fifth point on court six where Parker fell to UT freshman Elim Yan in straight sets. The walk-on showed fight in the first set, battling with Yan in a superset tiebreaker. However, the Lady Volunteers took the tiebreaker 7-4 to win the first set 7-6. Parker could not keep up, dropping the second set to Yan 6-3.
With this result, Parker remains winless in singles against conference opponents since joining the team on March 14.
The night finished with a tight contest between UF senior Bente Spee and UT sophomore Maeve Thornton. Spee battled Thornton to secure the first set 7-5, but the Tennessee sophomore bounced back to grab the second set with ease 6-2. With the winner of the dual match already decided, the umpire had the two compete in a superset tiebreaker instead of a complete third set. Spee dug deep to take the tiebreaker 10-4 and win her third singles match in the last four completed matches.
The Gators are now 8-10 on the year and will continue their road trip on Sunday at Kentucky.
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.
