The Gators faced the Waves for the second time of Spring 2023.
Pepperdine dominated the Gators in three of four matchups at the Las Vegas Freeman Memorial Tournament before the dual-match season started.
Friday looked eerily similar.
The No. 15 Florida Gators (5-2) fell to the No. 25 Pepperdine Waves (4-2) 4-0 Friday evening.
The Gators got off to a slow start with a loss by senior Carly Briggs and sophomore Alicia Dudeney.
The pair fell to the No.1-ranked doubles pair: senior Janice Tjen and sophomore Savannah Broadus. Tjen and Broadus gained a quick 3-2 lead and never looked back, winning the set 6-3.
Florida sophomore Emily De Oliveira paired with junior Sara Dahlstrom. This was De Oliveira’s first time participating in doubles of a dual matchup this Spring.
De Oliveira and Dahlstrom held a 2-2 tie midway through the match but fell apart late. They were bested by the Pepperdine pair of graduate student Anna Campana and junior Nikki Redelijk, 6-3.
Florida freshman Rachel Gailis and sophomore Bente Spee went unfinished on Court 2 against graduate-student Bunyawi Thamchaiwat and senior Lisa Zaar.
Pepperdine led 1-0, and Florida needed four wins in singles to win the match.
The Gators lost their first singles match when Dahlstrom fell to No. 16-ranked Broadus. The sophomore looked flawless; she took the first set 6-1 and dropped only one more game in the second to win 6-2. The loss snapped Dahlstrom’s eight-game singles win streak.
Florida’s second loss came from Briggs on Court 1. She fell to No. 29-ranked Tjen. Briggs bested Tjen in their previous matchup at the Freeman Memorial but lost 6-3 in both sets Friday.
The Waves needed one more win and looked to Campana on Court 6 to finish the job.
Campana faced off against De Oliveira. The Gator entered the matchup riding a twelve-game win streak but looked shaky all throughout. Campana earned a win in two sets, 6-4, 6-3.
Three Gators were unable to finish their matchups.
No. 106-ranked UF freshman Anastasia Sysoeva led her match, 6-2, 3-4, against Redelijk. Dudeney dropped her first set 6-4 against No. 35-ranked Zaar and was down 3-2 in the second. Gailis neared defeat after she dropped her first set 7-5 and trailed 4-2 in the second.
Friday’s defeat marked the Gators’ second loss of the Spring. They will look to bounce back in their next matchup against the Texas A&M Aggies at 5 p.m. March 3.
Contact Luke Adragna at ladragna@alligator.org. Follow him on Twitter @lukeadrag
Luke Adragna is a third-year journalism student and the Florida Gators football reporter at The Alligator. He is a cat ethusiast and completes the NYT Daily Mini in less than a minute each day.
