During Sunday’s match against Mississippi State, coach Roland Thornqvist walked up to senior Kourtney Keegan to talk with her about her singles match.
“On a scale of one to 10, how are you feeling the ball?” he asked.
“Minus one,” Keegan replied.
Despite struggling throughout the match, Keegan still found a way to win. She was the last Gator off the court after beating the Bulldogs’ Khrystyna Vozniak 7-6 (3), 6-4, in what was a grind-it-out kind of day for the Gators. However, this is exactly what Thornqvist wanted to see in his team.
“There’s going to be plenty of times when your knees are shaking and you’re not feeling the ball and pressure’s cooking and you’ve got to find a way to win,” he said. “The mental fortitude to do it like Kourtney did today, that’s better to me than if you just clean the clocks because you’re playing at the top of your game.”
With the end of the regular season coming on Sunday and the postseason looming ahead, Thornqvist says this mental toughness is exactly what the Gators will need to thrive in May.
“Looking forward, I know it’s going to be really tough, the training,” senior Belinda Woolcock said. “At the same time, I’m super excited to see how much we can really improve in those two weeks of training.”
For now, the Gators are focused on their last two regular-season matches this weekend at Kentucky on Friday and at Vanderbilt on Sunday.
Florida, Georgia and Vanderbilt are in a three-way tie for the SEC regular-season title as they all carry a 10-1 conference record. Vanderbilt’s lone SEC loss came to Kentucky on March 18 when the Wildcats upset the Commodores 4-2. The Bulldogs’ loss came against Vanderbilt, which also won 4-2 in March.
While the regular-season title will be determined this weekend, the Gators are focused on themselves as they attempt to stay grounded.
“I think it’s all about just taking everything day by day and not looking too far ahead and just sticking together,” Woolcock said.
Florida will look to capitalize this weekend with both its talent and its mental discipline. Thornqvist said the conference is as tough as it’s ever been, and the Gators have no room for error. However, they walk into this weekend’s matches with confidence, viewing them like any other match.
“Going into every match, we always expect to win, being the No. 1 team in the country,” Keegan said. “I think we’re just going to go out and play to the best of our abilities and prepare the same way we always prepare for each match.”
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
UF's Kourtney Keegan hits a forehand during Florida's 4-2 win against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
