The UF women’s tennis team began its fall season Friday with a successful debut at the Miami Fall Invite.
The Gators scored five singles victories and two doubles wins. Three players won in their debut matches in a Florida uniform.
The tandem of sophomore Ida Jarlskog - the Swedish transfer from Georgia Tech - and sophomore McCartney Kessler defeated Pittsburgh’s Camila Moreno and Natsumi Okamoto 6-1.
Jarlskog also faced Okamoto later in the singles bracket. The sophomore beat Okamoto for the second time in one day with a 6-3, 6-0 win.
Contributions from new players continued throughout the day with junior Tsveta Dimitrova and freshman Marlee Zein both winning singles matches on Friday.
Zein, one of the top recruits in the 2018 class, won 6-2 alongside sophomore Katie Kubicz against Ole Miss’s tandem of Cameron Kriscunas and Allie Sanford. Zein also scored her first singles win by defeating Kriscunas 6-3, 6-2.
Dimitrova, who transferred from Houston, had to wait a little longer to get her first win for UF after losing her doubles match with sophomore Victoria Emma 7-6 against Miami’s Yuna Ito and Ulyana Shirokova. The junior recovered that early loss and beat Lanie Van Linge from Michigan 6-1, 6-2.
The Gators’ other two singles wins required a third set. Kessler won her first against Ole Miss’s Alexa Bortles 6-2 but dropped the second 4-6. She bounced back with a 6-4 win in the third to advance to the next round.
Emma lost her first set to Alyvia Jones from the Wolverines 2-6 and needed to win two consecutive sets to stay alive. She did just that and rallied to win 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Kubicz was the only UF player on Friday to lose her singles match. Kubicz fell in straight sets to Michigan’s Lera Patiuk 6-2, 6-2.
The Miami Fall Invite resumes play Saturday at 8 a.m. The Gators have five players still alive in the singles bracket and two pairs in the doubles bracket.
You can follow Brendan Farrell on Twitter @Bfarrell727 or contact him at bfarrell@alligator.org.
Correction: The photo for this article has been removed because it showed former Gator Peggy Porter and misidentified her as McCartney Kessler.
