Almost.
Florida’s day was filled with too many almosts. Facing four tiebreakers, three three-set matches and two unfinished comebacks, the term “almost” defined the Gators day in their heartbreaking 4-3 loss to North Carolina State Monday afternoon.
"It is great for us, we need to be in those competitive moments and we talked about this in the locker room after the match,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “This is an environment that none of our new players have experienced.”
Florida’s women’s tennis team took on the Wolfpack in the ITA Kickoff Weekend Championship with the winner clinching a spot in the National Indoor Championships in Seattle. The match was originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, but inclement weather forced both the men’s and women’s tournaments inside. As a result, the women's championship match was delayed to the next day.
Florida looked sluggish to open doubles play, trailing on all three courts early on. The Wolfpack dominated the net, leading to a swift victory for No. 37 Adriana Reami and Amanda Rebol over McCartney Kessler and Sydney Berlin (6-2).
No. 41 Ida Jarlskog and Tsveta Dimitrova quickly fell behind o No. 20 Anna Rogers and Alana Smith and faced a 5-2 hole and triple match point. The UF tandem continued to fight and stole two games before ultimately losing the doubles point for the second consecutive match (6-4).
Two of Florida’s freshmen played well early on in singles play with Marlee Zein claiming her first individual win of the tournament (6-3, 6-3) over Reami while Anastasia Kharitonova cruised to victory over Bianca Moldovan (6-4, 6-4) to give the Gators their first lead of the match at 2-1. Sydney Berlin couldn’t follow suit with her fellow first-years, though, falling apart in the second set and losing to Rebol (7-5, 6-0).
Dimitrova lost a disappointing first set in a tiebreaker but recovered in the second to dominate Liz Norman. Dimitrova’s momentum quickly halted. Norman stormed back and controlled the rest of the match to regain the lead for NC State (7-6, 1-6, 6-1).
No. 9 Jarlskog had the moment of the match for Florida when she defeated Smith in straight sets (7-6, 7-6). Both finished in tiebreaker rounds. Jarlskog looked like she had the match locked up after leading 5-2 late in the second set. Smith roared back winning three straight games and forcing a tiebreaker. She eventually fell after Jarlskog forced Smith into a tough shot that failed to make it over the net. Jarlskog skipped over to her teammates to celebrate after claiming Florida’s third point. Cheers from the crowd poured in for the decisive match on court one, which was entering its third set.
No. 29 Kessler and No. 23 Rogers split the first two sets 6-7, 7-5 with the final third set deciding which team advances to Seattle. Kessler fought hard but couldn’t put Rogers away in the end, taking the final set 6-4 to give the Wolfpack the victory.
This was NC State’s first victory over Florida in program history. Thornqvist made it clear that the locker room was disappointed afterwards, but he insisted matches like these will only make his young team better in the future.
“This is the first time competing at a level like this for a lot of them and it is going to take getting used to,” Thornqvist said. “I saw some tired and disappointed players today, but most importantly I saw some fighters and some players that are willing to work."
Follow Victor Prieto on Twitter @victorprieto_11 and contact him at vprieto@alligator.org
UF women's tennis coach Roland Thornqvist said Monday's 4-3 loss to North Carolina State will make his team better in the future. “This is the first time competing at a level like this for a lot of them and it is going to take getting used to,” he said.
