The Florida women’s tennis team won its 24th consecutive dual match in a 7-0 victory against UCF on Wednesday afternoon at Linder Stadium.
But the Gators’ win got off to a rocky start.
Junior Olivia Janowicz and freshman Danielle Collins took on the Knights’ Genevieve Lorbergs and Josephine Haraldson on Court 1 in doubles.
Lorbergs and Haraldson quickly took a 5-2 lead. An array of drop shots and returns into the net proved costly for Janowicz and Collins. On one point, Collins lost her balance, fell and tried to snag the ball with her left hand.
The errors proved too much for UF to overcome as Haraldson and Lorbergs sealed an 8-3 victory.
However, Florida overcame Janowicz and Collins’ defeat, taking two of three matches to claim the doubles point.
“It was a difficult day to play with the wind,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release. “We struggled a little bit in doubles at the beginning, but once we figured out that it wasn’t going to be a perfect day to play, then we settled down.”
In singles play, the Gators put the Knights away.
Sofie Oyen and Lorbergs played the most competitive match, exchanging the lead back and forth. Oyen ultimately prevailed, taking the first set 7-5 and holding on to win the second 6-3.
Collins and Janowicz both got revenge for their doubles defeat but in different fashions. Collins defeated Haraldson in straight sets 6-0, 6-0.
Janowicz battled back from a 3-1 deficit to win the first set 6-3 before putting Caroline Eberhart away 6-2 in the second set.
After jumping out to an early lead, Morgan controlled the pace of her match, dropping only one game in each set of her victory against Sofie Baptista.
Caroline Hitimana trailed at the start of each set of her singles match against Clare Mendell. After falling behind 3-0 in the first set, she battled back by winning six straight games. Mendell stole the first game of the second set but fell to Hitimana 6-2.
Alexandra Cercone controlled her match in a 6-2, 6-2 win against Jenna Doerfler.
Olivia Janowicz prepares to return a serve in a match against Duke in 2011.
