The tennis season’s halfway mark came and went. Now programs build their win streaks and climb the ranks to prepare for conference tournaments.
While the men’s team boarded the buses to Mississippi this weekend, the women returned home after two consecutive road trips. The men will face Ole Miss and the women will face Missouri.
The Gators look to keep their hot seven-match win streak. Florida’s only loss this season came from their road trip to Austin, Texas when they took on the Texas Longhorns during ITA Kickoff Weekend.
Since that day, undefeated sophomore Blaise Bicknell and the rest of the Gators slice and dice anyone that squares up on the opposite side. Although the roster matched up against some elite opponents recently, the Gators continue to hang tight and sometimes blow out other teams.
Bicknell boasts the role of a top provider for Florida alongside captains Sam Riffice and Duarte Vale. The Miami native fears no face on the opposite side of the court and relentlessly destroys opponents on the final score.
No. 45 Vale and Riffice continue to shine in their singles efforts but slipped into a doubles three-game losing skid. The power duo’s worst loss came to the Texas A&M Aggies after a 6-2 landslide on Feb. 28.
The Ole Miss Rebels stand an exact .500 win percentage for the season but are weak at home. Their record in Oxford, Mississippi is at 2-3 with two losses from elite programs, such as No. 3 TCU and No. 13 Tennessee.
The first serve from Oxford, Mississippi will start at 6 p.m. Live feed for video and stats will stream on FloridaGators.com.
Just when Florida seemed to pick themselves up in the previous weekend versus No. 19 LSU and No. 22 Texas A&M, the Gators now find themselves on their third losing skid of the season.
The Gators recently fell to the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs and No. 21 Tennessee Volunteers in duals that weren’t even close on the final score. UF hasn’t reeled many opponents for a final blow.
But Friday evening introduces a golden opportunity for women’s tennis to pull back up from the hole. Missouri Tigers hold a 13-7 record but dropped the past three duals against No. 9 Vanderbilt, No. 24 Arkansas, and Kentucky.
With both teams on a downward spiral, only one will complete the 180 and escape the nosedive.
In an attempt to pick up the slack, sophomore Layne Sleeth remains consistent on the court and scoreboard. In her first four dual slates, the Canadian national put up three consecutive wins to help slim down tough losses.
No. 26 duo McCartney Kessler and Marlee Zein preserved their consistency and stacked up a six-match win streak in the doubles category. But the Gators need more from other tandems to take advantage of the doubles point.
Ida Jarlskog and partner Sarah Dahlstrom teeter when it comes to victories and losses but dropped the last two. The third teams adjusted much through 2021. Junior Sydney Berlin changed partners between Sleeth and Amber Mcginnis, which became an inconsistency for Florida’s doubles.
The Gators’ double serve will start Friday at 5 p.m. at Linder Stadium. The action will stream on FloridaGators.com.
Contact Jesse Richardson at jrichardson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @JesseRich352
