As day turned into night, the lights brightened with an opportunity to advance in the 2025 SEC Tournament in the hands of Florida senior Alicia Dudeney.
In an inconsistent season, Dudeney supplied the Gators with stability, playing in every match and dominating at the No. 2 spot in singles. In Wednesday’s competition, the senior delivered once again.
With the match tied at three, all eyes were on court two. No. 53 Dudeney faced junior Maria Andrienko. The two met each other back on March 16, where Dudeney cruised to a straight-sets victory. But Andrienko made things harder this time, taking the first set 4-6. Dudeney bounced back to win the second set 6-4, and as the match intensified, fans and players for both schools began to cheer. As she’s done all season, Dudeney pulled through and took the third set 6-3.
With Dudeney’s win, Florida fought off Alabama in a 4-3 victory in the first round of the 2025 SEC Tournament in Auburn, Alabama. The Gators move on to the second round where they’ll face Vanderbilt.
Riding a five-match losing streak, Florida looks to turn things around and start the postseason on the right foot. During the five-match span, the Gators’ ITA ranking dropped 16 spots to No. 47, as opponents outscored Florida 23-8. Last time out, it was dominated on senior day, 6-1 at home by Ole Miss.
The Crimson Tide came into Wednesday’s match having won four of their last five. Their sole loss in this span came last Sunday when head coach Jonatan Berhane and his team fell 4-2 at No. 4 Oklahoma. Alabama finished the regular season at .500 but 4-11 against conference opponents.
The two last faced off on March 16, when the Gators traveled to Alabama and won 4-3. The match was tight, but UF prevailed with the critical doubles point and singles victories from junior Rachel Gailis, and seniors Dudeney and Bente Spee.
On Wednesday evening, doubles play was once again a tight contest on all three courts.
Alabama took the first doubles match on court one, where senior Petra Sedlackova and graduate student Marguax Maquest faced Florida’s senior pair of Dudeney and Spee. The last time the pairs met on the court, the Gators prevailed 6-4, but the script flipped on Wednesday. The Alabama pair took an early 3-1 advantage, and despite the Gators No. 22 pair taking the following two games, the Crimson Tide secured a 6-4 victory to start doubles play.
The Gators, however, bounced back on court three, where the freshman pair of Noémie Oliveras and Talia Neilson-Gatenby faced Alabama junior Klara Milicevic and graduate student Sara Nayar. The matchup was tight. At first, it was tied 2-2, then 4-4 and finally 6-6 to force a super set tiebreaker. The lead went back-and-forth in the tiebreaker until the Florida freshmen dug deep to take the match 7-6.
With the doubles point up for grabs, all eyes were on court two. The Crimson Tide put out their No. 81 pair of graduate student Maria Martinez Vaquera and Andrienko to face Florida’s Gailis and freshman Nikola Daubnerova, who made her return from an undisclosed injury that kept her out since March 16.
Despite having a 4-3 lead, the UF pair fell behind 6-5 with match point on the line. However, the ranked pair could not capitalize, and the match was headed to a super tiebreaker. The pair took a commanding 5-1 lead and never looked back, taking the tiebreaker 7-2 and match 7-6 to secure the doubles point and give UF a 1-0 lead in the contest.
For Florida, this result marked their second doubles point in the last five matches.
Alabama’s Nayar defeated Oliveras in straight sets on court five to tie the contest at one. The graduate student took the first set 6-4. In the second set, Oliveras couldn’t fight back and fell 6-1 in the second set. This result marked the second time Nayar defeated Oliveras in straight sets and the freshman’s fifth straight loss in singles.
The Crimson Tide took a 2-1 lead after Maquet beat Florida’s freshman walk-on Reagan Parker on court six. The graduate student defeated Parker in straight sets 6-2, 6-1 to extend Parker’s losing streak in singles to nine matches.
Florida tied the match at two on court three, where Neilson-Gatenby faced Milicevic. The freshman from England fought off Milicevic to take the first set 6-4, but the Alabama junior came back to take a commanding 4-1 lead in the second set. With UF desperately needing Neilson-Gatenby to step up, she did, winning the next five games to take the second set 6-4 and tie the competition at two.
To give UF a 3-2 lead, No. 30 Gailis defeated No. 38 Sadleckova in a three-set thriller. The Florida junior started the match hot, taking the first set 6-3, but the Alabama senior returned the favor, taking the second set 6-3. Like in her March match against Sadleckova, Gailis was dominant in the third set, wearing out the 2024 SEC All-Second Team member to take the final set 6-2.
Wednesday’s contest would see its third tie after Spee and Martinez Vaquero’s competitive match on court four. The Florida senior won the first set 6-4, but the Alabama junior was back on form and took the second set with ease 6-0. To keep the Gators' hopes of moving on alive, Martinez Vaquero grabbed the third set 6-4, despite Spee’s efforts at a comeback.
As mentioned, to clinch victory for Florida, Dudeney defeated Andirenko in three sets 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 on court two. For Dudeney, she extended her singles win streak to 11 matches.
The Gators are now 9-13 on the year and will face Vanderbilt on Thursday in the second round of the SEC Tournament.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jserber@alligator.org. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
Jeffrey is the Spring 2025 women's tennis beat reporter and a first-year journalism sports & media major. In his free time, he enjoys hanging out with friends and family, and rooting for the Miami sports teams.
