Coming off another strong season, the Gators women’s tennis team starts the 2024 campaign ranked No. 10 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Division I Preseason Poll.
The Gators, who ended their 2023 season with an 18-8 record, enter the Spring looking for their first NCAA Team Championship since 2017.
Expectations for the team are high with UF jumping back into the top 10 after finishing last season at No. 15. However, Florida head coach Roland Thornqvist is no stranger to success.
Thornqvist enters his 23rd season with Florida with a 490-98 record, four NCAA Team Championships, 11 SEC regular-season titles and 10 SEC Tournament titles.
Florida has failed to advance past the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament since 2017, which is a far cry from 2005-2015 when the Gators advanced past the Sweet 16 11 seasons in a row.
However, the Gators are full of talent and experience, with seven of their nine players placing in the ITA rankings, five of whom featured for the Gators last season.
The highest-ranked Gator is junior Emily De Oliveira, the 2023 ITA Regional Champion. De Oliveira, the No. 23-ranked singles player by the ITA, led the Gators last season with 11 singles victories. So far in the 2023-24 season, De Oliveria holds a 12-5 singles record.
Alongside De Oliveira, the Gators boast two more top 125 singles players in the ITA rankings.
Graduate student Carly Briggs ranks at No. 38 with a 5-4 record in the current season. Following Briggs in the rankings is No. 63-ranked sophomore Rachel Gallis, who shined with an 8-2 record in the fall.
The Gators also feature two doubles pairings in the ITA’s top 60 rankings, including the No. 38-ranked pair of freshmen Malwina Rowinska and Qavia Lopez. The duo has recorded a 7-5 record together, so far.
Just behind Rowinska and Lopez at the No. 55 spot is the pair of junior Bente Spee and senior Sara Dahlstrom. The two had a 4-3 record this past fall.
Heading up the ITA Preseason Team Rankings are the defending NCAA Team Champions North Carolina. The Tar Heels had a dominant 35-1 record in 2023, which included their victory over the Gators in the Sweet 16 of last year’s NCAA tournament.
Alongside the Gators, five other SEC squads rank in the ITA’s initial Top 25, including No. 2 Texas A&M and No. 3 Georgia. The Gators are also set to play two fellow Top 10 teams in No. 5 Michigan and No. 8 Pepperdine during the 2024 season.
The Gators are set to start the 2024 spring season in Las Vegas at the Freeman Memorial Tournament, which begins Jan. 11.
Contact Max Bernstein at mbernstein@alligator.org. Follow him on X/Twitter @maxbernstein23.
