Florida may have many new faces, but the results have stayed the same.
With the first four matches of the season behind them, the Gators are 4-0 and have outscored their opponents 22-0, with one win coming against a top-20 opponent.
Where does this regular season start rank amongst the past three years, two of which ended in a national title and the other in a conference championship?
In 2011, Florida also began the season with four consecutive shutout wins on their way to a 10-0 start, defeating ranked opponents No. 4 North Carolina, No. 9 Miami, No. 12 Clemson and twice against No. 6 Duke.
Florida ended the year as NCAA champions.
In 2012, the team began 5-0 before losing their only dual match of the season to No. 2 Stanford en route to a second straight title.
In 2013, the Gators opened the season with three consecutive shutouts, finished with a 26-3 record and won the Southeastern Conference Championship.
“Obviously our team always has pretty high set goals, you know, we always aim to be SEC champions; we try our best to go undefeated,” senior Alexandra Cercone said.
The truth is, high expectations are nothing new to the Gators.
“We want to win the title,” senior Sofie Oyen said. “But we’re playing really well now so hopefully we can continue to stay this good.”
So far, Florida is playing according to its standards. But fast starts can be deceiving.
Compared to the remainder of the season, the schedule up to this point has been relatively easy. The Gators have beaten Louisville, Harvard and Central Florida — teams ranked outside the top 50. Their toughest opponent up to this point has been No. 19 Baylor.
Florida’s first true test will come Friday when they play in the National Team Indoors alongside fifteen of the top twenty teams in the country.
From there, competition only grows more difficult. Some of Florida’s opponents in the weeks ahead include No. 27 Florida State, No. 1 Stanford, No. 7 Texas A&M, No. 4 Georgia and No. 12 Alabama.
“We have a tough, tough schedule ahead of us this spring,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “I don’t know who made the schedule, but it’ll be fun.”
Despite a perfect record and high expectations, UF still has some issues to address if it expects to continue winning against better teams in February.
The most challenging obstacle this year has been developing chemistry in doubles.
Against Louisville, freshman Belinda Woolcock and sophomore Brianna Morgan lost the first match 6-2, requiring the other two pairs to win both their matches to capture the doubles point.
In their next meet, Cercone and freshman Stefani Stojic fell behind 4-3 against Harvard before being bailed out by Oyen and freshman Kourtney Keegan, who barely escaped with a 6-4 win to take the doubles point.
“We couldn’t hit the ball in the ocean for a little bit in a couple spots,” Thornqvist said of the dual match against Harvard.
With the addition of three freshmen to this year’s team, a greater significance is placed on developing new doubles pairings that can win on a consistent basis.
Thornqvist knows the team must play much better if their end goal is another title — the fourth during his tenure with the Gators.
“It gets tougher from here on out,” Thornqvist said.
“Our message after this weekend is look, the first hurdle, we handled it.
“But it’s going to get tougher and we have to make sure we manage all the little details right here because February is just brutal.”
Follow Ian Cohen on Twitter @ibcohen5
Belinda Woolcock swings at the ball during Florida’s 4-0 win against Louisville on Jan. 25 in the Ring Tennis Complex. Woolcock and the Gators have not lost a doubles point despite occasional struggles.
