The Florida women’s tennis team came into its spring season opener at the Florida Invitational with high hopes and the excitement of a new head coach in Per Nilsson. However, their results were quite mixed, as the Gators went winless in their doubles matches but undefeated in singles over the weekend.
Florida started its spring season this weekend by going head to head against Florida State and South Florida. The Gators came in as the No. 19 team in the nation and fourth in the SEC preseason coaches poll. Florida went on to secure victories in all nine of its singles matches, but also lost all four of its doubles matches in the two days of the invitational.
The struggles in doubles started on Saturday, with both of UF’s doubles pairs falling to FSU’s.
Leading things off, UF freshmen Talia Neilson-Gatenby and Nikola Daubnerova were defeated by FSU sophomore Eva Shaw and senior Maria Juliana Parra Romero 6-1. On court two, UF senior Bente Spee and freshman Noémie Oliveras fell short 6-3 against FSU junior Millie Bissett and sophomore Laura Putz.
The struggles in doubles continued into Sunday’s portion of the Florida Invitational.
Florida senior Alicia Dudeney and Neilson-Gatenby faced off against Florida State sophomore Maelie Monflis and junior Kristyna Lavickova. Dudeney and Neilson-Gatenby trailed 4-1 early in the match and could not climb back, ultimately losing 6-1.
On court one, Oliveras and Daubnerova faced USF’s pairing of juniors Melisa Senli and Dharani Niroshan. Oliveras and Daubnerova took an early 4-1 lead in the match. Nevertheless, Senli and Niroshan came back to tie things up 5-5. From there, the USF duo defeated Oliveras and Daubnerova 7-5, making Florida’s freshman pair 0-2 in doubles play this weekend.
Before the invitational, Nilsson mentioned that he was not focused on results yet, but rather on helping his players get back into rhythm.
“We are not looking for results right now—those will come,” Nilsson said. “We are just training and putting together good practices, and this weekend is a practice for us.”
Nilsson and his team had much more success in singles play, completely flipping the script on their overall weekend.
On Saturday, the Gators went 4-0 in singles play, with Dudeney, Neilson-Gatenby, Daubrenova and Oliveras winning all of their respective matches. Oliveras won her match against USF freshman Sienna Leeson in straight sets on court five, while Daubrenova and Neilson-Gatenby came back against their opponents after each losing the first set to win in tiebreakers. Dudeney earned a retirement victory after leading the second set 4-0.
In Sunday’s action, the Gators won all five of their singles matches. Dudeney, Neilson-Gatenby, Oliveras and Spee won all their matches in straight sets.
Meanwhile, Daubnerova engaged in a back-and-forth contest with Monflis. After losing the first set 6-3, Daubnerova came back to win the second set 6-2 to force a tiebreaker. It started off back-and-forth as the two were tied 6-6. Daubnerova caught fire and won the following four points to win the tiebreaker 10-6, making her 2-0 in singles play on the weekend.
The Gators will return to the court on Jan. 19, as they open up dual play at home against the University of North Florida at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
Contact Jeffrey Serber at Jeffreyserber17@gmail.com. Follow him on X @JeffreySerber.
