With the season nearing its close, Florida (12-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) has already tallied the same number of losses as its last two regular seasons combined.
However, four of its nine remaining opponents are ranked in the top 30. UF still has enough time to validate its position as both the SEC frontrunner and a national title contender if it wins out.
But first, the Gators — an unusual combination of untested underclassmen and experienced seniors — must prove they can overcome their struggles in road matches.
The first loss of the season displayed the freshmen’s lack of experience when UF was upset by Northwestern at the National Indoors on Feb. 8. After the match, coach Roland Thornqvist did not mince words.
“Northwestern was better than us in everything,” he said. “They really took it to us. … It’s a great learning point for us.”
Florida seemed to learn a valuable lesson and bounced back with three straight victories.
The next defeat against Stanford on Feb. 23 was attributed to poor initial play on the part of the Gators, made worse by the large, hostile Cardinal crowd. UF dug itself in a hole early and never gained enough momentum to make a comeback.
“The one thing we needed to talk about and address was our initial play in singles, because we really didn’t do very well,” Thornqvist said. “I feel like we started off very poorly in singles and we were never really able to come back from it.”
The third and most recent defeat came Sunday when Florida visited a surging Georgia group coming off its seventh straight win. Both squads met with identical overall and conference records.
During the match, the teams looked anything but similar. After the 4-2 loss, Thornqvist made it clear who the better team was.
“[Georgia] will be my pick to win the national championship,” he said. “The level of play that they displayed today in front of their home crowd should make them the favorite. It was a very, very high level of tennis.”
Each of the Gators’ three losses shared one common denominator — a noisy road crowd the team was unable to handle.
Until they manage to do so, don’t count on Thornqvist changing his pick.
Follow Ian Cohen on Twitter @ibcohen5
