The Gators women’s tennis team had seen this before. Late in singles play with the match on the line against an SEC opponent, it all came down to one tiebreaker set.
In a match that lasted more than four hours, Brooke Austin won her final set in singles 7-6 to clinch a narrow 4-3 victory over No. 18 Arkansas on Friday.
For the first time this season, Florida saw a very different doubles lineup to start the match. With Kourtney Keegan out, Florida put Ingrid Neel and Anna Danilina on Court 1, Josie Kuhlman and Belinda Woolcock on Court 2 and Austin and Spencer Liang on Court 3. Neel and Danilina were off the court first as they dominated Shannon Hudson and Giulia Pairone 6-1.
Then competition tightened. After Austin and Liang lost their match, Kuhlman and Woolcock went to a tiebreaker set to win the doubles point for the Gators with a 7-5 victory over Arkansas’s Ana Oparenovic and Mia Jurasic.
Despite losing the doubles point, Arkansas didn’t let up in singles play. Oparenovic tied the match after beating Neel 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Kuhlman put the Gators back up by beating Leolia Jeanjean 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, but not long after that the game was tied again after Danilina lost on Court 4.
Woolcock put the Gators back in the lead after winning a long two-game match against Hudson 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), but Arkansas’s Natsuho Arakawa beat Liang 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to tie the match again.
It came down to Austin’s tiebreaker set on Court 5 as she won 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7-5) over Pairone.
On Sunday, the Gators won by a much broader margin. After being delayed by rain and then having to move the match indoors, the Gators routed Missouri 4-0. Returning to their normal doubles lineups, Kuhlman and Woolcock were off the court first after beating Mizzou’s Clare Raley and Kadi Fauble. The Tigers then split the doubles set as Bea Machado Santos and Amina Ismail beat Austin and Keegan 6-3. Neel and Danilina put the Gators on the board by winning 6-4 over Tate Schroeder and Cassidy Spearman.
Singles play against the Tigers was much less contested, as the Gators won on Courts 1, 2 and 3 to get the win. Singles lineups saw slight variations as Neel did not play. Instead, Josie Kuhlman moved up to Court 2 where she put the Gators up 2-0 after dominating Spearman 6-0, 6-0. Next, it was Danilina’s turn to give Florida another point as she easily defeated Schroeder 6-2, 6-2.
In the closest match of the day, Woolcock was next to score for UF, beating Machado Santos 6-1, 7-6.
With Sunday’s win, Florida improved to 16-1 and 6-1 in the SEC. UF sits second in the SEC standings behind Georgia.
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org and follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
UF's Brooke Austin hits a backhand during Florida's 4-2 win against Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
