If the UF women's tennis team is scheduled to play a match, it's a good bet that rain will be in the forecast.
After two matches were postponed due to weather earlier this season, the showers struck again during Thursday's match against Troy, but this time the Gators (3-0) played through the wet weather and were able to complete their win, 7-0.
The last match finished minutes before heavy rains washed out the court.
"It was perfect," UF coach Roland Thornqvist said. "Thank goodness it worked out."
The Gators jumped out early on their opponent in doubles, sweeping all three matches.
Seniors Whitney Benik and Lolita Frangulyan won 8-2 in their first match together since being freshmen.
"We could just get the confidence and get it rolling," Frangulyan said. "Of course, we have those memories of playing together. … I know we can do good. We're much better than we were. We're more experienced than we were freshman year."
Added Thornqvist: "They've got a lot of imagination. They can be very unorthodox in how they move on the court, which is why we put them together."
The Trojans presented more of a challenge to the Gators on the singles courts.
UF was pushed to three sets on two courts, one involving Benik and the other sophomore Megan Alexander.
Alexander finished off her opponent in a third-set tiebreak, winning 6-3, 3-6, 1-0 (10-8).
Soon after, Benik completed match play against her feisty opponent, 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
"We had two singles matches that lasted two hours," Thornqvist said. "We need that stuff. We've been playing points in practice, but it's not quite the same as playing with a jersey on."
Neither Frangulyan nor sophomore Marrit Boonstra had a problem with her singles matches. They cruised 6-0, 6-0.
"Today, I looked at the weather and I saw it was going to rain again, and I was like, 'What is this, (we're) without luck," Frangulyan said. "It's great to finish. I kept [the rain] in my head all the time."
Sophomore Anastasia Revzina played and won her first match of the season after sitting out the first two matches due to a wrist injury.
She started down 4-1 but rallied to take the first set and the match, 6-4, 6-2.
"She was very tentative at first," Thornqvist said. "I think she sort of put her mind to [what we talked about], and then after that, she started getting comfortable."
The UF men's tennis team will begin play Friday at 3 p.m. against its first of two in-state opponents this weekend.
The No. 19 Gators (2-2) will host South Florida first, followed by archrival Florida State on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Freshman Alex Lacroix, UF's No. 2 player, said the team needs to win these two matches after losing two of their last three against Miami and Baylor.
"It's going to be a tough match because it's FSU," he said of Saturday's contest. "They're going to come here to win."
