After a strong fall season, Olivia Janowicz entered the spring season ranked No. 22 in the country. On Saturday, she proved why she is regarded as one of the top freshman in the country as she won two matches to advance to the singles final at the Freeman Memorial Championships in Las Vegas.
Janowicz began the day with a three-set win against No. 54 Shianann Featherston of North Carolina (6-0, 5-7, 6-1).
In the quarterfinals, she faced off against teammate Joanna Mather, who earlier defeated No. 23 Kristie Ahn of Stanford (6-3, 6-3).
Despite facing the Gators' most experienced player, Janowicz emerged victorious in straight sets (7-5, 7-5) to advance to Sunday's final round.
Fellow freshman Alex Cercone had a tough day, losing her singles match against No. 34 Kelcy McKenna of Arizona State (7-5, 6-3). She and Janowicz also lost in doubles action to UCLA's pair of McCall Jones and Maya Johansson (8-5).
Mather and Lauren Embree were also eliminated from doubles competition after falling to Arizona State's duo of McKenna and Micaela Hein (8-4).
Two Gators moved on to the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Indoor Championships as Sekou Bangoura Jr. and Alexandre Lacroix each picked up a pair of wins Saturday.
Only a sophomore, Bangoura continued his impressive play, dominating LSU's Julien Gauthier 6-1, 6-0 before battling Georgia's Drake Bernstein for three sets (3-6, 6-3, 6-1) to earn a spot in the next round.
No. 4 Lacroix also dominated his first match of the day, easily defeating Brad Cox of Kentucky (6-2, 6-4). However, his second win of the day was a challenge.
Facing Tennessee's Tennys Sandgren, Lacroix fought off two match points to earn a tough three-set victory (6-4, 1-6, 7-6(5)).
The Gators' top pair of Lacroix and Nassim Slilam also advanced in doubles action, downing Mississippi State's Artem Ilyushin and Tanner Stump (8-6).
Michael Alford, Billy Federhofer and Andrew Butz all lost their matches on the day.
