For the second time in four years, Florida lost to Northwestern in the quarterfinals of the National Team Indoors.
The No. 16 Wildcats (4-1) upset the No. 2 Gators (5-1) 4-2 to hand Florida its first loss of the season. UF had not lost a regular season dual match since falling 4-3 to Texas A&M on March 3.
“Northwestern was better than us in everything today,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “They were more aggressive in doubles. We were on our heels today at some crucial moments. They really took it to us in singles, as well.”
After a decent doubles outing in the Gators’ first round win over Virginia, Florida’s solid play did not carry over into Saturday’s dual match. So far this season, Florida is 5-0 when it wins the doubles point and 0-1 when it doesn’t.
Florida fell into an early whole when both pairs lost their doubles matches and they never quite dug themselves out. Alexandra Cercone and Stefani Stojic lost the first match 6-3, and Olivia Janowicz and Kourtney Keegan lost the second 6-4.
Northwestern’s Jillian Rooney took the first singles match 6-2, 6-1 over Sofie Oyen to give her team a 2-0 lead. Florida fought back and answered with two straight wins from Janowicz and Belinda Woolcock to tie the match at 2. Those were the last points Florida scored.
Northwestern then won two matches in straight sets over Keegan and Cercone to seal the match and end Florida’s winning streak.
“It’s a great learning point for us,” Thornqvist said. “We have another tough match on Sunday so we’re going to analyze this the best we can and learn from it. We’ll find out what kind of character we have when we battle up against another top opponent.”
The Gators will look to bounce back from their loss when they play No. 6 Southern California Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
Follow Ian Cohen on Twitter @ibcohen5
