Brianna Morgan has made a steady climb in her sophomore campaign.
After going 19-1 in dual-meet singles matches in 2013 — including a 16-1 on the No. 4 court — Morgan has played all of her matches on the No. 2 and No. 3 court and continues to win.
After clinching No. 5 Florida’s Southeastern Conference opener with a 7-5, 6-3 win against No. 9 Texas A&M on Friday, the Beverly Hills, Calif., native clinched the doubles point and won the first singles match against Missouri, setting the pace for the Gators’ 7-0 sweep of the Tigers.
“I think I developed a lot, especially mentally,” Morgan said. “Just playing a lot of matches back-to-back-to-back really helps mentally for you to be able to continue to play and focus on every point.”
Morgan’s 61-minute win in straight sets (6-1, 6-0) was her first time taking the lead singles point in a match this season and brings her record to 3-0 on the No. 2 court.
“In her freshman year, we didn’t really know what to expect out of Brianna, and she proved that she was one of the tougher competitors in the country,” coach Roland Thornqvist said. “She’s really good. She’s starting to move better and field the ball better. She can really strike it, so when she starts feeling the ball, there’s no telling how good she can be.”
Florida (10-2, 2-0 SEC) wasted no time jumping out to a lead against Missouri (3-8, 0-2 SEC), winning the doubles point in 48 minutes. The duo of Olivia Janowicz and Stefani Stojic topped Missouri’s Cassidy Spearman and Tracy Dong 8-2 on the No. 3 court, followed by an 8-1 win by Morgan and Alexandra Cercone in the No. 2 spot.
“Today I thought was spectacular,” Thornqvist said. “Obviously at 1, we have about as good of a doubles team as anybody and I think we’ve proven that day-in and day-out. So if we can win at [the] 2 and 3 [courts] and take some of the burden off of our 1 team, that’s going to make them even better.
“I’ve felt good about our doubles even though we’ve lost a few doubles points [this season]. Even in those we’ve lost, I saw signs of doing the right things and playing the right way.”
The singles matches were almost as fast. After Morgan’s win to open up the scoring in singles play, Cercone topped Missouri’s Rachel Stuhlmann 6-1, 6-1, and Stojic clinched the meet with a 6-1, 6-0 victory against Dong.
“I got a lot of practice in and I think I’m playing really well,” Stojic said. “And to clinch is very nice. I’m really happy I was able to get it.”
Janowicz, Belinda Woolcock and Sofie Oyen rounded out the sweep with straight-set wins, giving the Gators their eighth sweep of the season.
After the 7-0 blowout loss against then-No. 3 Stanford on Feb. 23, Thronqvist wanted his seniors — Cercone, Janowicz and Oyen — to step up their leadership role on the team. After sweeping its first two SEC foes, including a top-10 team in Texas A&M, he feels they have done just that.
“They owned this weekend,” Thornqvist said. “Starting with practice on Tuesday, I graded them a solid ‘A.’ We had a really tough match on Friday and it could have been a let down today, and [assistant coach] Dave [Balogh] and I didn’t’ really give them the big speech today. They ran today on their own.”
Follow Jordan McPherson on Twitter @J_McPherson1126
