Entering the NCAA tournament as the No. 1 seed in the field, senior Belinda Woolcock only has one word to describe what she and the Florida women’s tennis team feels like.
Underdogs.
Having lost both the SEC regular-season conference tournament titles to Vanderbilt in April, the Gators are fired up to avenge their losses moving forward.
“For us, I feel like it’s a different attitude, and we have a different perspective in the tournament,” Woolcock said. “We’re really hungry to beat the teams we lost to this year and continue beating the teams we did already beat.”
Florida will get a chance to do just that as it hosts the first and second round of the NCAA tournament this weekend. Florida will play Massachusetts on Saturday, and the winner of that match will face the winner of South Florida and Miami on Sunday.
While the team knows its toughest competition lies ahead of them, UF is accustomed to facing talented programs. The Gators played 17 of the current top-25 teams in the country this season, and 21 of their 26 matches came against teams that made the NCAA Tournament. Of those 21 matches, Florida boasted an 18-3 record.
Despite this, coach Roland Thornqvist said he still thinks Florida has yet to play its best tennis. Throughout the spring, Thornqvist’s main goal has been to train the Gators to be the best team possible by May. Both he and his players feel like they’ve accomplished this feat.
“I think we’re in a great condition right now. I feel like all of us are playing at our highest level,” Woolcock said. “I think going into the NCAAs we don’t need to change anything in particular; we’re just going to continue what we’ve been doing.”
Thornqvist said that the team has also come together more over the past two weeks. Having exams behind them and tennis as their sole focus has made his players more relaxed. However, he says they have also kept high energy, a positive attitude and a hunger to win, helping each other in the process.
“It’s an individual sport but it’s a team format,” Thornqvist said, “so when you can draw strength from each other, whether it’s in practice or when we’re actually competing, you become greater than the sum of your parts. And that’s what we’re aiming for.”
Contact Spencer Thompson at sthompson@alligator.org or follow him on Twitter @spencemthompson.
Belinda Woolcock serves during Florida's 4-2 win over Oklahoma State on Feb. 18, 2017, at the Ring Tennis Complex.
