If the Florida women’s tennis team was expecting an ordinary contest walking into its match against Texas at the USTA Campus on Easter Sunday, it was sorely mistaken.
The match, which started 30 minutes late due to a carryover from the Miami Open, began with singles play, meaning that the only way doubles could occur was if the two teams split singles competition.
UF didn’t have to take the court for doubles, but it wasn’t in the way that it hoped.
Florida (14-6, 9-1 SEC) dropped its match to Texas (14-4) in a 4-0 sweep. The loss ended UF’s five-match win streak and is its fourth loss on neutral ground this season.
The first of the Gators to fall was freshman Victoria Emma, who dropped her match to the Longhorns’ Petra Granic 6-1, 6-0. Freshman Katie Kubicz lost next, with Texas’ Dani Wagland beating her by a score of 6-2, 6-1. Senior Anna Danilina came up short awhile afterwards, losing to Texas’ Bianca Turati, the No. 1 singles player in the nation, 6-1, 6-3. While the remaining matches were closely contested, and it appeared Florida could possibly even up the score down 3-0, freshman McCartney Kessler lost to Texas’ Bojana Markovic, dropping a hard-fought match 7-5, 7-6 and dashing Florida’s comeback hopes.
"Texas is one of the best teams we've played all year,” coach Roland Thornqvist said in a release. “They were tough to crack and beat us at end of sets where we have been really good as of late."
The Gators’ next match will come on Saturday when they face a daunting squad in South Carolina, which is currently undefeated in the SEC.
Follow River Wells on Twitter @riverhwells and contact him at rwells@alligator.org.
Coach Roland Thornqvist credited the Commodores after they beat Florida 4-0 in the finals match of the SEC Tournament on Sunday. “(Vanderbilt) was better today and sometimes that just happens," he said.
