The Florida women’s tennis team has one last chance to qualify for the NCAA Individual Championships later this month.
Florida will send five athletes to compete at the ITA Sectional Championships, which run from Thursday to Sunday in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The sectionals competition is split into four regions and will feature competitors who have yet to qualify for the Women’s Individual Championships, which will be hosted in Orlando, Florida from Nov. 18 to Nov. 23.
The Gators will compete in the Southern sectional to vie for the nine available spots. In the singles draw, six competitors will qualify for a spot. Three doubles teams will qualify for the doubles portion of the NCAA tournament.
Junior Valery Gynina, sophomore Nikola Daubnerova, senior Xinyi Nong, sophomore Gabia Paskauskas and freshman Lucie Pawlak will all compete in the singles draw starting on Thursday.
Nong had the strongest showing at the ITA Southeast Regionals, which ran from Oct. 16 to Oct. 20. The Miami transfer logged the longest run in the singles draw for Florida, securing her highest-ranked career win in the process with a win against No. 16 Georgia Tech junior Scarlett Nicholson.
Daubnerova, who is the only returning athlete on Florida’s roster this season, has had varied success this fall season in singles.
The sophomore kicked off the season at the ITA All-American Championships, where she fell in the round of 128. At the annual Bedford Cup in early October, Daubnerova secured the singles title. At the Southeast Regionals, Daubnerova also competed in singles, reaching the round of 16 at the regionals competition before being eliminated.
Gynina, Pawlak, and Paskauskas have also had varying results across the three tournaments of the fall season so far.
The five athletes look to secure a qualifying spot by advancing to the semifinals or winning the quarterfinal playoffs.
On the doubles side, Florida will be represented by two pairs.
Gynina and Paskauskas will team up for the second time this season for the sectionals. The pair only played together once before at the ITA All-American Championship, where they failed to reach the qualifying rounds.
Nong and Daubnerova will also appear in the doubles draw in their fourth tournament as a pair. The duo has been successful throughout the season, reaching the round of 32 at their first competition. Then, they secured the doubles title at the Bedford Cup. At their most recent tournament, the duo reached the semifinals.
The Gator pairings must secure at least third place at the sectionals in order to qualify for the doubles portion of the Individual Championships.
The sectionals kick off Thursday at LSU with the singles draw set to begin Thursday morning.
Contact Nicole Lopez at nlopez@alligator.org. Follow her on X @lopeznicole715.
Nicole is a sophomore journalism student and the women's tennis beat reporter for the fall semester. In her free time, she enjoys reading, collecting records and spending time with her friends and family.
