Competing against family is never easy. For sophomore No. 39 Gabia and junior No. 73 Kristina Paskauskas, that is no exception. Playing on adjacent courts, with Gabia dressed in blue for Florida and Kristina in red for the University of Alabama, the two demonstrated similar strengths. But the night ended differently for the sisters.
Gabia watched her sister fall 6-3 and trail 5-2 to her teammate, graduate student No. 60 India Houghton, while she went on to sweep Alabama senior Maria Andrienko 6-4, 6-1.
The sisters played together at North Carolina State last year before transferring to their respective SEC schools.
“Now it’s different because we’re playing against each other, and that’s really difficult because there are lots of emotions,” Gabia said. “Seeing her go down in the match and then up in the match, it’s a little bit of a game of emotions for sure.”
The No. 15 Gators (11-4, 6-3 SEC) shut out No. 38 Alabama (12-5, 4-5 SEC) 4-0 Thursday at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
In doubles play, the Gators took two out of three matches. The No. 34 Florida doubles team, senior Xinyi Nong and sophomore Nikola Daubnerova, took a dominating 6-3 win over Kristina and freshman Addison Bowman, leading the entire time and leaving no room for the Crimson Tide to catch up.
The number three doubles team of freshman Lucie Pawlak and Houghton had a tied match 4-4 after trailing 4-2 earlier in the set. Florida was then able to pull ahead and take the match 7-5 against senior Maria Andrienko and freshman Amina Salibayeva.
The No. 2 pair of Brooke Black and junior Valery Gynina struggled to hold on. The Gators were down 2-0 early in the match against Alabama senior Klara Milicevic and freshman Karla Bartel. The Gators gained momentum and tied the match 3-3 and pulled ahead 4-3, but they were unable to close out, and Florida fell 6-4 in the match.
“We weren’t happy after the doubles,” said Florida women’s tennis coach Per Nilsson. “We had a few spots where we were flat and a few spots where we were making poor decisions.”
In singles play, the Gators decisively took three out of the six matches to go along with their doubles point, and there was no hope left for the Crimson Tide.
Along with Gabia, No. 105 Pawlak also clinched her match in a dominant 6-2, 6-2fashion against Alabama freshman Addison Bowman. Gator freshman No. 69 Daubnerova followed suit and won 6-3, 6-1 in her face-off against Crimson freshman Amina Salibayeva.
“India stands out to me,” Nilsson said. “She’s come a long way…I think she’s really figured out with us how she needs to play.”
Florida will spend the next two days training before it hosts No. 44 Mississippi State on Saturday at noon.
Contact Coral Uzgiden at cuzgiden@alligator.org. Follow her on X @coraluzgiden.
Coral is a sophomore Sports Journalism student in her first semester with the Alligator covering Lacrosse. She also has experience writing for WRUF and covering beats such as high school football and Gators swim and dive. She is an intern for the Women of the Lowcountry and in her free time enjoys playing waterpolo, going to the gym and being outside.
