Despite leaving Troy winless in the morning, the Gators were still hungry for more victories on Friday. They gave Louisiana no room to breathe in their first meeting in program history.
No. 24 Florida defeated the Louisiana Raging Cajuns 7-0 on Friday afternoon at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
The team was coming off a near-perfect matchup against the Troy Trojans on Friday morning, which they quickly wrapped up with a 4-0 victory. Going into their second match of the day, that momentum was far from lost.
Setting singles play in action, the pair of Lucie Pawlak and Gabia Paskauskas defeated Louisiana's Ana Martinez Vaquero and Lou-Agathe Etienne, 6-1.
Florida’s No. 22 duo of Xinyi Nong and Nikola Daubnerova captured a 6-2 victory over Raging Cajuns’ Martina Della Gora and Safia Zenbi. The Gators raced to every ball with quick footwork, leaving their opponents breathless. The victory secured the Gators the doubles point over Louisiana.
In singles, the Gators led all matches.
Brooke Black once again proved she's Florida material, dominating her match against Louisiana's Zenbi, going 6-1, 6-1. The freshman improved her singles record after defeating every opponent across the court today.
Court four saw the success of Pawlak, who went 6-0, 6-1 against Della Gora. The victory marks the first singles win on Friday for the Gator Frenchwoman, who says it's always been her dream to play at Florida.
“I always heard about the Florida Gators,” she said, adding that her goal out of high school was to be a Gator. “I don't know why, but it was my destiny.”
But the day was not without tests. As the sun set, so did Nong’s hopes of winning the first set while being down 4-1 against Louisiana's Martinez-Vaquero. The Gator senior turned the set around to finish it 7-5, but struggled to dominate in the second set.
Florida’s Daubnerova went 6-2, 6-0, putting Florida up 4-0, and secured the overall victory.
Even though Florida clinched the win, three matches still had the clock running. Gators India Houghton and Valery Gynina went on to see a victory in each of their matchups.
All eyes turned to court five, where the last two standing were Nong and Amoros-Navarro. The players and staff gathered on the sidelines to cheer on their teammates.
Nong fought until the end for the victory for nearly twenty minutes, claiming a 7-5, 6-3 win over the Raging Cajun.
“I love my teammates. When they stand over there, I feel a lot of support,” Nong said. “I play every point for myself but also for them, for the whole team.”
The Gators’ strong sense of unity and camaraderie helped them turn in a clean sheet this Friday, winning every single match possible.
Florida hosts its first SEC match of the season against Auburn at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Feb. 21 at 1 p.m.
Contact Sofia Alamo at salamo@alligator.org. Follow her on X @alamosofiaa.
Sofia Alamo is a Sports Journalism freshman at UF and the university’s Women’s Tennis beat reporter. Her favorite sports are soccer and tennis, and she aspires to be a sports broadcaster in the future.
