Florida 4, USF 0

Recap

The University of Florida swept past South Florida, 4-0, in the second round of the NCAA Division I Women’s Tennis Championships Saturday afternoon at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.

 

The Gators (23-1) advance to the NCAA Round of 16 to play either Pepperdine or UCLA on Thursday, May 18 in Palo Alto, Calif. South Florida (17-6) ends its season having advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championships for the first time in program history.

 

The Gators carried the momentum of winning a hard-fought doubles point onto the singles courts, where Alex Liles, Nina Suvak and Bolgarka Berecz earned straight set victories to send Florida to the NCAA Round of 16 for the 24^th time in the 25-year history of the NCAA Championships.

 

UF’s No. 2 doubles team of Lolita Frangulyan and Diana Srebrovic captured the first win of the day, needing 36 minutes to defeat Liz Cruz and Iciri Rai, 8-1. Rai held serve to start the match, but the Gators took charge the rest of the way, losing just one point in the final three games to capture the match and move to 21-2 in dual match action, tying for the most wins ever recorded by a No. 2 Gator tandem with the team of Jennifer Magley and Zerene Reyes, who posted a 21-0 record at the No. 2 slot in 2004.

 

The other two doubles matches were in tight battles before the Gators used a few key points to start to take control. On court No. 1, UF’s Whitney Benik and Alexis Gordon emerged with the clinching decision, taking the 8-5 victory over ninth-ranked Gabriela Duch and Neyssa Etienne. The two teams traded early breaks and were on-serve until the Gators broke Duch in the seventh game. The Bulls came right back after Benik double-faulted on break-point, however, UF struck back with a break in the next game and rode that before earning another in the 13^th and final game to earn the win.

 

UF’s No. 3 pair of Keri Robison and Nina Suvak was receiving up one break with a 7-5 lead when their match against Luisa Obando and Courtney Vernon was halted. Robison and Suvak found themselves down a break for most of the match before taking Vernon’s serve in the ninth game to start a trend of winning four straight games when play was abandoned.

 

The Gators jumped out to early leads in singles action, eventually winning the first set on all six courts and setting the stage for UF’s 17^th consecutive dual match victory and its 26^th straight home win.

 

Alex Liles improved to 12-1 in singles matches this season with her dominating 6-0, 6-0 victory in 45 minutes against Luisa Obando at the No. 6 spot to net her second career double-bagel. Nina Suvak then extended her singles winning streak to 16 after downing Iciri Rai 6-1, 6-1 on court No. 5. Suvak opened the match with a break and never looked back en route to her 27^th singles win of the season and her 19^th in dual match play. Senior Boglarka Berecz won the final eight games in her 6-2, 6-0 victory over Gabriela Duch to clinch the Gator victory.

 

NCAA Women’s Tennis Second Round

Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex

Gainesville, Fla.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

 

Final Score: Florida 4, South Florida 0

 

Doubles

No. 1 Whitney Benik/Alexis Gordon (24), UF def. Gabriela Duch/Neyssa Etienne (9), USF 8-5*

No. 2 Lolita Frangulyan/Diana Srebrovic, UF def. Liz Cruz/Iciri Rai, USF 8-1

No. 3 Keri Robison/Nina Suvak, UF led Luisa Obando/Courtney Vernon, USF 7-5 DNF

 

Singles

No. 1 Alexis Gordon (14), UF led Neyssa Etienne (70), USF 6-0, 4-5 DNF

No. 2 Diana Srebrovic (9), UF led Courtney Vernon (60), USF 6-2, 2-3 DNF

No. 3 Whitney Benik, UF led Liz Cruz (90), USF 6-3, 2-5 DNF

No. 4 Boglarka Berecz (50), UF def. Gabriela Duch, USF 6-2, 6-0*

No. 5 Nina Suvak, UF def. Iciri Rai, USF 6-1, 6-1

No. 6 Alex Liles, UF def. Luisa Obando, USF 6-0, 6-0

 

*clinching doubles/dual match point

 

Order of Finish: Doubles 1, 2; Singles 6, 5, 4

 

Post Match Notes

*UF’s Nina Suvak has now won 16 straight singles matches …

*USF’s Courtney Vernon remains 20-0 in dual match singles play as her match with Diana Srebrovic was not completed …

*UF has won 17 consecutive dual matches & 26 straight at home …

*USF has won 12 of its last 15 dual matches …

*UF leads the series versus USF 45-1 …

*USF claimed its first-ever NCAA Championships victory yesterday versus Maryland…

*UF improves to 45-1 all-time versus USF ...

*this is the 25^th anniversary of women’s NCAA Championships and UF is making its 24^th appearance in the NCAA Tennis Championships

 

Florida

Head Coach Roland Thornqvist

“Obviously, we are really pleased with moving on to Palo Alto. We knew that this was going to be a tough test today. South Florida has had a heck of a year and they have talented players – particularly in the top four slots in the line-up – that can play with anybody. Their No. 1 player [Neyssa Etienne] beat us in February; their No. 2 player [Courtney Vernon] hasn’t lost all year. Their No. 3 player [Liz Cruz] had beaten Whitney [Benik] earlier in the year. I certainly knew that we were going to have our hands full. I was really happy to see how well we responded to some close matches in doubles. The doubles point – for the first 30 minutes – could have gone either way. No. 2 was playing at a very, very high level, but at No. 1 and No. 3, they were matching us in ability the whole time. They had a lead at No. 3. I was really happy with our players and the way they were able to step up when it really mattered and out-play South Florida to earn the doubles point. That certainly sets a good tone going into the rest of the tournament.”

 

On his assessment of the team heading into the next round of the NCAA Tournament…

“I think we are playing well. If we can sustain and maybe improve on our doubles play, then we have a shot at doing something really good. With singles, as we have said all year long, if we can get the doubles point, it is going to be very difficult to beat us. I don’t know if there are many teams that can win four singles spots right now the way our players have battled. If we can play like this, it’s going to take a really good team to beat us, I think.”

 

On the possibility of playing Stanford in the NCAA Tournament…

“We worry about what we have in front of us. Whoever comes out of the Pepperdine-UCLA match is going to be plenty good enough to worry about first. All you can do is beat who you have got in front of you. We’re going to take them one at a time. If we play good tennis, we have a chance to beat anybody. We’ll take the next one first.”

 

On whether he is concerned because the team has not faced a top-five opponent all year…

“It doesn’t concern me because I know who those top five teams are now. Frankly, I think that the way North Carolina played when we played them indoors at their place is as close to a top-five team as you are going to get in ability. Obviously Vanderbilt is very good and Duke is a very good team. It doesn’t really concern me that much. I think we are battle-tested enough. Especially looking at how we were able to answer the challenges today.”

 

On having a balanced lineup…

“I think that that’s the beauty of it. If you are going to win a championship, you need to be able to win at every spot. I think we can do that with this team.”

 

On his familiarity with the West-coast teams in the tournament…

“We have seen most of them play. Fortunately, there are not a whole lot of new players playing for those teams. I think we have a pretty good feel for what we are up against. We saw most of the UCLA players in Las Vegas in January. Pepperdine we are not as much familiar with – we have seen a couple of their players.”

 

Boglarka Berecz, Senior

On how the 2003 NCAA Championship team compares to this year’s Florida squad…

“We’re very similar to that team competing wise. Whenever we have tough situations, we seem to pull it out. That gives us a good chance as we go into the tournament.”

 

Nina Suvak, Junior

On how it felt to get back on the court this weekend in the NCAA Tournament…

“It has been a long way to come here. This season was long. Between the last match we played at SECs and now, we worked really hard, so I think we were all really excited to play again. Just getting those two matches done was a great experience. Playing at home was awesome – we feel comfortable. We just proved that we are ready to play out at Stanford. We are all really excited to get back on the road again, take one match at a time and go as far as we can.”

 

USF

Head Coach Augstin Moreno

“I’m proud of my team. It’s a pity that due to the region we have to play a team like Florida, who I thought should have been higher ranked. I thought we competed well. There were a couple of big points in the doubles match that could have gone either way and maybe we could have pulled the upset.”

 

“I believe we competed well and to tell you the truth I don’t think Florida is a No. 4 seed. I think they have a better chance of beating Stanford than anyone else, because they (Florida) have won NCAA championships and are really competitive positions one through six.”

 

Nesyssa Etienne, Senior

“To me they (Alexis Gordon and Diana Srebrovic) have different styles of game. Diana is more of a hitting person, she just goes out there and hits. Alexis likes to slice more. To me, I like playing Diana more because I like to bang and hit it. They are both awesome players, but Diana attacks a little bit more, her game is more attacking.  Alexis’ game is just slicing and hitting the corners.”