The Florida women’s tennis team earned a first-round win over the Stetson Hatters in the NCAA Tournament on Saturday in shutout fashion. The 15th-ranked Gators put up a 4-0 victory at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex to move on to the next round.
The Orange and Blue opened up with doubles wins by Rachel Gailis and Bente Spee — who earned a 6-1 win — and Carly Briggs and Qavia Lopez who squeaked by with a 6-4 triumph to give Florida its first point. Alicia Dudeney and Malwina Rowinska made it to 5-5 but the match was ultimately abandoned before a winner was decided.
Sara Dahlstrom, Gailis and Dudeney earned the final three points in singles play, which left three other matches unfinished by the time the Gators clinched the day’s event.
“The first rounds of the NCAA Tournament are always a little tricky and I thought, Stetson gave us some problems early,” head coach Roland Thornqvist noted. “Stetson served really well to start to doubles and we had to find a way to get past their serves.
“Once our nerves settled a little bit in doubles, I thought we were really good. We also had to sort of do the same thing in singles on a couple of courts,” he continued. “They were coming after us pretty good, but the spots that we seemed to struggle in a little bit in the beginning of singles we actually really settled down at the end of the first sets and were able to manage us ourselves really well.”
The Gators next face the No. 22 Miami Hurricanes in round two. The match will will begin at noon ET on Sunday and be held at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.
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