Gators Women’s Tennis Takes on Bama

No. 15 Gators women’s tennis hosts No. 42 Alabama at Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex on Friday at 5 p.m.

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The Gators are  16-4, going 8-2 against SEC competition.

Ranked Players

The Gators have two ranked singles players and two ranked doubles teams on this year’s roster.

McCartney Kessler is the No. 15 ranked singles player in the nation. She is 16-5 in singles matches with a 10-0 record in the SEC this year. Along with Marlee Zein, who is the No. 64 singles player in the nation, and the Gators’ second ranked player. She has a 16-13 overall singles record this year with a 7-3 record in SEC play.

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The Gators have two doubles teams ranked nationally as well. The first pairing is Carly Briggs and Zein who are the No. 7 ranked doubles team in the nation. Alicia Dudeney and Bente Spee are the second ranked double team at No. 44 in the nation.

The Gators have faired well against their competition so far. A lot of the credit goes to their top performers here that have been recognized by the ITA and individually ranked. These are the players and pairings to look out for on Friday.

Friday’s Matchup

Florida is fresh off a 6-1 victory last weekend against Vanderbilt. Alabama is the next team up on the Gators’ schedule.

The Crimson Tide is coming off a loss to No. 5 Texas A&M last weekend. Alabama looks to get back on track but they face a Gators team that has won its last eight matches.

Alabama has two ranked singles players in Loudmilla Bencheikh (No. 98) and Petra Sedlackova (No. 102). These players will have to matchup against the Gators’ top talent.

Based on the lineups that these teams have used all year, we can expect to see Kessler and Bencheikh matchup on court one on Friday. Along with Zein versus Alabama graduate student Ola Pitak on court two. Then, Gators’ Briggs will face Bencheikh on court three.

These are the top matchups of the singles competition. Barring any lineup changes from either team, these will be the games played on the top three courts. There are still three more singles matchups and three doubles games to decide the outcome of the match.

The Gators have the advantage. They have the higher ranked players in singles competition and two ranked doubles teams. Florida is on a roll and haven’t suffered a loss since early March. They are playing at home where they are 7-1 on the year.

We will see if the Crimson Tide can slow the Gators down on Friday at 5 p.m.