Florida Women’s Tennis Takes Down Mississippi State

Following a split homestand against two top-10 SEC opponents, the Florida women’s tennis team headed to Starkeville and emerged victorious, defeating the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the first of two conference matches on the road.

Despite a substantial loss to No. 3 Texas A&M last Sunday, Florida’s 4-3 win in a thriller against No. 9 Texas, boosted the Gators (5-6, 2-4 SEC) to No. 37 in the ITA’s rankings, proving to the rest of the conference that Florida is a scrappy team, not to be overlooked.

Despite Mississippi State entering Friday’s match riding a wave of momentum from a 4-0 sweep of Eastern Kentucky, Florida stunned the Bulldogs (10-6, 0-6) and left them still hunting for their first conference win.

Doubles

Freshman Nikola Daubnerova-junior Rachel Gailis breezed by sophomores Jayna Clemens–Chiara Di Genova in their match on court three, 6-0. Their sweep of the Bulldogs gave Florida the doubles advantage.

Freshmen Talia Neilson-Gatenby–Noémie Oliveras struggled against freshman Emma Cohen-senior Alessia Tagliente on court two. Despite finding themselves tied early, the Bulldogs surged to a 6-2 victory, leaving the doubles point to be decided on court one.

UF senior Alicia Dudeney-senior Bente Spee jumped ahead early against freshman Giana Oboniye-sophomore Athina Pitta on court one and didn’t look back. The Gator pair’s 6-3 victory secured the doubles point for Florida, allowing it to enter singles play with a 1-0 lead.

Singles

Following their success in doubles, Gators entered singles with the advantage, knowing they had to keep up the pressure to take down the Bulldogs. Gailis did just that with her dominant straight-set victory against Oboniye on court one. The junior’s 6-3, 6-2 victory quickly put Florida ahead 2-0 as things began to look good for the Gators.

Dudeney had no trouble defeating Mississippi State freshman Carolina Troiana 6-2, 6-2 on court two. The senior’s straight-set win pulled Florida one point from victory as it neared a sweep of the Bulldogs.

Neilson-Gatenby clinched the match for the Gators, 4-0, with a 6-4, 6-2 victory against Tagliente. Neilson-Gatenby’s win completed Florida’s sweep of Mississippi State and the remaining singles matches were abandoned.

Spee also went unfinished with Clemens on court two after winning the first set 6-1.

Oliveras abandoned her battle with Di Genova after taking a 7-6 set one victory with an intense tiebreaker win.

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Up Next

Florida will remain on the road to face No. 21 Alabama (9-5, 3-3) at noon Sunday.