No. 22 Florida Women’s Tennis Dominates Morgan State

Following several big wins, the Florida Gators women’s tennis team (7-6, 3-4 SEC) returned home from its two-match road stint against conference rivals last week to face Morgan State University (4-8) on Thursday.

Before their match with Florida, the Morgan State Bears traveled from Baltimore, Maryland, to face Milwaukee and Rider University at the USTA National Campus Sports Complex in Orlando this week.

Looking to carry momentum from a 4-0 rout of Milwaukee on Wednesday, Morgan State faced Rider at 9:30 a.m. before heading upstate to Gainesville and falling to the Gators 5-2.

Doubles

Florida only sent out two doubles pairs to face Morgan State, confident that it could take both courts to snag the doubles point.

The Gators did just that. Freshman Noémie Oliveras and senior Alicia Dudeney quickly jumped to a 6-2 win in their doubles match on court two. UF junior Rachel Gailis and senior Bente Spee closely followed on court one as they ran past Morgan State 6-2 to secure Florida the doubles point.

Singles

Florida only sent out five players for singles, forfeiting a point on court six to even the score 1-1.

No. 91 Dudeney quickly gave Florida a 2-1 advantage with a perfect 6-0, 6-0 sweep of sophomore Marta Serra Carles on court two, while Oliveras immediately followed with a straight set win over senior Aleksandra Evdokimova. The Florida freshman’s near-flawless 6-1, 6-0 victory put Florida ahead 3-1 with no hope in sight for the Bears.

UF’s new recruit, Reagan Parker, got her first crack at collegiate tennis against Morgan State freshman Tyler Williams on court five and didn’t disappoint. Parker’s 6-2, 6-1 win showcased her potential and clinched the match for Florida, 4-1.

https://twitter.com/GatorsWTN/status/1902857064369754124

No. 39 Gailis had no trouble with Morgan State junior Lauryn Hall, only losing one game in each set. Gailis breezed by Hall in a 6-1, 6-1 victory, earning Florida its fifth point of the match.

Spee got off to a slow start against Morgan State sophomore Julia Jeffery on court three as the first set went to a tiebreaker. Despite difficulty breaking her opponent, Spee jumped ahead with a 7-3 tiebreaker victory to win set one.

From there, Jeffery battled back in set two with a 6-3 win, sending the match to an all-deciding super tiebreaker. Jeffery had the momentum after her set two victory as she bested Spee 10-6 to win the match and add a point in Morgan State’s loss, 5-2.

Up Next

Florida will ride its momentum from Thursday’s win into its match with Missouri on Friday at 5 p.m.

While the Gators look to improve their conference record against an SEC rival, Missouri will attempt to fend off a fifth straight loss.