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When it comes to the Florida women’s tennis team, success is always expected in the SEC Tournament. The team heads into this year’s tournament after finishing 11-2 in the conference, which put it into a three-way tie for second place.
Due to the tie, the team will be a four seed heading into the tournament. This is the fourth time in school history that the team has not been a one or two seed heading into the tournament. Florida head coach Roland Thornqvist says this will definitely be a challenging tournament for the team.
“We’re going to be preparing for a pretty grueling tournament coming up. The SEC this year is just wickedly tough, and obviously with the draw we didn’t get any favors. We didn’t last year either, and so we’re going to keep that in the back of our minds when we’re heading up north.”
Getting to the SEC Championship has almost been a given every year since the team has competed in the tournament, reaching the final 24 of the 26 years the event has been held. However this year the team has its work cut out for them as the Gators will have to face either Missouri or Texas A&M in their opening quarterfinal match. Thornqvist went on to talk about how tough the team’s opening match-up has the potential to be and how the team will prepare for it.
“Friday’s going to be tough. We’re playing a top-ten team probably on Friday, right off the bat. We’ll get up there, practice a little bit on their courts. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we’ll play outdoors. But, you know we can’t really look past Friday in any way, shape or form.”
But according Thornqvist, the team is playing better now than they have all year.
“Our freshmen certainly are playing better than they have all year. Our doubles play is better now than it has been all year. Brianna [Morgan] is really starting to hit the ball well, and when she’s clicking at one she’s as good as anyone in the country at one; and obviously that helps the team a lot because then we really know what we’re going to get from our seniors. They’ve given it to us for four years, I know exactly that I can count on them.”
If the team wins Friday’s match they will play in the semifinal match on Saturday.
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