Gators Women’s Tennis Rockets to a 1-0 Start

The Florida women’s tennis team caravanned down to Tampa on Sunday afternoon for a date with USF. The Gators dominated from start to finish, securing the 6-1 victory to begin the season 1-0.

First dub? 𝗦𝗘𝗖𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗. 🙌🙌🙌

(with the updated lineup 😁)

Briggs ✅ 6-1, 3-2
Dudeney ✅ 6-1, 6-3
Sysoeva ❌ 3-6, 2-6
Gailis ✅ 7-5, 6-1
De Oliveira ✅ 2-6, 7-5, 10-4
Shelton ✅ 6-3, 6-1

UF 6, USF 1#GoGators pic.twitter.com/QoTtdlaTgV

— Gators Women's Tennis (@GatorsWTN) January 22, 2023

The Doubles Sweep

The Gators were able to capture the momentum early due to a stellar doubles performance. They sent three teams onto the courts, and all three emerged with commanding wins.

Carly Briggs and Alicia Dudeney were able to seal the point with a 6-3 triumph over USF’s Grace Schumacher and Margriet Timmermans. This came after wins from the other two teams in Emma Shelton/Sophie Willams and Rachel Gailis/Bente Spee.

https://twitter.com/GatorsWTN/status/1617238879949688832?s=20&t=P5kPvUp7YDe4bF9_-zYYBQ

Rolling Through Singles

The 1-0 start following the doubles point proved to imbue the team with confidence. Despite the first singles match ending in a disappointing loss from Anastasia Sysoeva, the Gators were able to rally.

The other five singles matches ended in victories for the Orange and Blue. Four of these wins were in straight sets (Carly Briggs, Alicia Dudeney, Rachel Gailis and Emma Shelton).

The likely candidate for the most exciting match of the afternoon was the battle between UF’s Emily De Oliveira and USF’s Marta Falceto. De Oliveira dropped the first set 2-6, but she managed to edge out Falceto 7-5 in the second. The match culminated in a 10-point tiebreak, where De Oliveira remained mentally sound and dug out a 10-4 win.

https://twitter.com/GatorsWTN/status/1617240388183658496?s=20&t=P5kPvUp7YDe4bF9_-zYYBQ

What’s to Come

The UF women’s tennis team will try to ride their newfound momentum into ITA Kick-Off Weekend, which will be on January 28 and 29. They will be traveling to College Station, Texas where the first match will be with PAC-12 opponent Arizona on the 28th. After that, they will have a date with either FAU or Texas A&M on the 29th.