Florida Women’s Tennis Dominates Arkansas

The Razorbacks (4-13, 1-9) entered Friday having lost 11 of their last 12 matches. Arkansas fought to turn its luck around, but couldn’t get past a strong Gators lineup to fall 6-1.

Doubles

UF seniors Alicia Dudeney–Bente Spee were broke early by junior Carolina Gomez Alonso-senior Olga Bienzobas but battled back to a 4-4 tie. From there, they won two straight games to take a 6-4 win and give Florida the doubles advantage.

Florida junior Rachel Gailis-freshman Reagan Parker struggled in their court-two match against junior Anet Koskel-senior Grace O’Donnell, falling 6-4 to even doubles play and leave the point resting in a tied court-three matchup consisting of four freshmen.

Freshmen Talia Neilson-Gatenby–Noémie Oliveras went down 4-2 early, but surged back to 6-6, forcing a tiebreaker against Arkansas freshmen Jimena Gomez Alonso–Katarina Pavlechova on court three. The Gator pair took charge of the tiebreaker to lead 4-1 and downed the Razorbacks 7-6(5) and secure Florida the doubles point.

Singles

A win of the tough doubles point seemed to be just what Florida needed to get going, as the Gators kept their momentum surging and jumped ahead in singles.

Gailis played well in her singles match against C. Gomez Alonso on court one, dominating set one 6-1. The Razorback were all but out of it from there as Gailis took another 6-1 win in the second set to give Florida a 2-0 lead.

Despite looking solid early on, Parker’s struggles against SEC opponents continued against J. Gomez Alonso on court six. The former lost set one 6-3 before the latter swept her 6-0 in the second set to bring the match to 2-1.

Oliveras played well on court five against Koskel, initially earning a 6-3 set one victory. Koskel put up a better fight in the second set, but Oliveras wouldn’t be denied her first conference win of the season in singles. The freshman won set two 7-5 to win in straight sets to bring Florida one point from victory, 3-1.

Dudeney displayed precision in her return game on court two against Bienzobas, defeating the fellow senior in straight sets. Dudeney’s 7-5, 6-4 win was her sixth straight in singles and clinched the match for Florida 4-1.

Spee was on fire in Friday’s match, as she took a straight-set win against O’Donnell on court four. A hard-fought 6-4 win in set one was followed by another impressive 6-4 victory to add a fifth point for Florida.

Oliveras W ✅
Spee W ✅
Dudeney W ✅

GATORS W!!!! #GoGators

— Gators Women's Tennis (@GatorsWTN) March 28, 2025

Neilson-Gatenby bested Pavlechova 6-2 in set one, but the latter battled back to win set two 6-3. However, Neilson-Gatenby took the final set by storm, 6-1 to secure Florida a 6-1 victory.

Nilsson’s Thoughts

Florida coach Per Nilsson stressed the importance of his team getting healthy for their upcoming stretch of three road matches and praised their ability to fight through injury and tough matches to pick up a much-needed conference win.

“This one means a lot, because we’re really beat up as a team,” Nilsson said. “Today was one maybe one of our better mental matches … everybody did a great job handling their emotions and just basically competing.”

Nilsson also had praise for Dudeney and Gailis’ recent performance.

“They’re really putting in the miles in practice … they’ve probably been the most consistent in practice and they get the results out on the court,” he said in eluding to the fact Gailis and Dudeney’s six-match win streaks stem from their relentless practice and should set an example for the rest of the team. “The rest of the team needs to pay attention and be like, hey, it works, you know?”

Up Next

Florida looks to prove itself against a top-10 team in its road bout against Oklahoma at 2 p.m. Sunday.