Florida Women’s Tennis Dominates No. 13 Vanderbilt
The No. 17 Florida Gators women’s tennis team dominated the No. 13 Vanderbilt Commodores at home Friday night. The Gators (14-6, 9-5 SEC) swept the Commodores (19-7, 9-5 SEC) 4-0, despite having two top-10 doubles pairings and three top-25 singles players.
“Maybe the best match we’ve played all year,” Gators coach Per Nilsson said. “Everybody competed. All three doubles and all six singles.”
The match got off to a good start for the Gators, as they took a 2-0 victory in the doubles competition. The court two duo, Valery Gynina and Brooke Black, got two early breaks and cruised to a 6-2 victory in their set against the No. 10 doubles duo in the country, Valeria Ray and Bridget Stammel.
The Gators’ court one pairing, Xinyi Nong and Nikola Daubnerova, fell behind 4-1 early as they were broken twice.
However, that set would not be finished, as the Gators’ court three duo, India Houghton and Lucie Pawlak, got a crucial break in their eighth game. This set them up for a 6-3 victory, which gave the Gators their first point of the day.
In singles, the Gators took the first five sets. Houghton was the first to finish. She went up two breaks early on Stammel, the No. 6 singles player in the country. Stammel wasn’t able to recover and fell 6-3.
Gabia Paskauskas finished just seconds later. She defeated No. 24 Ray by the same score.
Gynina finished next. The Florida junior faced a tough opponent in No. 14 Célia-Belle Mohr. She went down a break early and faced a 4-1 deficit through the first five games. She got a key break in the set’s seventh game to even up the set.
After it was tied 5-5 through the first 10 games, Gynina broke Mohr’s serve in game 11 to take a 6-5 lead. Gynina held in game 12 to finish off her comeback.
Daubnerova followed that up with a win similar to Houghton and Paskauskas’. She took a 6-3 victory against Sophia Webster.
The next set to finish between Pawlak and Erin Pearce was a back-and-forth battle. After the two exchanged breaks in the first two games, neither broke for the next nine games. It wasn’t until game 11 that Pawlak broke through with a break against Pearce.
However, she wasn’t out of the woods yet, as Pearce went up 40-0 in game 12 in an attempt to send the set to a tiebreaker. Pawlak caught fire after that, scoring five straight to hold serve and take the set.
Unfortunately for the Gators, they couldn’t be perfect. In a break-heavy set between Nong and Mia Yamakita, the Vanderbilt freshman got the last laugh. A break in game 11 by Yanakita put her up 6-5 on Nong. Nong couldn’t counter in game 12, giving Vanderbilt their lone first set win.
Paskauskas and Ray finished their second set first. The result of this set was nearly the opposite of the first. Ray took care of Paskauskas 6-2 to force a third set.
The first match to finish went the Gators’ way. After splitting the first six games, Gynina broke Mohr’s serve in the seventh. She held on after that to grab a 6-4 second set win to get the Gators their first singles point. It was Gynina’s highest ranked win of the season.
“Before the match I didn’t know she was really high ranked,” Gynina said. “That’s good for me because I can compete against anyone.”
Pawlak finished her match next. The set was even through the first six games. In game seven, Pawlak broke Pearce’s serve. Pearce couldn’t recover. Pawlak won the next two in a row to bring the Gators within a point of the upset.
Minutes later, Houghton grabbed the Gators the win. After falling behind a break early, she surged in the back half of the set. Houghton broke Stammel’s serve in games seven and nine to close out a 6-3 victory.
“We just keep working,” Gynina said. “We’re hungry for more results.”
The Gators finish the regular season Sunday afternoon against the Missouri Tigers. The Tigers are 12-16 and on a two game losing streak.
Category: Gator Sports, Gators Tennis, Tennis
