Florida Gators
Gator Fall Classic
Women's Tennis Wraps Up Gator Fall Classic with Strong Doubles Play
Sunday, September 17, 2006 | Women's Tennis
The University of Florida women's tennis team capped its season-opening weekend with some solid performances at third day of play at the Gator Fall Classic, highlighted by sweeping all three doubles matches against USF Sunday morning at the Ring Tennis Complex.
"Today, I thought we played extraordinary doubles. We communicated well and our chemistry was good," UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "There certainly are several areas where we can improve our doubles play, but I liked what I saw. This weekend gave us a good idea about future pairings. We came away from this weekend learning what each player needs to work on during the fall."
Overall, UF's lone senior Nina Suvak, posted a 3-0 record in singles and doubles play, including Sunday's 6-0, 6-1 win against Miami's Caren Seenauth in singles and the 8-1 victory over USF's doubles team of Liz Cruz and Iciri Rai while pairing with Gator sophomore Whitney Benik.
"Two of the three opponents I played in singles this weekend retired, so I just played one complete match," Suvak said. "I had not played competitive matches since May, so it was a little hard getting started, but I felt my game starting to come back. I thought I played well today."
UF's Csilla Borsanyi, Alex Liles and Lolita Frangulyan each posted 2-1 singles records during the weekend, with Liles capping the three-day event with a 6-3, 6-1 win on Sunday against Miami's Romy Farah.
On Sunday, Borsanyi fell to Miami's Laura Vallerdu, 6-0, 6-3, while Frangulyan dropped a hard-fought 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5) decision to Gina Sabatino.
One of the highlights on Sunday was the play of Gator freshman Megan Alexander, who battled point-for-point with Miami's Audra Cohen, the No. 1-ranked singles player in the country, before falling 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-4).
After trailing early in the opening set, Alexander broke Cohen in the seventh game and tried to hold to get the frame back on-serve, but Cohen broke right back and served out to take the first set. Alexander regrouped in the second, earning the first break of the set in the fourth game, as she won the final five games to take the second and force a 10-point super-tiebreaker third set. There, the Gator rookie had a few chances early, as Cohen served a couple of double-faults and Alexander held a 3-2 lead, up a mini-break. But Cohen came right back and won the next two points off Alexander's serve en route to avoiding the upset.
"I thought Megan played really well today," Thornqvist said. "She played better tennis this weekend than she's played in practice, which you like to see as a coach. What we also saw this weekend was that Miami's Audra Cohen is the best player in college tennis, and Megan's not too far behind her."
What made Alexander's performance against Cohen even more impressive was that an illness on Friday kept her off the courts Saturday.
"In the middle of the second set and even during most of the tiebreaker, I felt great physically," Alexander said. "I zoned out a bit mentally at the end, though. I'm exhausted now. We'll take a few days off and get back to feeling normal and then come back to the courts."
UF's next collegiate competition is at the Riviera/ITA All-American Championships in Pacific Palisades, Calif. The event begins for the Gators with qualifying on October 2, where the doubles team of Whitney Benik and Diana Srebrovic will attempt to earn one of the five open spots in the main draw. Benik also is listed as the fourth alternate in the singles draw for qualifying. Srebrovic, ranked No. 9 in the country, received an automatic bid into the main draw and will begin play on October 5.
2006 Gator Fall Classic
Ring Tennis Complex, Gainesville, Fla.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Complete Results
Doubles
Lolita Frangulyan/Diana Srebrovic (38), Florida def. Gabriela Duch/Shadisha Robinson (18), USF 8-5
Audra Cohen/Laura Vallerdu (7), Miami def. Daniela Bercek/Jessi Robinson, Duke 9-7
Whitney Benik/Nina Suvak (33), Florida def. Liz Cruz/Iciri Rai, USF 8-1
Audrey Banada/Romy Farah, Miami def. Melissa Mang/Liz Plotkin, Duke 8-3
Csilla Borsanyi/Alex Liles, Florida def. Shaena Keefe/Ashley Schumacher, USF 8-0
Gina Sabatino/Caren Seenauth, Miami def. Clelia Deltour/Parker Goyer, Duke 8-2
Singles
Audra Cohen (1), Miami def. Megan Alexander, Florida 6-3, 1-6, 1-0 (10-4)
Laura Vallerdu, Miami def. Csilla Borsanyi, Florida 6-0, 6-3
Audrey Banada (71), Miami def. Whitney Benik (81), Florida 6-2, 6-3
Alex Liles (111), Florida def. Romy Farah, Miami 6-3, 6-1
Nina Suvak, Florida def. Caren Seenauth, Miami 6-0, 6-1
Gina Sabatino, Miami def. Lolita Frangulyan (109), Florida 3-6, 6-4, 1-0 (10-5)
Courtney Vernon (43), USF def. Melissa Mang (55), Duke 7-5, 6-0
Elizabeth Plotkin, Duke def. Shadisha Robinson (72), USF 6-4, 6-3
Liz Cruz (68), USF def. Jenny Zika, Duke 6-0, 7-6
Amanda Granson, Duke def. Gabriela Duch, USF 6-3, 6-3
Iciri Rai, USF def. Kristin Cargill, Duke 6-4, 6-3
Jessi Robinson, Duke def. Shaena Keefe, USF 6-0, 6-0
Emily Mowery, Miami def. Ashley Schumacher, USF 6-0, 6-0
END OF REPORT
