Samford University
Florida
Women's Tennis Falls In First Round Of NCAA Tournament
5.12.06 | Women's Tennis
May 12, 2006
GAINESVILLE, Fla. ---- The Samford University women's tennis team fell, 5-0, to No. 4-seeded Florida in the first round of the NCAA Division I Tennis Championships held Friday morning at Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.
"We came into Florida knowing that we were going to be a little bit of an underdog, but we had no problem with that," said Samford head coach Terri Sisk. "With Samford being a small private school we were just excited to be here. Our girls were ready to play this caliber of team. I thought we went out there, played well and left our mark."
Florida quickly gained the doubles point, winning on the No.'s 1 and 2, and proceeded to claim four singles matches for a final score of 5-0.
In doubles action, Sarah McKey and Emily White fell to No. 24 Whitney Benik and Alexis Gordon, 8-1, on the No. 1 court, while on the No. 2 court, Anna Jackson and Katie McMiller dropped an 8-1 match to Lolita Frangulyan and Diana Srebovic. The No. 3 match was suspended after Florida's win at No. 2 clinched the doubles point.
In singles play, Keri Robison started the day off for Florida, with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Bethany Benson at No. 6 singles. No. 9 Diana Srebrovic claimed a 6-0, 6-2 win over McMiller on the No. 2 court, and Nina Suvak won, 6-2, 6-1, over Whitnie Warren at No. 4 singles. The match was decided with No. 14 Alexis Gordon's win over Jackson, 6-1, 6-0, at No. 1 singles.
With the loss, Samford was eliminated from the 2006 NCAA Women's Tennis Tournament, while Florida advances to the second round.
"At some point all of us are realist," Sisk said. "I told the girls, 'look you had such an amazing season, let's just go out there and play our best.' Florida has been at the top for a lot of years, so I told out girls to go out, hit a lot of balls and enjoy the experience."
Samford returns home to Birmingham, and will begin preparations for the 2006-07 season.
NCAA Women's Tennis First Round
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex
Gainesville, Fla.
Friday, May 12, 2006
Florida 5, Samford 0
Doubles
No. 1 Whitney Benik/Alexis Gordon (24), UF def. Sarah McKey/Emily White, Samford 8-1
No. 2 Lolita Frangulyan/Diana Srebrovic, UF def. Anna Jackson/Katie McMiller, Samford 8-1*
No. 3 Keri Robison/Nina Suvak, UF led Christie Baker/Whitnie Warren, Samford 7-1 DNF
Singles
No. 1 Alexis Gordon (14), UF def. Anna Jackson, Samford 6-1, 6-0*
No. 2 Diana Srebrovic (9), UF def. Katie McMiller, Samford 6-0, 6-2
No. 3 Whitney Benik, UF led Emily White, Samford 6-1, 5-1 DNF
No. 4 Nina Suvak, UF def. Whitnie Warren, Samford, 6-2, 6-2
No. 5 Alex Liles, UF led Sarah McKey, Samford 6-1, 5-1 DNF
No. 6 Keri Robison, UF def. Bethany Benson, Samford 6-1, 6-1
*clinching doubles/dual match point
Order of Finish: Doubles 1, 2; Singles 6, 2, 1, 4
Post Match Quotes
Samford
Head Coach Terri Sisk
"We came into Florida knowing that we were going to be a little bit of an underdog, but we had no problem with that. With Samford being a small private school we were just excited to be here. Our girls were ready to play this caliber of team. I thought we went out there, played well and left their mark."
"At some point all of us are realist. I told the girls, 'look you had such an amazing season, let's just go out there and play our best.' Florida has been at the top for a lot of years, so I told out girls to go out, hit a lot of balls and enjoy the experience."
Florida
Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
"I was glad to see that we were able to get off the court fairly quickly. I was really pleased with doubles in particular our No. 1 doubles today. We have been working on moving our feet more when we volley and being a little bit more aggressive at the net. I thought our No. 1 doubles did a really good job in those areas today. That is a good sign. We took 10 days and worked on it every day, and I was really pleased to see that they could implement it today when they played. Singles * I thought we were spotty. It was a little up and down. We didn't handle their off-pace as well as we could. Problem solving is a part of tennis and we were able to make some adjustments in some of the sets and get off the court pretty quickly. One thing about Samford is that I thought they really competed hard. I was very impressed with how their players competed. It was a good first round for us."
On approaching today's match with Samford* "With today's match, we thought we would be more talented than Samford. We hadn't seen any of their players. We haven't played in three weeks, so I think our players were just happy to be out there. Motivating them to play today wasn't too hard."
