Roland Thornqvist, the coach of the No. 15 Florida women’s tennis team, hopes that a little home cooking this weekend will provide the energy his teams need to get to the NCAA Round of 16 at Texas A&M next week.
Florida (14-9) meets College of Charleston (24-4), the Southern Conference champion, today at 1 p.m. in the first round of the NCAA Women’s Tennis Tournament in Linder Stadium at the Ring Tennis Complex. The Florida-Charleston match follows a 10 a.m. match between No. 18 Florida State (18-7) and No. 33 Auburn (11-12). The winners return Sunday at 2 p.m. for a second-round match.
The Gators’ program-record 64-match home win streak, which includes 11 victories in postseason tournaments (SEC and NCAA), will be on the line. The last time the Gators lost at 18-home was May 15, 2004 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Miami (Fla.).
That’s also the last time the Gators have failed to reach the Round of 16. Since the NCAA expanded its field to 64 teams, Florida has been 10-0 in first-round matches and 9-1 in the second round. The Gators, who are making their 27th appearance in the 28-year history of the championship (missing only in 1986), have a 75-22 record in the tournament and have won four national championships (1992, ’96, ’98 and 2003). Plus, they have advanced to the NCAA semifinals 19 times in the last 22 years.
Juniors Marrit Boonstra and Anastaia Revzina have led the Gators this season.
Boonstra, who hails from Groningen, The Netherlands, is playing No. 1 singles this season and posted a 19-3 record to become a unanimous All-Southeastrern Conference first-team selection. Overall she is 31-8 in singles play and ranked eighth nationally is 25-9 playing doubles.
Revzina, a junior from Moscow, Russia, played No. 2 singles this season after playing mostly at Nos. 5 and 6 last season. This year, Revzina is 21-9 with 10 victories over ranked opponents while earning a ranking of No. 40. It was Revzina who provided the winning point in team victories over Georgia and Vanderbilt. In dual matches, she is 15-4 in doubles competition despite playing with two different partners.
Freshman Joanna Mather (No. 3), freshman Jessica Alexander (No. 4), freshman Barbara Pinterova (No. 5) and junior Brooke Allen (No. 6) fill out the Florida singles lineup.
At No. 1 doubles, Boonstra pairs up with Mather to give the Gators the No. 18 tandem in the nation. Alexander and Revzina are the No. 2 doubles team and are ranked No. 25 nationally as a team. Allen and junior Lauren Wolken make up the No. 3 doubles team.
While this is the first meeting ever between Florida and College of Charleston, the Gators already have played both Florida State and Auburn this season. The Seminoles handed the Gators a 5-2 setback on Feb. 28 in Tallahassee, but Florida edged Auburn, 4-3, on April 12 in Linder Stadium.