The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Florida
No. 7 Women's Tennis shuts out No. 12 Florida, 4-0
04.01.2018 | Women's Tennis
Longhorns post ninth straight win, earn first victory over the Gators since 2005.
ORLANDO, Fla. – No. 7 Texas (14-4) picked up singles wins from senior Dani Wagland, sophomores Petra Granic and Bianca Turati and freshman Bojana Markovic as the Longhorns notched a convincing 4-0 victory over defending NCAA champion No. 12 Florida (14-6) Sunday evening.
Texas stretched its winning streak to nine matches, and the Longhorns picked up their first win over Florida since 2005, when the Horns knocked off the Gators in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships. Sunday's match aired live on Tennis Channel as part of the USTA's College Match Day series on the sprawling USTA National Campus at Lake Nona.
The Texas-Florida match format was altered in advance of match day with the six singles matches contested first and doubles to follow only if necessary. Texas made sure a doubles session would not be needed, and the Longhorns ran off first-set victories on all six courts.
Granic put the Longhorns on the board in short order with her 6-1, 6-0 victory over Victoria Emma at third singles.
"I just wanted to play my best tennis," Granic said. "I served well and played decent tennis. I got lucky because she (Emma) missed a few balls, but it was a good match for me."
Senior Dani Wagland wasted little time adding to the Longhorns' tally with her 6-2, 6-1 victory over Katie Kubicz at sixth singles.
"I was a little nervous when I got out there since I hadn't been out there in a while, but everything came back to me," Wagland said. "I served well and the forehand was going well. I just played my game."
The match at first singles pitted the nation's top-ranked player, UT's Bianca Turati, against the Gators' 19th-ranked Anna Danilina. Turati greeted Danilina with a break of serve in the first game and raced out to a 6-1 set win. Turati led 4-0 in the second set before Danilina sandwiched a pair of service breaks around a hold of serve to pull within 4-3.
Turati, however, broke Danilina for 5-3 and served out the following game to close out a 6-1, 6-3 win, her 23rd victory against only two losses this season.
"I was trying to push her back and play long points," Turati said. "In the first set, there were some shorter points and she was trying to come to the net. In the second set, we had some long, physical rallies but I think I handled the pressure well."
The match at fourth singles featured a tight battle between UT's Markovic and Florida's McCartney Kessler. Markovic held serve for a 6-5 first-set lead before breaking Kessler's serve in the ensuing game to take the set, 7-5.
Kessler thwarted match points across two games late in the second set to force a tiebreaker, but Markovic took control and assumed a 3-0 lead. Leading 6-3 in the tiebreaker, Markovic received serve and smacked a heavy forehand that yielded an errant Kessler backhand. Markovic closed out the second-set tiebreaker win, 7-3 and gave Texas the match-clinching point. The remaining courts were suspended.
"I knew I needed to fight and that would be enough," Markovic said. "The first match point, she (Kessler) played really well, but I knew I would have more chances. On that last match point, I decided I need to play bravely. I knew we were going to win this match."
Texas resumes conference play next weekend and visits TCU and Texas Tech.
No. 7 Texas 4, No. 12 Florida 0
Singles – Order of Finish: 3, 6, 1, 4
1 No. 1 Bianca Turati (UT) def. No. 19 Anna Danilina (UF), 6-1, 6-3
2 No. 33 Anna Turati (UT) vs. No. 49 Josie Kuhlman (UF), 7-6 (2), 3-4, susp
3 No. 77 Petra Granic (UT) def. Victoria Emma (UF), 6-1, 6-0
4 Bojana Markovic (UT) def. McCartney Kessler (UF), 7-5, 7-6 (3)
5 Katie Poluta (UT) vs. Peggy Porter (UF) 6-3, 5-6, susp.
6 Dani Wagland (UT) def. Katie Kubick (UF), 6-2, 6-1
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Texas head coach Howard Joffe
For one thing, Florida is the defending national champions, and while Texas and Florida are big brand names, the Texas women's team is starting to become more resurgent versus Florida's team who is always right there. In terms of the substance of the match, I can't speak for Florida, but we certainly had a little (sickness) go through our team this week and so we were without one of our players. The fact that our ladies banded together and rallied and were as tough as they were…I'm certainly very proud of them.
For the ladies on our team, the opportunity to come to play at the USTA National Campus, and on top of that have their match televised, it's the stuff that truly dreams are made of. Not everyone, as we know, is Serena Williams and gets to play in front of millions of people, so for these kids to be able to play a real televised match at the USTA National Campus is truly special. They've just got to pinch themselves. Certainly, the USTA couldn't have done a better job and a more hospitable job of making us feel comfortable. Everything was first class.
Players Mentioned
