Gators Blank UMass in NCAA First Round

Saturday, May 13

Gainesville, FL

1 pm ET

Florida Gators

UMass (NCAA First Round)

Peggy Porter provided the clinching victory.

Gators Blank UMass in NCAA First Round

Saturday, May 13, 2017 | Women's Tennis

Final Stats (PDF)PostMatch Press Conference

Peggy Porter provided the clinching victory in just her second dual match appearance of the year.

By: Kathy Cafazzo

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Peggy Porter came off the bench so to speak and provided the clinching singles victory in Florida's 4-0 sweep over UMass in the first round of the NCAA Championships played at the Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex.

The top-seeded Gators (24-3) will play Miami (13-11) in the NCAA Second Round on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Hurricanes defeated South Florida, 4-0, in their first-round match Saturday. The winner advances to the NCAA round of 16 held in Athens, Ga.

For Florida, Porter was making just her second dual match appearance of the entire season, having earned a straight-set win in the team's season-opening victory against DePaul on January 28. Since then, she had not competed but proved to be a strong teammate, cheering her Gators from the sideline and waiting for her opportunity.

When she received that chance, Porter stepped up and provided a 6-2, 6-3 win to clinch Saturday's postseason win.

Junior Anna Danilina was the first off the singles court with a 6-3, 6-1 victory for her ninth consecutive singles win and Florida led 2-0. For Danilina, the win was her team-leading 30th of the year.

Freshman Ingrid Neel finished her match just moments after Danilina, netting a 6-3, 6-2 decision in her NCAA debut and never dropped her serve during the contest.

Double the Fun

The Gators won the doubles point for the 24th time in 27 matches, as UF captured victories on courts one and three against the Minutewomen

News and Notes

This was the first ever meeting between Florida and Massachusetts.
The Minutewomen (12-8) won the Atlantic 10 Conference Tournament and the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.

What's Next: UF vs. Miami

58-match series: UF leads 37-21 (UF at Home 18-7; Away 12-13; Neutral 7-1)
Last Meeting: UF defeated Miami 4-0 in the quarterfinals of the 2012 NCAA Championships held in Athens, Ga., on May 19, 2012)
Of Note: the Gators have won 26 consecutive matches versus in-state opponents, including a 1-0 record this year (def. FIU, 4-0, January 29)
NCAA History: UF leads 5-2 in NCAA matches vs. Miami; the most stunning of those matches was a 4-3 Hurricane win in the 2004 NCAA second round played on May 15, 2004 in Gainesville. UF was the No. 1 seed and the reigning NCAA champion. That loss was the last time the Gators lost a home match until this season - span of a program-record 163 straight home victories. That is the only time UF has dropped an NCAA first or second round in program history. Including the 2017 NCAA first round win, UF has since won 25 consecutive NCAA home matches and sports a 36-1 overall record in the opening two rounds of the NCAAs since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1999.

Gators at a Glance

The Gators have won three of their last five matches.
The Gators have won the doubles point in 24 of 27 matches.
UF is 23-1 when winning the doubles point this year. The only loss was in the 4-3 SEC Tournament Final loss at No. 2 Vanderbilt.
Two of the Gator's three losses have been against Vanderbilt, which was awarded the No. 4 seed.

Individual Gator News (this season)

Anna Danilina has won nine straight singles matches – the longest active streak by a Gator
Danilina wins on the singles and doubles courts were a team-leading 30th on both
The doubles team of Kuhlman and Belinda Woolcock sport a 19-3 dual match record at the No. 3 position, which is the second-most by a Gator pair at the three spot in program history. Three other tandems have won 21 times on court three.

Florida at the NCAA Championships

The Gators sport an all-time NCAA record of 108-28, including a 19-0 record in the round of 64.
UF has been selected to host first and second round matches every year since the NCAA Women's Championships expanded its field to 64 teams in 1999.
The Gators have participated in 35 of the 36 NCAA Championships, missing only the 1986 event.
The Gators won six NCAA team titles: 1992, 1996, 1998, 2003, 2011 and 2012.
UF has advanced to at least the NCAA semifinals 24 times in the last 30 years.
In 1996, Florida became only the second team in NCAA women's tennis history to sweep the team, singles and doubles titles.
Florida was the first of only two schools in NCAA women's tennis history to produce both the NCAA singles champion and finalist in the same year. Shaun Stafford defeated teammate Halle Cioffi in the finals of the 1988 championship.

Quotes from the Court

WATCH the Gator's complete post-match presser: coming soon!

UF Head Coach Roland Thornqvist
Opening thoughts on the win:
"In my 16 years here, I thought this was one of the better first-round matches. This was a really good UMass team. I think they surprised us a little bit at the beginning of doubles with the way they were hitting the ball. I think today was great for us. We had to problem-solve at a few spots and come up with the goods. When you looked down at the scores, you had a lot of 3-alls or 3-2 in the first set of singles. We didn't jump all over them to the point where the match was decided early, which was great for us. We had to figure some stuff out and I have to say that (UMass Coach) Judy (Dixon) has done an unbelievable job with this UMass team. This was probably the best first-round team we've played in my 16 years here at Florida.

"I'm real pleased with our play. It was time for us to play somebody else and not ourselves like we've been doing for three weeks and honestly, I didn't see a whole lot of rust. I think we looked pretty sharp. We had some good play-calling at (court) two doubles. We were actually trailing for a while and we had a change our play-calling a little bit and that made a difference. Some of those little things you look forward to in order to go deep in the tournament. We had to do some of those things in the first round and that was great for the Gators."

UF Junior Peggy Porter
"It's honestly been a good year. A year isn't determined by how much you play or how many matches you win. We've had so many great experiences. I definitely feel nervous when I do play, but I feel so comfortable with my teammates. I know that they have my back, that the staff has my back. They just want to see me do well and see me have a great time out there. It takes the pressure off."

UF Freshman Ingrid Neel
"I was really happy that my serve was cranking today. I played loose and did what I want to do to feel good about coming off the court in this NCAA Tournament. My opponent could strike her forehand really well so I worked around that and it was a good match for me."

NCAA Women's Tennis Championships – First Round
No. 1 Florida vs. UMass
Linder Stadium at Ring Tennis Complex * Gainesville, Fla.
Saturday, May 13, 2017

Final Score: Florida 4, UMass 0

Doubles (Order of Finish: 3, 1*)
No. 1 #11 Anna Danilina / Ingrid Neel, UF d. Ruth Crawford / Anna Woosley, UMassUF* 6-2
No. 2 #20 Brooke Austin / Kourtney Keegan, UF vs. Ana Yrazusta / Janja Kovacevic, UMass- UF led 5-3 - DNF
No. 3 #45 Josie Kuhlman / Belinda Woolcock, UF d. Brittany Collens / Laura Moreno, UMass 6-1

Singles (Order of Finish: 4, 3, 6*)
No. 1 #6 Belinda Woolcock, UF vs. Janja Kovacevic, UMass - DNF UF led 6-2, 3-2
No. 2 #23 Josie Kuhlman, UF vs. Ruth Crawford, UMass - DNF UF led 6-3, 3-2
No. 3 #31 Ingrid Neel, UF d. Ana Yrazusta, UMass 6-3, 6-2
No. 4 #44 Anna Danilina, UF d. Anna Woosley, UMass 6-3, 6-1
No. 5 #88 Spencer Liang, UF vs. Laura Moreno, UMass - DNF 7-5, 2-1
No. 6 Peggy Porter d. Brittany Collens, UMass 6-2, 6-3*

Updated Records: UF 24-3; UMass 12-8

NOTES: NCAA seeds - UF No. 1, UMass No. 49-64 … Florida plays Miami (4-0 winners over South Florida in Saturday's first match of day) on Sunday at 1 p.m.

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