Texas A&M
Florida
No. 5 Florida Wins Last Match Standing to Hold Off No. 15 A&M, 4-3
Mar 24, 2015 | Women's Tennis
Texas A&M, which had defeated No. 6 Baylor, No. 37 Auburn and No. 9 Alabama to begin its four-match homestand and entered the contest riding a five-match winning streak, falls to 8-4 overall and 5-2 in Southeastern Conference matches. For the Gators, it was their 11th consecutive victory as they improve to 16-1 overall and remain undefeated in SEC play at 8-0.
The Aggies began the match continuing to ride the momentum and confidence they had fostered over the last five matches, and Florida would drop its first doubles point since the Gators defeated Alabama, 4-1, seven matches ago on Feb. 27.
A&M's 80th-ranked sophomore duo of Rutuja Bhosale and Saska Gavrilovska trailed 31st-ranked Josie Kuhlman and Peggy Porter, 5-3 at the No. 3 line before reeling off five consecutive games to take the match, 8-5. It was the first loss for the Gator tandem at No. 3, as the pair entered the match 4-0, all in SEC matches.
A&M's 56th-ranked duo of freshman Eva Paalma and sophomore Rachel Pierson also were playing a team without a loss in SEC play, as they faced 54th-ranked Spencer Liang and Belinda Woolcock, who were 3-0 at No. 2. The Aggies never trailed and jumped out to a 6-2 lead. The Gators, however, got within a game at 6-5 and 7-6 before A&M closed out the 8-6 victory to clinch the point.
A&M was poised to also win at the No. 1 line, as 16th-ranked Ines Deheza and Stefania Hristov had overcome a 5-2 deficit against eighth-ranked Brooke Austin and Kourtney Keegan at No. 1 to tie the match at 7-7. The Aggies held a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker and were at match point when the doubles point was clinched and the match went unfinished.
A&M and Florida each won first sets on three courts to begin singles play. Gavrilovska, ranked No. 77, pulled off her highest ranked win of the dual season and the third highest of her career with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over 24th-ranked and previously 6-0 Brianna Morgan at the No. 3 line to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead. The lead would be short-lived, however, as Florida picked up two points during a flurry of matches that soon came to a close.
Austin, the fifth-ranked singles player in the nation, topped No. 32 Pierson, 6-3, 6-3 at the top of the lineup, and 37th-ranked Keegan evened the score at 2-2 as she followed with a 6-3, 6-2 win at No. 5 over Paalma, who had won the last match standing to clinch the Aggies' 4-3 victory over No. 9 Alabama on Sunday.
Bhosale, ranked 57th in singles, then put the Aggies up, 3-2, as she posted her team-leading fifth consecutive win with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 41 Woolcock at No. 4.
No. 7 Kuhlman tied the score once again, holding off Deheza, 7-5, in a first-set tiebreaker and pulling away for a 6-1 victory in the second set to improve to 7-0 in SEC matches at the No. 2 court.
All attention then turned to Court 6, where Hristov and Porter were playing in the only three-set match on the day. Hristov had opened the match by winning the first four games en route to taking the first set, 6-2. Porter never trailed in a 6-4 second-set win to force the third set. Porter then jumped out to a 3-0 lead to begin the final frame before Hristov rallied, tying the score, 4-4. Hristov then went up a break at 5-4, but Porter broke back to even the score at 5-5. Neither player could hold serve, and the score was eventually tied at 6-6, setting up a tiebreaker to determine the overall victor.
Hristov overcame a 2-0 deficit in the tiebreaker to tie the score at 2-2 before Porter ran off five unanswered points to win, 7-2, and clinch the win for the Gators.
The match against Florida concludes A&M's four-match homestand as the Aggies head to The Magnolia State this weekend to face No. 35 Mississippi State and No. 21 Ole Miss, Friday and Sunday, respectively.
Visit 12thMan.com for more information on Texas A&M women's tennis. Aggie fans also can keep up to date with the A&M women's tennis team on Twitter by following @AggieWTEN or on Facebook at Facebook.com/AggieWomensTennis.
Texas A&M Head Coach Howard Joffe quotes:
On what an exciting college match it was…
“Absolutely. It's interesting because at the most basic level of course it is terribly frustrating and certainly for Stefania [Hristov], who came within two points of winning the actual match for us, devastating, heartbreaking, all of that stuff, but in a larger context as your question hints at, it was an unbelievable college match. The larger lens is we are certainly a team that that has taken it on the chin earlier this year. We fell out of the rankings and so forth, and I think what the last five days shows is that we can play with anyone and beat anyone. That was my message to the troopers, who are very disappointed. If we can keep the way we have been going for the next six weeks, it'll be an awful good team that will get us in the end. That's the positive of today. The girls played good. Again, some of the players have had a tough go of it. Saska [Gavrilovska] beat a real top-notch player today, and beat her badly. And so when you start reviewing it through that lens, it has a little bit of a feel to me that we were starting to kick into gear. But nonetheless disappointing.”
On whether the team's tanks were empty after playing four matches in six days…
“I credit all the 12-14 girls that played today. It wasn't easy for Florida. They had to jump on a plane. The traveling is also exhausting, and so it wasn't easy for them, and it certainly wasn't easy for us. I didn't feel like mentally we weakened at all, but I did feel like at some of the spots we just didn't have enough juice, and that's nobody's fault. I feel like Florida probably suffered from the same thing in a couple of the matches. So the hope is to regroup. We've got some awful tough matches coming up this weekend away from home. But if we just keep plugging away, I really feel like we have the ability to be there at the end of the season.”
On what he told Hristov after the match…
“You said she's distraught. I tell her she should be distraught because she's one of the greatest winners we've had on our team in the last 3-4 years, and so folks that like to win, the other side of it hurts pretty badly. But I told her what any A&M self-respecting fan would say: she spilled her guts, she did a great job, she did awesome and, pardon the silly expression, but you just can't win them all. I was very proud of her. One or two points the other way and she's the hero today.
“We are not a team with a lot of pump and ceremony and captains and so on and so forth, but Stefania, through her actions, is definitely the heart and soul of our team, the leader and so forth. And so, that's what it took to get us beat today. Good luck to Florida, and we definitely have our path going forward set for us. Difficult for Stefania, but I was very proud of her.”
#5 Florida 4, #15 Texas A&M 3
Singles - Order of finish: 3, 1, 5, 4, 2, 6
1. #5 Brooke Austin (UF) def. #32 Rachel Pierson (A&M), 6-3, 6-3
2. #7 Josie Kuhlman (UF) def. Ines Deheza (A&M), 7-6 (5), 6-1
3. #77 Saska Gavrilovska (A&M) def. #24 Brianna Morgan (UF), 6-2, 6-2
4. #57 Rutuja Bhosale (A&M) def. #41 Belinda Woolcock (UF), 6-3, 6-3
5. #37 Kourtney Keegan (UF) def. Eva Paalma (A&M), 6-3, 6-2
6. #112 Peggy Porter (UF) vs. #101 Stefania Hristov (A&M)
Doubles – Order of finish: 3, 2
1. #16 Deheza/Hristov (A&M) vs. #8 Austin/Keegan (UF), 7-7 (6-5) unfinished
2. #56 Paalma/Pierson (A&M) def. #54 Spencer Liang/Woolcock (UF), 8-6
3. #80 Bhosale/Gavrilovska (A&M) def. #31 Kuhlman/Porter (UF), 8-5
Team records:
Texas A&M: 8-4, 5-2 SEC
Florida: 16-1, 8-0 SEC
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Players Mentioned
