VIDEO: Florida Gators Capture Seventh Women’s NCAA Tennis Title With Win Over Stanford
By Kathy Cafazzo, FloridaGators.com // May 25, 2017
First title since back to back wins in 2011-12
ABOVE VIDEO: Championship point for the Florida Gators women’s tennis team as they take defending national champ, Stanford to win the 2017 title. (Gators Tennis)
ATHENS, GEORGIA – In a match full of momentum swings, it was Gator freshman Ingrid Neel who shrugged off the pressure and rallied for a three-set victory that clinched Florida’s 4-1 win against Stanford and secured the seventh NCAA Championship title in program history.
The Gators began the match at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex winning the doubles point and took early leads in singles action, capturing the first set on three courts.
Kourtney Keegan needed exactly one hour into singles play to give Florida a 2-0 lead as she posted a 6-0, 6-0 win against Emma Higuchi. It was the Gator senior’s first double-bagel singles win of the season and her first-ever in NCAA dual match play, as she capped the team portion of her career just 75 miles from her hometown of Roswell, Ga.
Florida seemed firmly in control, as Belinda Woolcock and Brooke Austin were nearing the end of their respective matches – even holding simultaneous match points that would have effectively ended the dual match right then.
Emily Arbuthnott, however, fought off a pair of match points against Austin and evened the second set at 5-all.
Woolcock did go on to earn a 6-1, 6-3 victory against Caroline Doyle on court one in one hour and 22 minutes and Florida took a 3-0 lead. Woolcock won the final four games of the match, breaking twice including once at love for a 4-3 lead.
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ABOVE VIDEO: NCAA team trophy presentation.
