GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Florida women’s tennis was unable to fend-off a veteran Pepperdine team on Friday evening, falling to the No. 25 Waves, 4-0.
It was a high-level doubles competition from the start and the Gators (5-2, 0-0 SEC) came out in aggressive fashion, grabbing a 2-1 lead on all three courts to begin. Matched-up against the No. 1 doubles tandem in the nation of Savannah Broadus and Janice Tjen, Carly Briggs and Alicia Dudeney battled to a 3-3 stalemate before the Waves took a 4-3 advantage and didn’t look back, taking court one, 6-3.
Courts two and three found themselves in familiar positions, both seeing ties at 3-3 midway through their respective matches. In similar fashion to the top court, Anna Campana and Nikki Redelijk of Pepperdine (4-2, 0-0 WCC) grabbed the lead after the tie and held on for the 6-3 clincher. Rachel Gailis and Bente Spee were making a late push at the two doubles position, ending with a 4-5 deficit.
The Gators brought the energy to start singles play, jumping out to 2-1 leads on all but one court in the opening sets. Pepperdine didn’t let that phase them, however, as No. 29 Tjen managed to pull away from No. 61 Briggs in the first set, 6-3. The two would go back-and-forth to a 3-3 draw into the second set, but again Tjen managed to create space to win 6-3, 6-3, and push Pepperdine’s lead to 2-0.
On court three, No. 16 Broadus managed to secure a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Dahlstrom while Anna Campana clinched the match for the Waves on court six, defeating De Oliveira 6-4, 6-3 hard-fought two-setter.
Florida will now…
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