Women’s Tennis Central: #15 Tennessee vs. #17 Florida, #27 South Carolina

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Closing out the 2023 regular-season home schedule, the 15^th-ranked Tennessee women’s tennis team welcomes No. 17 Florida and No. 27 South Carolina to Rocky Top for a pair of matches at Barksdale Stadium/Goodfriend Tennis Center on Friday and Sunday.

Sunday’s match, which pits the Lady Vols (14-4, 7-2 SEC) against the Gamecocks (12-7, 7-3 SEC), will serve as Tennessee’s Senior Day during which Rebeka Mertena and Daria Kuczer will be honored for their years of hard work, dedication, energy and enthusiasm they gave to the program every single day.

The celebration will start at approximately 11:55 a.m. ET on the courts.

Both matches mark massive results in the SEC standings. All three squads are currently tied for third in the conference with seven wins apiece and the weekend’s outcome will go a long way towards determining the seeding in the 2023 SEC Women’s Tennis Championship which is set to begin on April 19 at Billingsley Tennis Center in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

UT is coming off a massive come-from-behind victory at LSU where the Lady Vols battled from a 2-3 deficit all the way back to a 4-3 decision with a pair of three-set winners. Mertena and Elza Tomase were the ones to come through in the clutch, each picking up wins with scores of 4-6, 7-4(4), 6-2 and 4-6, 6-4, 6-2, respectively.

Friday’s match will be streamed on SEC Network+ as part of the SEC CrossCourt Cast by Cracked Racquets. Fans can also view the Playsight streams by clicking HERE.

A PEEK AT THE CHARTS

Tuesday, the ITA updated its individual rankings. Below are each team’s ranked singles and doubles players.

Tennessee Lady Volunteers

Singles

#24 Rebeka Mertena

#38 Elza Tomase

#46 Daria Kuczer

Doubles

#36 Esther Adeshina/Rebeka Mertena

Florida Gators

Singles

#37 Sara Dahlstrom

#45 Carly Briggs

#86 Alicia Dudeney

Doubles

#53 Alicia Dudeney/Bente Spee

#79 Rachel Gailis/Carly Briggs

South Carolina Gamecocks

Singles

#8 Ayana Akli

#19 Sarah Hamner

Doubles

#48 Ayana Akli/Sarah Hamner

HEAD COACH ALISON OJEDA

“When we recruit players, we can only hope that they have the tennis experience that both Daria and Rebeka had during their time at the University of Tennessee. They have both developed into tremendous tennis players who our team depends on. We greatly appreciate all that they have done for us and are looking forward to celebrating them this weekend.”

“With that being said, we have a lot of important matches ahead of us. So, I hope as we get to…