GAINESVILLE - On the eve of Thursday's NCAA women's tennis championships, Florida coach Roland Thornqvist gathered with his players and talked candidly about his hopes and expectations for this weekend's tournament.
They responded Thursday morning by executing as Thornqvist had asked.
Bolstered by an impressive doubles win, Florida capped off its singles competition in 1 hour, 11 minutes, defeating Arizona State 4-0 at the Ring Tennis Complex.
The Gators (28-2) play 10th-seeded Vanderbilt (21-5), a 4-3 winner over seventh-seeded Tennessee, at 11 this morning in the national quarterfinals. One of Florida's two losses was 4-3 to Vanderbilt in March.
"It's probably our worst memory of the season so we're happy to have another chance," junior Julie Rotondi said.
UF took a 1-0 lead with wins of 8-2 and 8-1 at No. 3 and No. 1 doubles, respectively.
"I was real happy with our doubles in particular," Thornqvist said. "At the end of the season I felt like our No. 1 doubles team (Zerene Reyes and Jennifer Magley) wasn't playing at the top of their game. They were as confident as they have been all year and today they really played well. ... When we come out like that, if we play doubles like that, we're going to be tough to beat."
Florida also dominated singles, winning at No. 2 (Rotondi defeated Dora Krstulovic 6-2, 6-1), No. 5 (Alexis Gordon defeated Lauren Colalilo 6-3, 6-2) and No. 6 (Magley defeated Meagan Yeats 6-2, 6-2).
"Obviously the better team won," Arizona State coach Sheila McInerney said.
In other action, defending national champion Stanford (23-1) snapped Harvard's 10-match winning streak with a 4-0 win; Duke defeated William & Mary 5-0; UCLA defeated Washington 4-3 and Georgia defeated Kentucky 4-0.
