GAINESVILLE - Jennifer Magley sat in front of her television last year and watched an ESPN tape-delayed replay of the NCAA women's tennis national championship fully aware of the outcome: Florida lost to Stanford.
It made her cry. It made her want to avenge that loss. And Saturday morning, the freshman led an impressive doubles comeback win, then earned the first singles victory to lead second-seeded Florida to an emotional 4-1 win over No.3 seed Duke in the semifinals of the NCAA championships at Ring Tennis Complex.
Florida (30-2) will play No.1 seed Stanford, which beat Cal 4-1, at 1 p.m. today for the championship.
"When the draw came out a couple of weeks ago, the first thing I wanted to see was where Duke was because, in my opinion, this is about as good a Duke team as I've ever seen," Florida coach Roland Thornqvist said. "It took all our might to beat them at home here last time (March 26), and I knew it was going to come down to just the smallest details. I'm really proud of our kids because halfway through the doubles it didn't look good."
In fact, it looked pretty bad. Duke's Kelly McCain and Hillary Adams defeated Alexis Gordon and Julie Rotondi 8-5 at No.2 doubles, snapping a 12-match winning streak. Florida's No.1 doubles team of Magley and Zerene Reyes led 3-1, then had to rally from a 6-4 deficit for an 8-6 win.
Senior Julia Scaringe and Lindsay Dawaf defeated Katie Blaszak and Katie Granson 8-5 to clinch Florida's victory at No.3. But it was a controversial missed call that Duke coach Jamie Ashworth said changed the match.
Tied at 5 and Florida with the advantage, Scaringe hit the net with her racket on a missed volley, but the official didn't make the call.
"That was a huge point," Ashworth said. "All four were up at the net and the umpire said he was looking the wrong way so he just missed the call. ... It was a huge momentum swing. They came out in singles and we were down 4-1 on 2, 4 and 6 in 10 minutes. We were down mentally. And they are tough to beat in four singles matches."
With oncourt temperatures at 105 degrees, Magley defeated Granson 6-2, 6-1 at No.6 singles. Gordon won the first set 6-2, fell behind 5-1 but won the second set and Dawaf closed out the win for Florida with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Saras Arasu.
MEN: Florida defeated No.14 seed Texas 4-3 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Division I championships in Athens, Ga. The third-seeded Gators face No.6 seed UCLA at noon today.
For the fifth time this season, the Gators (25-4) dropped the doubles point. The No.3 team of Matt Behrmann and Troy Hahn lost 8-6. No.2 Eleazar Magallan and Olivier Levant also dropped their match 8-4. Hamid Mirzadeh and Chris McDonald at No.1 had their match suspended trailing 7-2.
Florida took a 3-1 lead when Levant, Magallan and Hahn won their singles matches. Levant and Magallan each dropped the second set, winning 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 and 6-2, 5-7, 6-3, respectively. Hahn had two sets play to tiebreakers in his 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (7-4), 6-4 win. Freshman Janne Holmia got the winning point in his 6-1, 6-7 (7-4), 6-4 victory.
Softball
GAINESVILLE - The Cinderella story ended one game short of the region finals for Texas-Arlington.
The seventh-seeded Mavericks were eliminated by consecutive losses to top-seeded Oklahoma and No.6 seed Oregon State in the NCAA region tournament. Texas-Arlington had upset second-seeded Florida State and third-seeded Florida.
The Beavers need two wins against the Sooners in today's finals to advance to the College World Series.
Oregon State eliminated the last Florida team with a 7-3 win against Florida Atlantic.
Baseball
FLORIDA ST. 15, DUKE 8: The visiting Seminoles pulled away with a five-run seventh. Jerrod Brown hit a home run in the seventh for FSU, who also took advantage of a hit batter, two wild pitches and a Blue Devil error in the inning.
FLORIDA 13, KENTUCKY 4: Ben Harrison had three RBIs and a home run to lead the host Gators. The Wildcats led 3-0, but Florida responded with four runs in the second and didn't trail again.
USF 10, MEMPHIS 3: Seniors had six hits and three RBIs in the host Bulls' regular-season finale. USF scored two runs in the third and seven in the fourth for a 9-2 lead. Seniors Mike Cunningham and Mike Choquette each had two hits.
JACKSONVILLE 3-7, UCF 1-4: The two-time defending Atlantic Sun champion Golden Knights were eliminated from the conference tournament in Orlando.
