(TEN) W Tennis at ITA

This weekend will give us an idea if the women are a top 8 type team, or a team more likely to finish ranked in the teens. I'm honestly not sure at this juncture.

Today vs #7 Virginia will be interesting. Doubles are underway, got waxed on court 1, both 2 and 3 are in a tiebreak.

 

Kessler and Shelton win their tiebreak, then the freshmen duo of Spee and Dudney win their tiebreak at 10-8 after fighting off multiple match points. Good start.

 

Winner of this match faces winner of #2 NC vs Ohio St, the losers will meet in the consolation draw

UGA is the 3 seed, TAMU and Auburn also here from the SEC

 

1st sets wrapping up
Kessler 6-3
Dudney 6-2
Zein 5-3
Shelton 1-6
Briggs 4-4
Berlin 3-5

Shelton is getting boat raced, Berlin is showing life after a slow start
Zein and Briggs are in tight matches. Kessler and Dudney need to keep their momentum.

 

Lose 4-2....Kessler continues to not be the player from last year. Shelton and Briggs not quite producing as expected either.
Zein typical match, wins first, loses second 0-6, wins 3rd

 

Yeah, I'm more looking at the season thus far for Kessler.....a win vs a bad USF and a tight 3 set win vs Old Dominion are the only W's she has posted in a schedule that hasn't been overly demanding. Already lost as many dual matches as she did all of last season playing #1, and we haven't hit the heart of the schedule. Could be a lot of things, minor injury, little rust...but she isn't playing the way she was.
Hoping you are right and the traditional struggle for UF indoors is part of this equation. And I agree, OSU is right about at the level I think UF is, so this would be an important win.

 

Fell behind on all 3 doubles courts
Kessler and Shelton got killed at 3
Fought back on the other 2courts to force tiebreaker, and UF wins both in identical fashion.

 

Yep, good to see Kessler and Briggs play well....but Shelton has been very disappointing. I also expected #6 to be pretty solid, Berling made great strides last year, but seems to have regressed a bit. Spee got waxed today, maybe get Dahlstrom back in the mix. Can't fault a freshman playing at 2, really needed Zein to come through. Can't recall a player who is more up and down in the course of individual matches than Zein has been.
Get the loser of Aub/Wash....cannot leave here 0-3

 

Play well and win the doubles point again....3rd time this weekend. Clearly the high point

Briggs moves up to 4 and Shelton drops to 5, a move I think has been coing. Also give Dahlstrom a shot at #6 after Berlin and Spee both struggled in singles/

 

Singles...
Kessler cruising, great to see
Briggs and Dahlstrom take their first sets as well
Oher 3 matches are very tight late in first sets

 

Dahlstrom won first easily at 6-1, now down 1-4 in her second
Dudney, Shelton, Zein all in first set tiebreaks

 

UF manages to lose all 3 tiebreaks and Dahlstrom down 2-5 in 2nd
Kessler and Briggs still in control

 

Went thru a bad stretch on every court for a few games, but have somewhat recovered. Briggs and Kessler finally close their matches out for the 3-0 lead
Dudney was down 0-3 in her second...now at 3-3
Zein was down 0-2 now up 3-2
Dahlstrom was down 0-1 in her 3rd afer losing the second 1-6, now up 3-2
Shelton up 4-1 in her second

 

Nice close to salvage the weekend....Dahlstrom, Zein and Shelton win blowout second sets and Dudney was at 4-4.
Good to get a W