No. 16 Lady Vols Drop Road Match to No. 34 Florida, 4-2

Sunday, March 17

Gainesville, Fla.

1:00 PM

University of Tennessee

Florida

KNOXVILLE, TN - 2019.03.08 - Tennessee vs. Texas A&M

Photo by: Austin Perryman/Tennessee Athletics

No. 16 Lady Vols Drop Road Match to No. 34 Florida, 4-2

March 17, 2019 | Women's Tennis

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The 16^th-ranked Tennessee women's tennis team battled across doubles and singles, but fell to No. 34 Florida on the road Sunday afternoon, 4-2.

Due to weather, the match was moved to Florida's three-court indoor facility. Each team's top three players in the singles lineup started singles competition, followed immediately by singles players four, five and six.

For the 14^th time this season and third time in SEC play, Tennessee (12-5, 2-3 SEC) won the doubles point.

The Lady Vols' eighth-ranked duo of Sadie Hammond and Kaitlin Staines cruised by Florida's No. 1 doubles team of Victoria Emma and McCartney Kessler to get back to their winning ways, 6-1. Hammond and Staines are now 3-1 in SEC doubles competition and 12-1 in dual matches.

Tennessee dropped its doubles matchup on Court 2, but freshman Rebeka Mertena and junior Johanna Silva came up with a 6-3 win at the No. 3 spot to clinch the doubles point for the Lady Vols.

In singles, Ariadna Riley came up with a win for the Lady Vols, defeating Tsveta Dimitrova, 6-3, 6-3. The victory was Riley's first in singles of the conference season. The junior from Macon, Ga. has won three of her past four singles matches and is 5-2 in dual matches this spring.

Sunday's Florida (7-6, 4-2 SEC) singles lineup featured three ranked players, all of which registered wins for the Gators. No. 12 Ida Jarlskog, 44^th-ranked Kessler and 52^nd-ranked Emma defeated Tennessee's No. 65 Hammond, Staines and Silva, respectively.

Silva won the first set over Emma, 6-4, before ultimately falling in three sets, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5.

Mertena also fell in singles for the Lady Vols, dropping a first-set tiebreaker before also dropping the second set, 7-6 (5), 6-3.

UP NEXT: The Lady Vols return to Knoxville next weekend for a pair of home SEC matches. Tennessee takes on Mississippi State on Friday at 3:30 p.m. before facing Ole Miss at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon.

RESULTS
No. 34 Florida 4, No. 16 Tennessee 2

Singles
1. #12 Ida Jarlskog (UF) def. #65 Sadie Hammond (UT), 6-3, 6-3
2. #44 McCartney Kessler (UF) def. Kaitlin Staines (UT), 6-2, 7-6 (6)
3. #52 Victoria Emma (UF) def. Johanna Silva (UT), 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
4. Marlee Zein (UF) def. Rebeka Mertena (UT), 7-6 (5), 6-3
5. Ariadna Riley (UT) def. Tsveta Dimitrova (UF), 6-3, 6-3
6. Anastasia Kharitonova (UF) vs. Tenika McGiffin (UT), 6-0, unfinished

Doubles
1. #8 Hammond/Staines (UT) def. Emma/Kessler (UF), 6-1
2. Dimitrova/Jarlskog (UF) def. Haumuller/McGiffin (UT), 6-1
3. Mertena/Silva (UT) def. Kharitonova/Zein (UF), 6-3

Order of finish: Doubles (1, 2, 3); Singles (1, 2, 3, 5, 4)