BATON ROUGE, La. — The Florida Women’s Tennis Team (7-2, 2-1) puts its three-match winning streak on the line this week as the Gators travel to No. 4 LSU (8-3, 1-2) on Thursday, March 5 for a 6 p.m. EST start, and No. 31 Ole Miss (6-3, 1-2) on Saturday, March 7 at 2 p.m.
 

 
Florida picked up a pair of conference victories last week over No. 60 Arkansas (4-0) and No. 11 Oklahoma (4-3). Those wins bumped the Gators to number 23 in the national rankings as they head into Thursday’s meeting with the Tigers. The ITA has five Gators ranked nationally in singles — Gabia Paskauskas (No. 26), Nikola Daubnerova (No. 72), Valery Gynina (No. 76), Lucie Pawlak (No. 88), and India Houghton (No. 103). Daubnerova and Xinyi Nong are also ranked No. 19 in the country as a doubles team.
 
LSU is 1-2 in conference this season with losses to Ole Miss (5-2) and No. 1 Georgia (4-0), and a win last week vs. No. 17 South Carolina (4-1). They also have ranked wins over No. 5 NC State (4-2), No. 6 Tennessee (4-0) and No. 18 UCLA (4-1). Four members of the team are ranked nationally in singles — No. 52 Candace Brace, No. 65 Kayla Cross, No. 118 Kenna Erickson, and No. 120 Kinaa Graham. Ella McDonald is part of two nationally ranked doubles teams — No. 9 alongside Cross, and No. 65 with Erikson.
 
Ole Miss opened conference play with a 5-2 win over No. 4 LSU before dropping a 4-0 decision to No. 1 Georgia and a narrow 4-3 result to No. 17 South Carolina. The Gators beat the Rebels 4-2 earlier in the year in a non-conference match at the ITA Kickoff Weekend. Emily Welker is ranked No. 12 in the nation in singles for Ole Miss, and Welker and Andrea Nova are the 85th-ranked doubles team in the country.
 
TEAM RECORDS

Rank	Team	W-L	Notes
No. 23	Florida	7-2, 2-1	Won three straight matches, incl. two in SEC.
No. 4	LSU	8-3, 1-2	2-3 over last three matches. Started year 6-0.
No. 30	Ole Miss	6-3, 1-2	Lost to Gators 4-2 in Jan. (ITA Kickoff Weekend).

 
HISTORY
Florida is 51-4 all-time against LSU, but dropped a 4-2 decision to the Tigers on April 11 of last year. The Gators are 54-4 vs. Ole Miss, and upended the Rebels in their most recent meeting, 4-2 back in January of this year.

GATORS LAST TIME OUT

Florida beat No. 11 Oklahoma 4-3 on Saturday, Feb. 28 to run its winning streak to three straight matches, including two in conference. Lucie Pawlak provided the decisive point when she upended Salakthip Ounmuang at number five singles 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.

 

WHAT’S NEXT?

The Gators return home next week to the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex for matches against Kentucky on Thursday, March 12, and vs. No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday, March 14.

FOLLOW THE GATORS

SOCIAL: X | Facebook | Instagram

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: #GoGators