2 BITS: Florida women advance, Jackson resigns

By Adam Silverstein
May 26, 2012

1 » Action continued in the 2012 NCAA Tournament on Friday with Florida Gators women’s tennis fielding two singles competitors and one doubles pairing.

No. 1 Allie Will (junior) def. No. 37 Abigail Tere-Apisah (Georgia State) – 6-1, 6-4
No. 2 Beatrice Capra (Duke) def. No. 9 Lauren Embree (junior) – 6-1, 6-3

No. 22 Lauren Embree/Joanna Mather(senior) def. No. 5 Annie Goransson/Anett Schutting (California) – 3-6, 6-3, 6-3

Will and Embree/Mather advanced and will compete in the Elite Eight rounds of their respective individual championships on Saturday. The Florida women have won four singles and four doubles NCAA Individual Championships with the last ones coming in 1996 (Jill Craybas) and 2001 (Whitney Lalho/Lehnoff), respectively. The Gators remain the only program in the history of women’s collegiate tennis to sweep the team, singles and doubles titles in the same season, accomplishing that feat in 1996.

2 » The news was not as positive Friday (depending on your perspective) for the Gators men’s tennis team as, after 11 seasons running the program, head coach Andy Jackson announced his resignation. “I want to thank Jeremy Foley and the administration for the opportunity to lead this program for the last 11 years,” Jackson said in a school release. “I’m truly grateful for my time here and I hope to have the opportunity to coach again.” Jackson had success while at Florida, winning four Southeastern Conference Championships including two in the regular season (2003, 2005) and two in tournament play (2005, 2011). He also picked up the SEC Coach of the Year award in 2002 and 2005 and coached three SEC Players of the Year. However, the Gators did not find much success at the national level under Jackson, only advancing to the semifinals of the NCAA Tournament once (2005). “Moving forward, our vision is that the University of Florida men’s tennis program can consistently be among the contenders for the SEC and national championships, and we’ll work deliberately to find a candidate who matches this vision,” Foley said.

One Comment

  1. Gatorgrad79 says:

    Wow, very high expectations for Gator sports across the board – compete for and win SEC titles and contend for national titles or you will be replaced…..Muschamp are ya’ listening?

Join The
Discussion

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Top
WordPress Appliance - Powered by TurnKey Linux