{"id":180299,"date":"2026-03-06T04:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180299\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T04:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T04:38:07","slug":"no-23-florida-falls-flat-against-no-4-lsu-endsing-three-match-winning-streak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/180299\/","title":{"rendered":"No. 23 Florida falls flat against No. 4 LSU, endsing three-match winning streak"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Gators have posted a dominant showing in their spring season, most recently riding a three-match winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>Florida hoped to capitalize on that confidence and bring home another victory in its matchup against the Tigers but struggled against its first top 5 team of the season.<\/p>\n<p>The No. 23 Florida Gators (7-2, 2-1 SEC) lost to the No. 4 LSU Tigers (8-3, 1-2 SEC) 4-0 Thursday evening at the LSU Tennis Complex.<\/p>\n<p>Doubles play began rough for the Gators, battling a team that has secured the doubles point in seven matches across the season.<\/p>\n<p>Florida\u2019s duo of India Houghton and Lucie Pawlak was first to fall. Despite coming in on a high, with Houghton earning SEC player of the week and Pawlak SEC co-freshman of the week, the pair couldn\u2019t hold out. The match ended in a clean 6-0 loss to LSU\u2019s Alexia Marginean and Addison Lanton in less than half an hour.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The junior-freshman pair of Valery Gynina and Brooke Black suffered an unusual fate in their doubles match. Previously undefeated, the Gators couldn&#8217;t clinch the victory this time against LSU\u2019s Cadence Brace and Carolina Kuhl, losing 6-4.<\/p>\n<p>The final doubles match was retired since LSU secured the doubles point. The No. 19 pair of Xinyi Nong and Nikola Daubnerova led No. 9 Kayla Cross and Ella McDonald 5-4.<\/p>\n<p>The Gators tried to take control of the matchup in singles, but again, the Tigers put up too strong a fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Pawlak carried much momentum from last week after winning the decisive game for the victory against Oklahoma. However, the Gator suffered a tough 6-0, 6-2 loss, awarding LSU its first singles point.<\/p>\n<p>Houghton\u2019s match proved equally as difficult. The California native fell 6-2, 6-1 to No. 52 Cadence Brace, just days after the Gator had entered the ITA rankings in the No. 103 spot.<\/p>\n<p>Following suit with the rest of her team, No. 26 Gabia Paskauskas lost to LSU\u2019s Ella McDonald 6-2, 6-3, giving the Tigers their match-ending 4-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>With the rest of the matches retired, Black was the only Gator who seemed to have had a chance. She held the advantage over Kuhl, going 6-4, 4-2. The Gator freshman proved why she carries a five-game winning streak, but didn\u2019t have the opportunity to close it out with the swift LSU victory.<\/p>\n<p>\n Enjoy what you&#8217;re reading? Get content from The Alligator delivered to your inbox<\/p>\n<p>The loss to LSU marks the second SEC defeat for the Gators, taking their conference record to 2-2.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Florida will continue its road stretch against Ole Miss on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Oxford, Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>Contact Sofia Alamo at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.alligator.org\/article\/2026\/03\/mailto:salamo@alligator.org\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">salamo@alligator.org<\/a>. Follow her on X @alamosofiaa.<\/p>\n<p>\n            The Independent Florida Alligator has been independent of the university since 1971, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. Please consider giving today.\n        <\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9f1eb9cf-7206-439d-8f20-2ebd67be46e0.sized-1000x1000.jpg\" class=\"author-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sofia Alamo<\/p>\n<p>Sofia Alamo is a Sports Journalism freshman at UF and the university\u2019s Women\u2019s Tennis beat reporter. Her favorite sports are soccer and tennis, and she aspires to be a sports broadcaster in the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gators have posted a dominant showing in their spring season, most recently riding a three-match winning streak.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-180299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}