No. 2 Florida Gators women’s tennis (18-1, 11-0 SEC) completed a perfect Southeastern Conference slate on Saturday to win the 2012 SEC regular season title outright after defeating the No. 27 South Carolina Gamecocks (14-7, 5-6 SEC) 4-1.
In a rare occurrence, Florida dropped the doubles point as both the No. 1-ranked team of junior Allie Will/sophomore Sofie Oyen and the duo of sophomore Olivia Janowicz/junior Caroline Hitimana both fell. Only the No. 16 team of junior Lauren Embree/senior Joanna Mather was victorious.
However, the Gators made up for it in singles action by winning the first four completed matches before the meeting was suspended. No. 1 Will, No. 10 Embree, No. 21 Mather and No. 73 sophomore Alex Cercone all won in straight sets to clinch the SEC regular season title for Florida.
The Gators will take their 13-match win streak into the 2012 SEC Tournament which begins on April 19 in Oxford, MS. No. 1-seed Florida receives a first-round bye as they hope to win the event for the third-straight season.