April 22, 2011

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The No. 36-ranked and ninth-seeded South Carolina women’s tennis team exited the SEC Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn., on Friday with a 4-0 loss to No. 2-ranked and top-seeded Florida. The Gamecocks fell to 13-10 overall, while Florida improved to 23-1.

“After yesterday’s battle for five hours, the girls still put forth 100 percent effort today,” associate head coach Katarina Petrovic said. “Florida is one of the top teams in the country and they played better than us today and they outworked us. I congratulate them.”

South Carolina lost the doubles point to the Gators to get the afternoon underway. At two, Lauren Embree and Sofie Oyen defeated Dijana Stojic and Adriana Pereira 8-0 for Florida’s first win.

On court one, the Gamecocks’ Dominika Kanakova and Anya Morgina battled Alex Cercone and Allie Will to an 8-6 decision in favor of Florida. Will and Cercone had two match points at 15-40 on Kanakova’s serve with a 7-5 lead, but the Gamecocks fought off both to get to deuce. Will and Cercone earned the advantage three straight times but could not finish with the break. Kanakova and Morgina took advantage and managed to pull out the game, however, Will held serve to close out the match.

The match at No. 3 doubles was suspended with Florida’s Joanna Mather and Olivia Janowicz leading Miljana Jocic and Katerina Popova 7-5. The Gamecock duo fought off a match point at 7-4 on Popova’s serve with the score 30-40 before getting to 7-5 and won the first point of the 11th game before play was stopped.

Embree added the second point for Florida with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Morgina at No. 1 singles, and Mather made it 3-0 with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Popova at the No. 3 spot. Janowicz then defeated Jocic 6-1, 6-4 on court six to give the Gators the victory.

At No. 2 singles, Stojic had a 4-3 lead in the second set against Will after losing the first set 6-4. Kanakova lost the first set to Oyen 6-2 but came back to win the second 6-2 and was trailing 2-0 in the third. Pereira lost the first set 6-0 to Cercone on court five and after trailing 5-2 in the second, she fought back to send the set to a tiebreaker. Cercone led 4-3 in the breaker when play was stopped.

The Gamecocks will await the announcement of the 2011 NCAA Tournament field on Tuesday, May 3, at 5 p.m. on NCAA.com to see if they will make their 17th straight appearance in the event.

Singles
1. #21 Lauren Embree, UF, def. #38 Anya Morgina, USC, 6-2, 6-1
2. #96 Dijana Stojic, USC, vs. #6 Allie Will, UF, 4-6, 4-3 susp.
3. #41 Joanna Mather, UF, def. #120 Katerina Popova, USC, 6-4, 6-2
4. Dominika Kanakova, USC, vs. #85 Sofie Oyen, UF, 2-6, 6-2, 0-2 susp.
5. Adriana Pereira, USC, vs. #51 Alex Cercone, UF, 0-6, 6-6 (3-4) susp.
6. #50 Olivia Janowicz, UF, def. Miljana Jocic, USC, 6-1, 6-4

Order of Finish: 1, 3, 6

Doubles
1. #8 Cercone/Will, UF, def. #49 Kanakova/Morgina, USC, 8-6
2. #56 Embree/Oyen, UF, def. Stojic/Pereira, USC, 8-0
3. Jocic/Popova, USC, vs. Janowicz/Mather, UF, 5-7 susp.

Order of Finish: 2, 1