April 16, 2011

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The No. 38 South Carolina women’s tennis team dropped a 7-0 decision in Gainesville, Fla., on Saturday to No. 1-ranked Florida to wrap up regular-season play in 2011. South Carolina moved to 12-9 and 4-7 in the SEC with the loss, while the Gators improved to 22-1 and finished the year 11-0 in the conference for the outright SEC regular-season title.

Florida won two of three doubles contests to earn a 1-0 lead heading to singles play. On court two, No. 43-ranked Lauren Embree and Sofie Oyen held a 2-1 lead after the second changeover and then won five straight games to up 7-1 on Dijana Stojic and Josefin Andersson. Stojic and Andersson claimed the next two games to cut the margin to four, but Embree and Oyen snagged the next game for an 8-3 triumph.

At one, No. 32 Anya Morgina and Dominika Kanakova trailed 6-4 versus No. 8 Alex Cercone and Allie Will after 10 games. Morgina and Kanakova had a 0-40 advantage in the game on Will’s serve and appeared poised to get the match back on serve. Will and Cercone, however, managed to win five straight rallies to up the margin to 7-4 on the changeover. They broke the Gamecocks in the next game to clinch doubles for the Gators.

After falling behind 3-0 at No. 3 doubles, Miljana Jocic and Katerina Popova mounted an impressive comeback against Joanna Mather and Olivia Janowicz. Jocic and Popova won five consecutive games before Mather and Janowicz got another game. The Gamecock tandem then won another three games in a row after a 5-4 lead to win 8-4.

The Gators proved to be too much in singles play. Oyen, ranked No. 104, made the score 2-0 after defeating No. 108 Popova 6-4, 6-0 on court three. Shortly afterward, No. 7 Will beat No. 29 Morgina 6-2, 6-1 at the top position to make the score 3-0 in favor of Florida. No. 37 Mather provided the clinching point on court four with a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Kanakova.

On court two, No. 20 Embree had a 6-0, 5-3 lead on No. 82 Stojic when the Gators had clinched the team victory. The two played out the next game and it gave Embree a 6-0, 6-3 win. The final two matches on court were recorded as defaults against South Carolina. No. 51 Cercone picked up the win over Jocic at five after winning the first set 6-4 and leading 3-2 in the second. At six, No. 49 Janowicz won the first set 7-6 (7-2) over Madeleine Saari-Byström but trailed 1-0 in the second set.

South Carolina will head to the SEC Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn., next week and face No. 37 Ole Miss in the first round on Thursday. A time for the match has not been announced.

Singles
1. #7 Allie Will, UF, def. #29 Anya Morgina, USC, 6-2, 6-1
2. #20 Lauren Embree, UF, def. #82 Dijana Stojic, USC, 6-0, 6-3
3. #104 Sofie Oyen, UF, def. #108 Katerina Popova, USC, 6-4, 6-0
4. #37 Joanna Mather, UF, def. Dominika Kanakova, USC, 6-2, 6-2
5. #51 Alex Cercone, UF, def. Miljana Jocic, USC, 4-6, 2-3 default
6. #49 Olivia Janowicz, UF, def. Madeleine Saari-Byström, USC, 6-7 (2-7), 1-0 default

Order of Finish: 3, 1, 4, 2, 5 and 6

Doubles
1. #8 Cercone/Will, UF, def. #32 Kanakova/Morgina, USC, 8-4
2. #43 Embree/Oyen, UF, def. Stojic/Josefin Andersson, USC, 8-3
3. Jocic/Popova, USC, def. Janowicz/Mather, UF, 8-4

Order of Finish: 2, 1, 3