April 21, 2002
SEC Women’s Tennis Championship
Hosted by University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC)
Florida Coach Roland Thornqvist
“It’s been awesome. This whole week has been sweet, just sweet. We knew we had to come out and play really well today. We suffered some setbacks in doubles on Friday and Saturday and we knew we needed to win the doubles point today.
“Today I felt we played a complete match, from our doubles down through our number six singles. Once we lost to Georgia in the regular season, we immediately set our sights on this – the SEC Championships.”
Florida Player Julia Scaringe
“Winning the SEC Championships is just amazing. We have been dreaming of this since we lost to Georgia in the regular season.
“Today we knew we wanted to get on top from the very beginning and win the doubles point and we accomplished that.”
Florida Player Jessica Lehnhoff
On being Tournament MVP: “It feels good to be MVP, but more importantly, it feels better to have the team win. MVP is a nice honor, but it really doesn’t matter if the team loses. The most important thing is that the team gets the win.
“We had a long talk last night about our doubles play this weekend. We had not won a doubles point until today. We knew that with the heat we wanted to get on top and win the doubles point. Then we would not have to really rely on our singles. “
South Carolina Coach Arlo Elkins
“[Florida] was just too tough for us today. They started in the doubles and they dictated play the whole match. I don’t think we played as well as we could have, but I don’t think that Florida allowed us to play as well as we could have.”
“This has been a great week. We’ve beaten the number one team in the country and the number eleven team in the country, so I told the girls they have nothing to hang their heads about. We’ve accomplished a lot and look forward to the regional.”
South Carolina Player Lynn-Yin Tan “We’re slightly disappointed, but we were strong. We had some opportunities, but Florida didn’t give us many. With Florida, if you don’t take advantage of the opportunities, they’ll take you.”
“Overall it was a great weekend. It could have been a wonderful, fairy-tale ending, but we beat Tennessee and nobody thought we could beat them, we beat Georgia and nobody thought we could beat them. So it was a fun weekend.”
