Women's Tennis . April 13, 2021

Gamecocks End Regular Season With 4-2 Loss to No. 13 Florida

South Carolina Celebrates Four Players for Senior Day

COLUMBIA, S.C. — The No. 24 South Carolina women’s tennis team suffered a 4-2 loss to No. 13 Florida on Tuesday at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C.

The loss snapped the Gamecocks’ six-match unbeaten streak, dropping them to 10-10 and 7-6 in the SEC to end the regular season. The Gators improved to 12-6 and 10-3 in league play.

Prior to the match, South Carolina honored four players for Senior Day including Silvia Chinellato, Megan Davies, Mia Horvit and Kennedy Wicker.

Doubles Recap

The Gamecocks’ masterful doubles play this season continued against the Gators with South Carolina taking courts one and three. Finishing first at three, Allie Gretkowski and Ana Cruz actually trailed Sydney Berlin and Sara Dahlstrom 2-0 early, but the Gamecock duo showed why it is undefeated this season on court three. They stormed back to win six of the next seven games with Gretkowski serving the match out to give the pair an 11-0 record at No. 3 doubles.

At one, South Carolina’s 16th-ranked Megan Davies and Mia Horvit led from the outset of their match with No. 2-ranked McCartney Kessler and Marlee Zein. In the blink of an eye, they had a 3-0 advantage that was later pushed to 5-1. After the Gators grabbed a couple games, Davies and Horvit managed to break Zein’s serve to snag the upset victory and put the Gamecocks ahead 1-0 heading to singles play.

South Carolina had the lead on court two as well when play was suspended. Silvia Chinellato and Emma Shelton had a 5-3 upper hand over Ida Jarlskog and Layne Sleeth and were two points away from winning the match.

Singles Recap

The Gators came back with a strong showing on all six singles courts, winning the first sets on courts 1-5. Elise Mills was the lone first-set winner for the Gamecocks on court six against Amber McGinnis.

South Carolina caught an unfortunate break at No. 5 singles that allowed Florida to tie up the match 1-all. Ana Cruz lost the first set to Sydney Berlin 6-2 but had a 2-1 lead in the second and was ahead 40-30 in the fourth game with a couple break point opportunities. She suffered an injury to her right leg on a return of serve that forced her to retire from the match.

Mills, a late addition to the lineup, responded for South Carolina by finishing off McGinnis at the six spot by a 6-2, 6-4 final to give the Gamecocks a 2-1 lead. It was Mills’ first action since playing the six spot against Tennessee on March 5.

Less than 10 minutes later, the Gators knotted the contest up again thanks to Layne Sleeth getting a 6-3, 6-2 victory from Silvia Chinellato at No. 4 singles. Florida had control of courts one and two at that moment as well, and No. 7 McCartney Kessler put UF ahead for good with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No. 39 Mia Horvit on court one to make it 3-2. Within seconds of Kessler’s triumph, Ida Jarlskog finished off No. 46 Megan Davies 6-4, 6-4 to give the Gators the win.

Court three was the only match not to finish, and it featured some high level tennis. Florida’s No. 36 Marlee Zein got the first set from No. 108 Emma Shelton 6-3 and took a 3-1 lead in the second, but Shelton bounced back and the set eventually went to a tiebreak. In the breaker, Zein had a 6-3 lead for multiple chances to win the match, but Shelton refused to leave the court and got it back to 6-all. After changing sides, Zein got another match point up 7-6, but Shelton once again rallied and ended up taking the set 9-7 in the tiebreak. The match was tied 1-all in the third set when play was suspended.

Notes

South Carolina had its six-match unbeaten streak snapped.
Mia Horvit is now tied for seventh in school history for career victories with 173. Brigit Folland (2013-17) and Natasa Vuckovic (2005-09) also have 173. In sixth place is Jennifer Radman (1998-02) with 175.
The Gamecocks won the doubles point for the 14th time in 20 matches this season and have won it 11 times in their past 14 contests.
Allie Gretkowski and Ana Cruz are still undefeated at No. 3 doubles this season with an 11-0 record, and they finished the regular season with a 9-1 mark in SEC matches.
Elise Mills won her match at No. 6 singles, making her first appearance since the March 5 match at Tennessee.
South Carolina is still searching for its first win over Florida in Columbia, falling to 0-19 all-time against the Gators at home. The Gamecocks had won the past two matchups with Florida in 2019, the first coming in Gainesville and the second in College Station at the SEC Tournament.
Mia Horvit and Megan Davies knocked off the nation’s No. 2-ranked doubles team, the best ranked win for the Gamecocks in either singles or doubles this season.