The UF women's tennis team clinched the regular-season Southeastern Conference title outright Saturday with a 7-0 drubbing of South Carolina at Linder Stadium.
The win over the Gamecocks (12-9, 4-7 SEC) gave Florida (22-1, 11-0 SEC) its second straight SEC trophy and capped its second consecutive undefeated conference record.
Although UF coach Roland Thornqvist has hesitated to acknowledge the numerous impressive streaks Florida put together this year, he did draw attention to one on Saturday.
"Going 11-0 in the SEC, that's something that we have to be proud of," Thornqvist said. "You really can't take winning for granted."
The Gators have won the SEC regular-season championship 25 times, and this is the 19th year the team has posted an undefeated conference record.
Florida didn't see the same success it did last weekend on the doubles courts, but it still managed to come away with the point.
The Court 3 duo of Joanna Mather and Olivia Janowicz, which caught Thornqvist's attention with strong performances against Georgia and Tennessee, lost to South Carolina's Miljana Jocic and Katerina Popova.
"We got outplayed at [Court 3] doubles, which makes it a little easier to take," Thornqvist said. "We're still on track at [Court 3] doubles, but that's why we play two out of three. You've got to beat us at two spots on any given day."
Florida's No. 8 team of Allie Will and Alex Cercone clinched the doubles point with a solid performance against the No. 32 pairing of Anya Morgina and Dominika Kanakova.
In singles play, Will, Mather, Lauren Embree and Sofie Oyen all earned quick, straight-set victories before the team chose to halt play with the match decided.
Unlike last weekend, when Florida's three freshmen stepped up to clinch the match against Georgia, it was experienced leaders Will, Embree and Mather who were most impressive Saturday.
"That speaks to the depth and the talent on the team. We've hung our hat on those three for two years now, and that will never change," Thornqvist said. "But sometimes, like last weekend, it's good that our younger players step up and get the spotlight, too. Our returners are the best in the business. I wouldn't trade all three of those for anyone in the country."
Will, a sophomore, has been the emotional leader for the Gators most of the season. She said the team finally got to let out some excitement after a long season keeping a focused and tempered mentality.
"It was great to do this at home and get that experience in the locker room that we were supposed to have last weekend, but we didn't because we weren't 100 percent sure that we had it just to ourselves," Will said.
The Gators had already earned a bye in the first round of the next week's SEC Tournament in Knoxville, Tenn.
MEN'S TEAM DOMINATES GAMECOCKS: The UF men's tennis team closed out its regular season with a 4-0 shutout at South Carolina on Saturday.
The Gators (14-8, 7-4 SEC) overmatched the Gamecocks, quickly disposing of South Carolina in singles and giving themselves some extra rest before the SEC Tournament.
No. 16 Florida took out some of its frustration from last weekend's unsuccessful road trip, when it lost two big matches at Georgia and Tennessee.
"We've taken a lot of difficult losses this season, so it was a good recovery for us on the road to win pretty easily and get back to winning ways," UF coach Andy Jackson said.
While UF hasn't had the success it envisioned heading into the spring, Jackson said he is still hopeful for the postseason.
"We've lost six times in matches that were decided by a very, very slim margins," he said. "We didn't want to be 14-8, but we feel like we are making improvements."
As the Gators go into the SEC Tournament, they will not have the luxury of a bye because Mississippi State beat Ole Miss on Saturday, clinching the last available spot.
"We're one of the teams that we feel like we can win the tournament," Jackson said. "We have to play four matches to do that, so our first goal is to win one match."
