Florida Women’s Tennis Advances To SEC Tournament Semifinal

The No. 14 Florida Gators beat the No. 19 South Carolina Gamecocks 4-3 for their 11th straight win Friday to move on to the SEC Women’s Tennis Tournament semifinal in Athens, Ga.

The Gators (16-7) dominated the doubles point. In singles, the Gamecocks (17-7) pushed back and fought until the last match, but it wouldn’t be enough for the win.

Doubles

Rachel Gailis-Bente Spee got off to a quick start. They won Court 3 6-1 beating Olympe Lancelot-Misa Malkin. It wasn’t long after that Florida’s Carly Briggs-Qavia Lopez finished their match on Court 2 by beating Shahar Biran-Elise Mills 6-2.

Court 1 went unfinished with South Carolina’s No. 22 Sarah Hamner-Ayana Akli up 5-2 on Alicia Dudeney-Malwina Rowinska.

Starting off strong!

Florida takes the doubles point and now leads 1-0 against South Carolina. #GoGators pic.twitter.com/QfElVERPei

— Gators Women's Tennis (@GatorsWTN) April 19, 2024

Singles

With Florida up one, the Gators were looking for three singles wins to take the match. Briggs was the first to deliver.

On Court 3, Briggs and Biran had a challenging first set. Biran had a 5-4 lead toward the end, but Briggs battled back winning 7-5. Unlike the first set, Briggs put on a show during set two, 6-0 to give Florida a 2-0 lead.

https://twitter.com/GatorsWTN/status/1781343703912591839

The Gamecocks struck back on Court 4. Mills defeated Dudeney 6-4, 6-4. No. 9 Ayana followed on Court 2 by beating Sara Dahlstrom 7-5, 7-5.

With the match now tied 2-2, both teams were looking for two wins with only three matches left.

https://twitter.com/GamecockWTennis/status/1781350632089358688

The next win was for Florida on Court 1. Gailis took down Hamner. After winning set one 6-4, then losing the second set 4-6, Gailis finished strong in the third set 6-1.

South Carolina’s next point was an exhausting one on Court 6. In set one, Malkin and Spee went to a tiebreaker. Malkin went on to win 7(12)-6(10). She finished the job in set two, 6-4.

https://twitter.com/GamecockWTennis/status/1781353615900471303

It was tied 3-3 with the final match on Court 5 tied with it. Lopez won the first set 6-3, then Lancelot won set two 6-4. Lopez took over and won the final set 6-3 to allow the Gators to advance to the next round.

https://twitter.com/GatorsWTN/status/1781358141440991252

Up Next

The Gators will face the winner of Friday’s other quarterfinal between Texas A&M (20-6) and Vanderbilt (12-9) in the tourney semifinal starting at 11 a.m. Saturday.