Florida Gators
South Carolina (SEC Final)
Women's Tennis Claims 11th SEC Tournament Title
Sunday, April 21, 2002 | Women's Tennis
The second-seed Florida women's tennis team (19-1) used dominating performances in singles and doubles to win the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship with Sunday's 4-0 victory over fourth-seeded South Carolina (16-7) at the Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center.
The championship was the Gator's 11th SEC Tournament title in the 15-year history of the event. The championship also was UF's first since 2000, and its first under new head coach Roland Thornqvist.
"This feels awesome. This weekend was really sweet," UF head coach Roland Thornqvist said. "We knew that we had to play really well today. We had some doubles set-backs in the quarterfinals and the semifinals and we did not play well at all, so we spent a lot of time Saturday night and this morning going over our strategy for today. I'm glad that we won today, but more importantly, I was happy to see that we executed those things we talked about. We played a complete match today. I thought we played our best match of the season, from one through six singles and in doubles."
For the first time in this tournament, Florida opened the dual match winning the doubles point. Both the No. 1 and No. 2 positions for the Gators avenged the regular season losses they incurred to give Florida a 1-0 lead entering singles play. Florida then posted straight set victories at the Nos. 1, 4 and 6 positions to clinch the crown.
South Carolina, which was making its first-ever appearance in the championship match, stunned top-seeded and No. 1-ranked Georgia in the semifinals. Not since Florida won in 1998 has the No. 1 seed and regular season champion won the SEC Tournament title.
"I knew we really wanted (this title)," Thornqvist said. "After we lost to Georgia in the regular season, I could sense that the team really set its sights on this tournament. My job was almost to keep them relaxed so they didn't get too hyped-up and overdo it here."
"Winning this tournament feels amazing," UF junior Julia Scaringe said. "We've been dreaming about this championship since we lost to Georgia a few weeks ago and this is a perfect end to the regular season heading into the NCAAs. We wanted to come out and get on top of them right away. We were all able to do that, starting with doubles, and you could see that they got down on themselves. We lost the doubles point last time we played South Carolina, so this was a huge momentum swing for us."
"This feels so good. I'm so proud to be a part of this team," UF's lone senior Jessica Lehnhoff said. "Everyone came out very focused today and we were tough to beat."
Lehnhoff, who was named the SEC Tournament MVP after posting three impressive wins during the event, gave Florida a 2-0 lead with her 6-2, 6-1 victory against Katarina Markovski at the No. 1 position. In the regular season match-up with Markovski, Lehnhoff needed three sets to pull out the win, but in Sunday's final, Lehnhoff jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead behind a pair of breaks. Markovski broke back, but Lehnhoff answered with her third break and then held to take a 5-1 lead. After Markovski held, Lehnhoff served out the first set losing just one point. The Gator senior again jumped on Markovski's serve to open the second set, but Markovski responded to get the set back on serve. Lehnhoff continued to play smart tennis and broke back before holding to take a 3-1 lead. She then broke Markovski at love in the fifth game, taking that momentum to win the final two games to secure the victory.
Scaringe logged her third victory in the SEC Tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Tamara Sutton at the No. 6 spot. The match began with consecutive service breaks and both players held until Sutton took a 3-2 lead with another break. But the advantage was short-lived, as Scaringe answered with a break of her own, held and then broke Sutton in the eighth game before serving out the first set. The second set was similar to the first, with three straight breaks, Scaringe recording two of those. The Gator junior turned her game up a notch and didn't lose another game in the match, as she lifted Florida to a 3-0 lead.
Then freshman Alexis Gordon provided the clinching championship point, defeating Lynn-Yin Tan 6-2, 6-2 at the No. 4 position. Gordon's match began with four consecutive breaks of serve until the powerful Gator rookie held in the fifth game and blazed her way through the remainder of the set. Both players held their serve until Gordon broke through in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. The two then held their own, before Gordon answered with the final break which gave her the win and the Gators the SEC Tournament title.
The remaining three singles matches were abandoned after Florida secured the championship. Lindsay Dawaf was leading her No. 2 singles match against Jennifer Radman 6-2, 2-3 on serve, while Zerene Reyes led Kathy Boyanovich 6-1, 1-0 ahead one break at the No. 3 position. Annika Bengtsson and Jodi Kenoyer were in the middle of a first-set tiebreaker when the match was halted.
Florida's No. 1 doubles duo of Lindsay Dawaf and Jessica Lehnhoff opened their match against Kathy Boyanovich and Jennifer Radman with a service break and then held Dawaf's serve at love to take a quick 2-0 lead in the eight-game pro-set. The Gator pair then broke Radman, losing just one point, to extend their early lead. But the next three games of the match were all breaks, as USC closed the gap to 4-2, down just one break. Radman and Lehnhoff then each held, before Florida took Boyanovich's serve, held and then lost just one point on Radman's serve to win the match 8-3.
The No. 2 spot was much closer, featuring just one service break through the first eight games. Florida's Alexis Gordon and Julia Scaringe were the beneficiaries of that lone early break to take a 5-3 lead over Jodi Kenoyer and Lynn-Yin Tan. The USC duo had a pair of breakpoints against Gordon's serve in the next game, but the Gator tandem fought off both and won the game. They took that momentum into the final two games of the match, losing just two points en route to the 8-3 victory to give Florida a 1-0 lead in the dual match.
Highlights from today's championship match and a recap of the entire four-day SEC Tournament will be broadcast on SEC-TV, with Sunshine Network, FOX Sports Net South and FOX Sports Net Southwest airing the show on May 2nd beginning at 6:30 p.m. ET.
Florida now begins preparation for the NCAA Championship, which begins with first round action on either May 11 or 12. On May 2nd at 7 p.m., the NCAA Selection Committee will announce the 64 teams that will compete for the national championship, in addition to the 16 schools that have been awarded subregional sites to play host to the NCAA first and second rounds. The winners from each of those 16 subregionals advance to Palo Alto, Calif., for the remainder of the NCAA Championships, which begins on May 16th.
SEC Women's Tennis Tournament
Columbia, SC, Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center
Sunday, April 21, 2002
SEC Tournament Final
Florida 4, South Carolina 0
Individual Results
Doubles
1-Lindsay Dawaf/Jessica Lehnhoff (5), UF d. Kathy Boyanovich/Jennifer Radman (26), SC 8-3
2-Alexis Gordon/Julia Scaringe, UF d. Jodi Kenoyer/Lynn-Yin Tan (41), SC 8-3*
3-Annika Bengtsson/Zerene Reyes, UF vs. Katarina Markovski/Ayako Suzuki, SC DNF
Singles
1-Jessica Lehnhoff (1), UF d. Katarina Markovski (69), SC 6-2, 6-1
2- Lindsay Dawaf (16), UF vs. Jennifer Radman (66), SC DNF
3-Zerene Reyes (52), UF vs. Kathy Boyanovich, SC DNF
4-Alexis Gordon (85), UF d. Lynn-Yin Tan, SC 6-2, 6-2*
5-Annika Bengtsson, UF vs. Jodi Kenoyer, SC DNF
6-Julia Scaringe, UF d. Tamara Sutton, SC 6-3, 6-1
*clinching match/doubles point
END OF REPORT
