Florida came into the match seeking its 16th SEC Tournament title and sixth in a row, but Georgia abruptly ended that streak and captured its fourth conference tournament title and first since 2001. The Bulldogs also won the regular season crown.
“We’ve been close in many of those years that Florida won it,” Georgia head coach Jeff Wallace said. “It’s nice to win the regular season and then come to the tournament and win it too. I’m so proud of these guys and it’s a great day to be a Bulldog.”
Georgia’s record improves to 21-1 with the victory while Florida falls to 21-2, both losses this season coming to the Bulldogs. Georgia also defeated then-No. 1 Florida, 4-3, in the regular season in Athens.
“This team just knows how to keep fighting,” Wallace said. “That’s been our backbone all year. We’ve been down in so many matches and still have been able to come back and win, so it was kind of like business as usual.”
Georgia senior Natalie Frazier, who won her doubles match and dominated Diana Srebrovic at No. 1 singles, 6-4, 6-2, earned SEC Tournament MVP honors for her performance.
“It feels great to win this award,” Frazier commented. “I work really hard all the time, and it’s exciting to see all the work is paying off.”
The Bulldogs broke several Gators streaks with the win, including their 10 straight matches, 17 consecutive SEC Tournament matches and five straight tournament titles. This marked the third time Georgia beat Florida in the finals as well, also doing so in 1983 (Athens, Ga.) and 1994 (Fayetteville, Ark.). Georgia's 2001 title came over Tennessee (Starkville, Miss.)
Just as in the regular-season contest between the teams, the doubles point proved to be a thriller. Florida capitalized on a few early breaks for an 8-3 win at No. 2 while Georgia held on for an 8-5 victory at court three.
The outcome did not look promising early for Georgia, as No. 13 Yvette Hyndman and Darya Ivanov had gone down 5-1 at No. 1 to 17th-ranked Srebrovic and Csilla Borsanyi. But the Bulldogs duo clawed back with two key breaks and three held serves to go ahead 6-5. Florida held next to tie it up at 6-all and Georgia did the same for the 7-6 advantage. Hyndman and Ivanov then came up with another huge break to take the rubber match, 8-6, and seize control of the early lead.
“I thought the doubles point really gave us the momentum heading into the singles,” Wallace said. “It wasn’t looking so good on court one, where we were down 5-1. I really have to give credit to the players and my assistant coach Frank Polito for fighting to get back in it. They just played hard. All of a sudden it’s 5-all and then we take the lead.”
Georgia remained poised in singles, taking four of six first sets. Both Monika Dancevic and Kelley Hyndman battled for 7-5 decisions in their opening sets while Frazier and Darya Ivanov used 6-4 victories in theirs.
Florida’s Whitney Benik won over Naoko Ueshima on court six to tie the score at 1-all followed by Frazier’s win on court one to put the Bulldogs back ahead, 2-1. But Florida clawed its way back to a 2-all tie with Megan Alexander’s victory over Yvette Hyndman at No. 3.
The remaining three matches remained tight until the end. But Georgia upperclassmen Kelley Hyndman and Darya Ivanov won matches on courts four and five, respectively, within minutes of each other to clinch the championship for the Bulldogs.
Georgia’s road to the title included a first-round bye, a pair of 4-1 victories in the quarterfinals over Auburn and semifinals over Tennessee and the 4-2 decision over Florida in the final match.
Georgia returns to Athens and will await its NCAA Tournament seeding. The Bulldogs will host NCAA First and Second Rounds and then the NCAA Championships.
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