After winning their respective Southeastern Conference Tournaments
last weekend, both the men's and women's tennis teams were showered
with postseason awards throughout the week.
The No. 2 women's team had six players honored by the SEC,
including sophomore standout Allie Will, who was named the SEC's
Women's Tennis Player of the Year.
Will propelled Florida to a 25-1 mark while compiling 20 wins in
singles play and an undefeated record in conference. She was also
honored as the SEC Tournament MVP on Monday after Florida's win
over Tennessee in the final.
Joining Will on the All-SEC First Team are fellow sophomore Lauren
Embree and freshman Sofie Oyen. Junior Joanna Mather and freshmen
Olivia Janowicz and Alex Cercone were named to the second
team.
The dominant freshman trio (Janowicz, Cercone and Oyen) made the
All-SEC Freshman Team too.
"Today is just one of those good days," coach Roland Thornqvist
said Monday.
"You just want to celebrate and feel good about what you do. We've
gone through a lot of hard work since late August, and we feel
really good about where we are right now."
Just days after turning its season around by surprisingly winning
the SEC Tournament, the No. 8 men's tennis team also received
several postseason accolades.
Senior star Alexandre Lacroix, who was named the MVP of the SEC
Tournament, made the All-SEC First Team along with sophomore Sekou
Bangoura Jr.
Junior Nassim Slilam was named to the second team while Andrew Butz
was recognized on the conference's All-Freshman Team.
"Emotionally, I feel extremely proud of the guys and happy for them
because they've worked very hard," coach Andy Jackson said. "That's
a level of success, just putting your heart into things and
investing in things...it's not like we weren't successful [in the
regular season] but we lost a lot of close matches, and we felt
like we could be achieving more."
According to Jackson, the Gators (18-8) finally "got over the hump"
during the tournament and look to continue their burst of momentum
into the NCAA tournament.
