After clinching the Southeastern Conference regular season title on Sunday, the top-seeded Florida women’s tennis team looks to rack up more hardware at the SEC Tournament in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Gators begin action today against No. 9 seed Ole Miss at 9 a.m.
Heading into postseason play, coach Roland Thornqvist said he hopes the team will continue to win close matches, something the team has had to face the whole year.
He is confident his team will move past the negative and adjust during pressured situations.
The Gators finished the regular season on a positive note with a 4-0 sweep over Tennessee on Sunday at the Ring Tennis Complex.
The Gators have won 28 of the last 35 possible regular-season SEC titles, 10 of which have come under Thornqvist.
Florida finished the 2014-2015 regular season with a 12-1 record in SEC play—the only defeat coming against Vanderbilt at the beginning of April.
Thornqvist was very pleased with doubles play during the home weekend finale.
He thought this young squad had a great start in singles play against both the Georgia Bulldogs and Tennessee Volunteers.
"I think we’ve been very close all year to have had a fantastic doubles team, in general," Thornqvist said. "But after Vandy it sort of illuminated a few things, I think. And I think it motivated our players too, to buy into these new teams immediately,"
Thornqvist said he thinks changing the doubles pairings late in the year has forced communication among the team — a catalyst for better play towards the end of the regular season.
He added that under pressure, teammates have been forced to communicate with one another and make a few adjustments.
"Winning an SEC title, with this team as young as we are, is such a great feeling," Thornqvist said. "This year the SEC on the women’s side is really deep. There’s so many good teams. Our four new players to come in and perform consistently like they did over the course of the year is really special.
"And winning trophies is something Florida teams in general tend to spoil everyone with. I’m happy to see this team could come through as well."
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Coach Roland Thornqvist said his team will try to learn from its mistakes after Florida fell to Vanderbilt in Sunday's SEC Tournament championship game. “We can start from zero in our preparations," he said.
