The No. 5 South Carolina women's tennis team had a lot on the line going into Saturday morning's match against No. 12 Florida. The Gamecocks did everything they could but a six-hour rain delay killed all momentum, and they dropped their first SEC and home match of the season.
The 8 a.m. start kicked off with singles play as they tried to avoid heavy rain showers, and if a team was able to get four points, they would not have to play doubles.
Megan Davies got off to a fast start for South Carolina, winning her match in straight sets, 6-3, 6-2, for her fifth straight victory in singles.
Rachel Rohrabacher was next off the court, but not in the best way. She fell behind early in the first set, 3-6, but was able to fight back to even things out with a 6-2 win. Ultimately, her opponent Katie Kubicz found all of the momentum in the final set, taking it 6-0.
Ingrid Gamarra Martins was on the court No. 1 and looked strong in the first set, getting off to a 6-3 win. But she faced a tough opponent in No. 18 Anna Danilina who was able to battle back and win the next two sets 6-1, 6-1.
With her team down 2-1 in the game, Paige Cline helped get the Gamecocks back on track and even out the score. Cline put up a fight in the first set, forcing a tiebreaker and won it 7-6 (7-3). That gave her the strength to push back her opponent to win the next one 6-3, giving Cline her sixth straight win in singles.
That was all the Gamecocks and Gators could get in before the rain hit, leaving the game tied at 2-2 with two singles matches left. Mia Horvit and Hadley Berg were left for South Carolina, both of their matches tied at 1-1.
When play finally resumed, the Gators had all of the momentum to win both of the final sets and win the match 4-2. Because a team was able to score four points and the teams played singles first, they did not play doubles. Florida served South Carolina its first loss at Carolina Tennis Center and first loss in SEC play so far this season.
This was a matchup between the top-two teams in the SEC, and Gamecocks head coach Kevin Epley credited Florida for continuing to persist.
"Florida was very tough today. I think they came ready to play and handled the adversity better than we did today," Epley said. "We have stepped up all year long, and I expect that we will use this as a learning experience and be ready to go this weekend to close out the season."
South Carolina (18-4, 10-1 SEC) has two regular season games left, both at home. First the Gamecocks take on No. 2 Vanderbilt on Thursday, then finish the season by hosting No. 28 Kentucky on Saturday.