Gator Country

The University of Florida’s Lauren Embree (Marco Island, Fla.) and Sofie Oyen (Leopoldsburg, Belgium) were named the Southeastern Conference Women’s Tennis Player and Freshman of the Week, respectively, the league announced Wednesday.

Embree was a combined 3-0 on the singles and doubles courts last week, helping Florida capture the SEC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in the SEC Tournament, while extending her personal winning streaks on both courts.

Her victory against Georgia’s No. 25 Chelsey Gullickson was her 17th consecutive singles win, as she improved to 17-0 overall this season with all coming in dual match action.

In doubles Embree paired with Oyen for the very first time and they captured both matches against nationally-ranked opponents, providing the first individual result of both dual matches, including the important 8-4 decision against Georgia’s No. 2 team, as the other two matches would go on to split and helped Florida win the doubles point.

Embree missed the entire fall singles season due to two surgeries, but this week played the No. 1 singles position for the second consecutive.

Embree improved to 17-0 in singles matches this year, all in dual match action, while her season doubles record stands at 21-4, with a team-best 20-0 dual match record. Embree, who is only a sophomore, is 49-6 in her singles career, which includes a 37-3 dual match record and a 17-0 mark against SEC opponents.

Oyen was the only Gator who posted a combined singles and doubles record of 4-0 last week, when she helped Florida knock off the only other two remaining undefeated teams in league play.

Oyen provided the clinching dual match victory in the hard-fought win against Tennessee, as the Gators clinched at least a share of the SEC regular-season title.

Oyen’s win against Tennessee’s Kata Szekely was her ninth consecutive singles victory, as she improved to 21-8 overall in singles, as well as 8-0 versus SEC foes.

Florida, which returned to the top spot in this week’s ITA National Team Rankings, plays host to South Carolina (12-8, 4-6) on Sat., April 16 beginning at 11 a.m. in the regular-season finale for both teams.

A Gator (21-1, 10-0 SEC) victory against the Gamecocks would secure the SEC regular-season title outright for the squad. 

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