The last time Georgia defeated Florida in volleyball, George Bush was still in office. George H.W. Bush.

It had been 18 years and 45 straight matches since the Bulldogs had beaten the Gators, but that all changed Sunday at the Ramsey Center as Georgia defeated No. 8 Florida in five sets (25-22, 18-25, 23-25, 25-23, and 15-12).

As soon as the last point was scored, the Georgia team erupted into a celebration rivaling a national championship celebration.

“We’re just so excited for the program,” Coach Joel McCartney said. “[We're] trying to continue to do what we can to punch our ticket into the NCAA tournament and reach our goal. A significant win can’t be any bigger than beating Florida at this point.”

Georgia was led by senior Maria Taylor’s 13 kills and 16.5 total points, while sophomore’s Valentina Gonzalez and Lindsay Gehan joined Taylor in double-digits kills with 10 apiece. Freshman Kathleen Gates ran the offense with a total of 42 assists, and freshman Carla Tietz led the Bulldogs with 16 digs.

“It feels really good,” Taylor said. “I read the Red & Black on Friday and they were saying that we haven’t beaten Florida since 1990 and I didn’t know it was that much of a winning streak for them, but that just fueled me personally even more.”

The Bulldogs began the SEC season on a down note, losing their first four matches. But with the win, Georgia (14-9, 7-5 SEC) pushed its current winning streak to six and gave Florida (17-2, 11-1) its first loss in conference play this season.

“It’s just an amazing feeling,” Tietz said. “We struggled in the beginning of the season, and the whole time through we said that we have team chemistry . and I think it just proved that.”

As monumental as the victory over Florida was to the Georgia program, its win Friday night over South Carolina was just as important. In a tough battle, the Dogs defeated the Gamecocks in another five-set match.

“We’ve done pretty well with teams that we felt were really talented and incredibly strong teams that have a history of going to the tournament,” McCartney said. “But we feel good about our chances right now, we want to get off the bubble, and this one step toward doing that, but there are a couple steps left for sure.”

Georgia continues its tough SEC East slate next weekend when the team travels to Tennessee and Kentucky.