Before the Georgia women’s tennis team can think about realizing its desired goal of a national championship, it had to take care of business in their conference first.

And on Sunday, they did just that.

Georgia defeated visiting Kentucky 5-2 on Senior Day to assure at least a share of the SEC regular season title in its final home match of the conference schedule.

“One of our big goals [was] to be SEC regular season champions, and it’s fantastic to reach that goal. I’m really proud of this team, and it was a well-deserved honor for them,” head coach Jeff Wallace said. “I take my hat off to each and every one of these players who lived our mission statement and remained focused through this regular season and now are SEC champions.”

In their quest for their eighth SEC regular season title in school history, the Bulldogs (19-2, 9-1 SEC) had little struggles from the outset of their match against the Wildcats (12-8, 3-7 SEC) as they improved to 11-0 at home during the dual match season.

The Bulldogs were led by their lone senior and team captain, Monika Dancevic, who clinched the victory with a 6-2, 6-2 throttling of Kentucky’s Lauren Meier at 4-singles.

“It’s always a special day. I got a little bit emotional, but I know that it just kind of fired me up to win even more because my parents are here,” Dancevic said in reference to her Senior Day experience. “I think I was just excited to play today. And, I’m glad that I clinched it – that’s always nice.”

Dancevic quickly got the Bulldogs on the scoreboard after she teamed with junior Yvette Hyndman to clinch the doubles point to stay a perfect 6-0 against SEC doubles teams. Georgia’s experienced 2-doubles team proved to be too strong for the Wildcat duo of Megan Broderick and Christine Johnston, winning 8-4 to give Georgia a 1-0 lead.

“This team’s really done a great job this year with the doubles,” Wallace said. “One of our focuses and one of our big goals was to step up our doubles, and we certainly accomplished that with one match left in the regular season.”

Georgia started off strong in singles as it won the first set in five of six matches. Kentucky’s 1-singles player, Carolina Escamilla, proved to be no match for No. 9 Chelsey Gullickson, who dominated the Wildcat 6-0, 6-0, to earn her 30th win of the season. Moments later, Cameron Ellis finished off Minnette Pienaar 6-1, 6-3, extending her winning streak to nine matches and giving Georgia a 3-0 advantage.

The No. 81-ranked Dancevic clinched her second match of the season as her parents trekked from Thorold, Ontario, Canada to see their oldest daughter play her final SEC match at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex on Senior Day.

But, Dancevic is hoping this match won’t be her last in Athens.

“Hopefully, it’s not going to be my last match here cause hopefully, we’ll [host] the regionals for NCAAs,” Dancevic said.