The idea of sharing the SEC regular season title with Tennessee must have not been too appealing to the second-ranked Georgia women’s tennis team.

So the Bulldogs took matters into their own rackets Saturday as they earned a hard fought 5-2 victory over No. 13 Tennessee in the SEC regular season finale in Knoxville.

The win gives Georgia its first outright SEC title since 2002 and also gives the Bulldogs the top seed in the 2009 SEC Tournament beginning Thursday in Fayetteville, Ark.

“It’s exciting. We’re really excited,” head coach Jeff Wallace said. “We’ve had some co-SEC championships since then, but it’s just a great day to be a Georgia Bulldog.”

Senior Monika Dancevic clinched the match for the Bulldogs (20-2, 10-1 SEC) after she outlasted Jennifer Meredith 7-6 (1), 7-6 (6) in two tiebreakers at 4-singles.

Playing in her last regular season dual match for Georgia, the lone senior on the squad, Dancevic, also helped Georgia come from behind to win the doubles point by a narrow margin.

“It’s nice when the senior clinches both the singles and doubles points,” Wallace said.

After the 17th-ranked duo of Bulldog freshmen Chelsey Gullickson and Nadja Gilchrist topped No. 18 Caitlin Whoriskey and Natalie Pluskota 8-5 and Tennessee’s 3-doubles team of Meredith and Maria Sorbello knocked off Cameron Ellis and Naoko Ueshima 9-7, all the pressure was on Georgia’s 2-doubles team of Dancevic and junior Yvette Hyndman.

Trailing 7-4, Dancevic and Hyndman rallied to beat the previously undefeated Lady Volunteers’ duo of Rosalia Alda and Zsofia Zubor 9-8 (5) to clinch the doubles point and give Georgia an early 1-0 lead.

Said Wallace: “Monika and Yvette just stormed back . It was a very tough doubles point, and it was great tennis all day.”

The Bulldogs carried the momentum from doubles into singles as the 10th-ranked Gullickson made quick work of No. 48 Whoriskey, Tennessee’s only ranked singles player, 6-3, 6-2 for her 20th win over a ranked opponent.