In its quest for their third consecutive SEC Tournament title, the Georgia women’s tennis team ordered T-shirts with the slogan “On Fee for Three.” “Fee” is intended to be slang for the word fire.

After knocking off Alabama 6-1 in Tuscaloosa just three weeks ago, the Bulldogs started off red-hot Friday morning as they advanced past the Crimson Tide in the quarterfinal round of the 2009 SEC Tournament.

The third-ranked and top-seeded Georgia women’s tennis team, who is looking for their sixth SEC Tournament title in program history, trounced eighth-seeded Alabama 4-1 in Fayetteville, Ark.

Clinching the match for Georgia was junior Naoko Ueshima, who notched her team-leading seventh match-clinching victory. Ueshima fought past Crimson Tide freshman Taylor Lindsey for a 6-3, 6-4 win at 5-singles.

“It was a great match. I don’t mind the fact we got tested a little bit,” head coach Jeff Wallace said. “I think that’s good because that’s what SEC tennis is all about. You’re going to have great matches every time you go out there and we know that. I thought our players responded well.”

Georgia quickly secured the doubles point to take a 1-0 lead. The 2-doubles duo of junior Yvette Hyndman and senior Monika Dancevic dispatched Paulina Bigos and Shelley Godwin 8-1. Ueshima and her partner sophomore Cameron Ellis clinched the doubles point for the Bulldogs with a similar 8-1 margin over Tiffany Welcher and Alice Tunaru. Georgia moves to a resounding 18-0 when they have won the doubles point.

The Bulldogs used the momentum earned from doubles to carry them through the singles portion of the match. Georgia won the first set in five of their six singles matches. Dancevic took little time to topple Meritt Emery. The Georgia captain gave Georgia a 2-0 lead after she recorded a 6-1, 6-0 at 4-singles.

12th-ranked Chelsey Gullickson showed little mercy for Alabama’s only ranked player, No. 79 Tiffany Welcher. The freshman, Gullickson, posted her team-best 32nd win of the year in a 6-0, 6-0 throttling of the Crimson Tide sophomore as she put Georgia up 3-0.

The match looked to be nearing its conclusion as Ellis had already won the first set 6-2 and lead 4-1 in the second. However, Alabama would fight back facing the brink of elimination. Courtney McLane defeated Hyndman, 6-2, 7-5, for the Crimson Tide’s lone point of the afternoon, and Godwin stormed back to win five straight to win the second stanza.

But, the ever-consistent Ueshima continued her strong play as she improved to 18-1 on the dual match season.

Looking ahead to Saturday’s semifinal round, the Bulldogs (21-2) will square off against the fourth-seeded Florida Gators in the semifinals. Georgia’s lone loss in conference play came at the hands of the Gators, who slid past the Bulldogs 4-3 in Gainesville back in March. Wallace is looking forward to exacting revenge on their rivals.

“It’s always nice to get the opportunity to play against the team you’ve lost to. That would be our goal — to get that revenge.”

Georgia’s quest for its third straight title resumes tomorrow at 11 am EST.