The No. 19/24 Florida Softball team (19-10, 1-2 SEC) lost its first Southeastern Conference series of the year as it fell 3-1 to No. 1/1 Tennessee in the final game of the series Sunday afternoon at the Florida Softball Stadium.

Tennessee tallied three runs on seven hits with no errors. Florida scored one run on three hits and had no errors.

Tennessee scored its runs in the top of the fourth. Tiffany Huff led off with a base hit to left. Sophomore Stacey Nelson (Los Alamitos, Calif.) came in to relieve senior Stacey Stevens (Gainesville, Fla.) in the pitching circle for Florida. Lillian Hammond came in to pinch run at first for the Lady Vols. She moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Tonya Callahan. Following the second out of the inning, Alexia Clay was hit by a Nelson pitch. Hammond scored from second on a base hit to left by Jennifer Griffin. Clay advanced to second and Griffin moved to third on the throw. Liane Horiuchi walked to load the bases. A two-RBI base hit up the middle by Erinn Webb gave Tennessee the 3-0 lead.

Florida worked a run home in the bottom half of the inning. Sophomore Kim Waleszonia (Fontana, Calif.) led off by laying a bunt down only inches from home plate for a base hit. She advanced to second on a wild pitch from Tennessee ace Monica Abbott. Sophomore Ali Gardiner (Waccabuc, N.Y.) grounded out to short for the second out of the inning, advancing Waleszonia to third. A base hit to left field by senior Lacy Howard (League City, Texas) brought Waleszonia home to narrow Tennessee’s lead to 3-1. The run was the first run scored on Abbott since February 10 and the first earned run scored on her in 96.1 innings.

Stevens reentered the game for Florida in the fifth and allowed only two more Tennessee base runners through the final three innings.

Stevens took the loss for Florida to move her record to 8-5 on the year. Abbott moved to 18-0 with the win.

Florida will face undefeated Alabama at the Florida Softball Stadium in a doubleheader on Wednesday night. As the Tide is the only undefeated team left in the nation, they could be the nation’s No. 1 team when the new polls are released on Tuesday and Wednesday.