The tenth-ranked Tennessee women's soccer team squandered an early lead but fought back to win its SEC opener over No. 12 South Carolina Thursday night at Regal Soccer Stadium.

Kylee Rossi scored seven minutes into overtime off an assist from Emily Redberg to give the Lady Vols a 3-2 victory.

"It was crucial (to win the SEC opener)," said Tennessee head coach Angela Kelly. "We're searching for the win in every game."

The Lady Vols got out to an early lead when Mick Ingram gained control of a loose ball and rocketed a shot into the left corner of the net eight minutes into the game for a 1-0 lead.

The goal was Ingram's third on the season.

The Lady Vols maintained the lead until midway through the second half when Darcel Mollon broke through and slipped the ball past Tennessee keeper Jaimel Johnson into the bottom corner of the net to knot the score at one in the 66^th minute.

The Lady Gamecocks then pulled ahead with just over 10 minutes remaining when Ashley Kirk headed home a cross from Brooke Jacobs to make the score 2-1, but Tennessee evened the score just three minutes later as Alissa VonderHaar put the ball in the net from ten yards out.

The Lady Vols soccer team takes the field again Sunday at 2 p.m. against Florida.Johnson finished the game with five saves, while Lindsay Thompson recorded six saves in the net for South Carolina.

"When you get to conference play you take the wins and you move on," said Kelly. "I'm certainly not displeased with the performance but I'm not necessarily pleased with the entire performance."

Tennessee (6-1-1, 1-0 SEC) will return to action Sunday when they take on defending SEC champion Florida (4-2-2, 0-0 SEC) at 2 p.m. at Regal Soccer Stadium.

"Florida's the team to beat. They won the conference last year," Kelly said. "We had won it the four years prior to that.

"We were displeased that we didn't win it last year and we felt like we had control over that, but we just didn't put it away. We have to take one game at a time and get it done."