Title time for tennis
This past weekend, GCSU’s tennis teams traveled to Sumter, S.C. to compete in the ITA Southeast Regional Tournament.
The Bobcats supplied two of the top ten seeds in the men’s tournament, seniors Erick Siqueira and Francis Yoshimoto. Each won their two matches on the first day of the tournament.
Siqueira defeated Henrique Boturao of Augusta State University 6-4, 6-3 and Mario Keick of Francis Marion University 7-5, 6-0. Yoshimoto brought home two convincing wins for the Bobcats, taking down Columbus State’s Nemanja Djuric 6-0, 6-1 and Limestone College’s Phillipe Hogan in two sets, 6-4, 6-3.
Not only did Siqueira lead the Bobcats with several important singles victories, he also joined forces with senior Justin Pickham to form the No. 4 seed duo in the tournament. The pair defeated the doubles team from the University of South Carolina at Aiken and proceeded to make their way through the tournament to win the A-Draw Doubles Championship. This win makes history here at GCSU, with these two players being the first doubles team since 1992 to win a men’s doubles title.
The second doubles pair, juniors Max Beliankou and Giovane Nucci, put up a strong fight against Armstrong Atlantic State University, but fell short in a tiebreaker, 9-8.
Beliankou was disappointed that the match ended in a tiebreaker, but still feels that everyone brought their strongest games to the court.
“It is always tough to lose on the tie-break because you know that only a few points decided the outcome of the match,” Beliankou said. “Everybody came up strong, but in this kind of championship there are no easy matches.”
The Lady Bobcats were also successful this weekend. Three players from the team competed in the weekend’s tournament, and each played well.
Senior Gabby Acuna competed in Flight A singles in the first round of the tournament against South Carolina’s Lander University.
“We only had three girls competing in this tournament and it went pretty well,” Acuna said. “I lost my first set, won my second, and lost my third 3-6, 6-3, (10-8) against Lander, so it was close.”
Acuna also teamed with fellow senior Marjorie Ceppo. This strong doubles team served up back-to-back wins, defeating Clayton State University in round one and Columbus State University in a tiebreaker to take round two. A loss in the third round against AASU ended their run, but Acuna carries a positive outlook on the weekend as a whole.
“Marjorie and I played doubles for the first time and we did really well, so it was exciting,” Acuna said. “We lost our third round to Armstrong, but we beat Clayton State and Columbus State, who are two of our biggest rivals. We are still very happy with our results.”
Along with Acuna, sophomore Bertille Lion also competed in Flight A singles for GCSU. Lion defeated Lander’s Vuokko Vahatalo 6-0, 6-3 in the first round before falling to rival Columbus State’s Viktorya Semyrodenko, 6-3, 6-0 in the second round.
This upcoming weekend takes both Bobcat teams to Augusta, Ga. where they will compete in the Chick-Fil-A Collegiate Championships. This will be their final fall tune-up tournament and they look to improve and prepare for the spring season.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Oct 3 2008. Filed under Sports.
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