No. 14 men’s tennis shuts out Morehouse, 9-0
The Georgia College men’s tennis team served up a commanding 9-0 victory over Morehouse College on Feb. 5 to start off the season.
The shutout victory gave the No. 12 Bobcats a chance to see how the team will look for the upcoming season.
“The guys played well; we expected to win so we were looking more for the energy,” Head Coach Steve Barsby said. “I think it looked good and the energy was up and that’s the win.”
The team’s lead doubles duo, junior Jerome Leborgne and sophomore Johan Wadstein, took down the Tigers’ duo Michael Cutresis ad Michael Thomas with a strong 8-1 showing.
Second Georgia College doubles junior Leo Bernardes and sophomore Tyler Franks won the most battled match against Tory Martin and Jordan Bailey by 8-4.
Juniors Robert Angelucci and Tobias Raush shutout Morehouse’s Khia Hall and Noah Terry.
“Everyone has bad days, but I won 8-0 so I did good work,” Angelucci said. “I enjoyed playing with my partner Tobias.”
The Bobcats racked up eight singles wins against Morehouse as well. Leborgne, ranked No .16 in singles nationally, defeated Martin 6-1, 6-1. Bernardes followed up with a 6-0,6-1 victory against Mario Ecung.
Following the first two, the Bobcats went on a shutout streak.
Wadstein took down Cutresis 6-0, 6-0 and Rausch followed suite taking Dewayne Dixon down 6-0, 6-0.
Franks won against Thomas with two shutouts, 6-0, 6-0.
Sophomore Wictor Anderson broke the shutout streak, but still took down the Tiger’s James Presely 6-0, 6-1.
“It was a strong effort from us and it was nice to see we were all motivated,” Angelucci said. “It was a good effort.”
The Morehouse victory started the Bobcats working all week to prepare for the Feb. 11 match against No. 25 USC Aiken.
“I’m hoping it’s going to be good, I think if we play well, we’ll do well,” Barsby said. “I’m looking forward to a test this early in the season.”
Also on the Bobcats’ agenda this weekend is a Feb. 12 visit to Mars Hill and a Feb. 13 stop at Wingate.
“If we can get through Aiken, it’ll be a good weekend,” Barsby said.
The Aiken match has the possibility to set the tone for the team’s season.
After coming one match short of the national tournament last year, the team has high hopes for this year.
“I’m hoping we can get back into the national tournament and go from there,” Barsby said. “I haven’t had a team like this in a while—all pushing for one goal the Bobcats began to increase the point gap again, and when 9:16 remained on the clock, a tip-in from junior forward Ryan Aquino gave Georgia College their greatest lead of the half of nine points with the score of 56-45.
Determined to take control of the game, the Lakers continued to fight and managed to bring the Bobcats’ lead over them down to four points when a free-throw shot left Clayton St. trailing Georgia College with a score of 62-58.
Even so, the Bobcats did not allow the Lakers to take the lead and continued to play aggressively.
When 18 seconds remained on the final clock, junior forward Jared Holmes netted two free-throw shots that secured the Bobcats lead up to eight with the score at 75-67.
On Feb. 10, the Bobcats hosted Augusta St. in their second-to-last home game of the season. The game had not been played at press time.
“I think where the team is at is the best it’s been all year. I think all the guys are really buying in to what where teaching them. I think we’re at a good spot right now,” Gainous said. “I think basically we need to get just a little bit more sharp on offense and a little tougher on defense and I think we can have a pretty good rest of the year.”
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