Tennis teams sweep ASU, men fall to No. 1 Barry

On Feb. 25, the Georgia College  men’s and women’s tennis teams came out on top of Augusta State. For the No. 12 men’s team against Augusta St., both teams battled aggressively in a very close competition but the Bobcats triumphed by in a comeback match with the final score at 5-4.

“We needed it, we did not play well the previous weekend, we got through it and we did not have a good showing against Armstrong,” Bobcats Head Coach Steve Barsby said. “We talked about fighting through matches and what better way to fight through a match with a six hour 5-4 win. It was a good thing for us early in the season.”

Starting off the match was the No. 1 doubles pair for Georgia College, sophomore Johan Wadstein and junior Jerome Leborgne against Augusta State’s  Henrique Boturao and Bernado Fernandes. Wadstein and Leborgne played hard and defeated the Jaguars’ pair 8-5 in the 8-game pro-set. The No. 2 doubles pair for the Bobcats, junior Leo Bernades and sophomore  Tyler Franks fought hard, but they were defeated by Augusta State’s Victor Guimaraes and Victor Cabellos 8-4.

Juniors Robert Angelucci and Tobias Rausch made up the No. 3 doubles pair for Georgia College and even though the two fought hard and the match was sent into an additional set, they were defeated by Augusta State’s Maxime Coulomb and Jenner Stevenson 9-7. At the end of the doubles matches, the Bobcats trailed the Jaguars 2-1 and the match result was to be determined by the singles matches.

In No. 1 singles,  Wadstein defeated Augusta State’s  Fernades 6-3, 6-1. For No. 2 singles, Leborgne, ranked No. 16 in singles, lost his first set 6-7 in tiebreaker, but came back strong and and took the victory when he won his second and third sets both with the final score of 6-4.Bernades in No. 3 singles was up against Cabellos and won his first set 7-6. In the second set, Cabellos came onto the court playing aggressive and shut out Bernades 6-0, which set the two up for a third and final set. Bernades did not let the previous set affect his playing and earned another victory for the Bobcats when he defeated Cabellos 6-3 in the third set. This victory game Georgia College their first lead of the match with the score at 3-2.

Playing in the No. 4 singles for Georgia College was Rausch, who took on Guimaraes. Raush lost his first set to Guimaraes 5-7, but then came back strong and took the second set 6-1 and the third set 7-6.

In No. 5 singles, Franks battled hard but lost to his opponent 6-4, 6-4. Freshman Mario Cardenas filled in the No. 6 singles position for the Bobcats and even though he played aggressively, he was defeated 6-4, 6-2. Once all of the matches were completed, Georgia College defeated Augusta St. with the final score at 5-4.

The No. 30 Georgia College women’s team also defeated Augusta St. 5-4 in a comeback victory. The No. 1 doubles pair for the Bobcats, sophomore Kayla Barksdale and senior Bertille Lion were defeated by their opponents 8-3. Able to tie the total score 1-1 for the Bobcats was No. 2 doubles pair sophomore Michelle Lingner and and sophomore May Johnson, who outplayed their opponents and earned a 8-6 win. In the No. 3 doubles slot, freshman Lisa Setyon and sophomore Kim Lochner fought hard against the Jaguars pair and the match went into additional sets, but the Bobcat duo was defeated 8-7.

The Bobcats were able to turn the game around in the singles matches. Lion tied the overall score at 2-2 when she defeated her opponent in the No. 1 singles slot 6-4 in both sets. In No. 2 singles, Johnson kept the momentum going when she triumphed over her opponent 7-5 in the first set and 6-1 in the second set to give Georgia College a 3-2 edge. Barksdale played in the No. 3 singles position but lost 4-6, 3-6. This tied the match at 3-3. In No. 4 singles, Lochner lost