Tennis rolls past Concord, nipped by Francis Marion

If one word could be used to describe the Georgia College tennis teams’ performance against Concord University on March 8, it would probably be dominant. Both the men’s and women’s squads flew past the Mountain Lions 9-0, after both dropped conference matches to Francis Marion on March 4.

“I thought the guys and ladies played pretty well,” Head Coach Steve Barsby said. “That was their first match of the season, so they were still a little rusty, but regardless, we went out and got the job done.”

In the men’s match against Concord, the No. 9 Bobcats (7-3, 2-2 PBC) raced out to a 3-0 lead after the doubles portion, with junior Jerome Leborgne and sophomore Johan Wadstein defeating Diogo Monteiro and Leo Araujo, 8-5. Junior Leo Bernardes and sophomore Tyler Franks then topped Felix Riba and Andrew Iruthayarajah, 8-2. Juniors Tobias Rausch and Robert Angelucci followed suit, beating Pierre Quinat and Cody Vinson, 8-1. In the singles portion, No. 14 Leborgne won a tough battle against Monteiro, 6-2, 7-5 in No. 1 singles. Wadstein took out Araujo, 6-0,6-0. In the No. 3 spot, Rausch topped Quinat, 6-2, 6-3. Freshman Mario Cardenas beat Vinson, 6-0, 6-1, freshman Ruslan Bekoev won 6-0,6-0 against Riba, and sophomore Wictor Andersson won 6-2, 6-1 against Iruthayarajah.

The No. 30 women were equally successful on their end against Concord. The Bobcats (6-3, 3-2 PBC) won all three doubles matches with sophomores May Johnson and Michelle Lingner winning in the first slot, 8-0 against Laura Leon and Kirby Mustard. Freshmen Lisa Setyon and Kelly Edwards took the No. 2 doubles match against Cristina Knable and Emily Fletcher, 8-1, and the third doubles match was forfeited by the Mountain Lions. In singles, senior Bertille Lion won out of the first slot, 6-0, 6-1 against Leon. Johnson shut out Mustard in the second singles, 6-0, 6-0. Sophomore Kim Lochner beat Fletcher, 6-2, 6-0, and freshman Tracy Bain took down Knable, 6-2, 6-1. The Mountain Lions forfeited the other two singles slots.

Neither team was as fortunate in their March 8 losses at Francis Marion. The men’s team fell behind 3-0 after all three doubles parings lost. The Bobcats had more success in singles play with Leborgne, Rausch, Franks and Andersson all winning their matches, but Francis Marion was able to pull out two wins in the singles portion for a 5-4 victory.

The women also fell victim to the Patriots, who took a 2-1 lead after the doubles matches. Johnson and Lingner won their doubles matchup, 8-2. The teams split the singles portion, with Barksdale winning, 6-0, 6-0 out of the third spot. Lochner won, 1-6, 6-4, 6-4, and Lingner came out on top 6-3, 6-1.

“We played well in spots, but not well overall,” Barsby said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to work on some things and keep getting better.”