Tennis set for PBC Tournament

Women triumph, men drop close match against Flagler

While Georgia College’s women’s tennis team dominated their games on April 10 and 11 at the Centennial Center Tennis Facility, the men’s team was not so lucky. The No. 26 women beat West Georgia 9-0 on April 10 and played a tough game against No. 10 Flagler, still winning 5-4.  The No. 15 men’s team dropped a close match on April 11 against Flagler, losing 5-4.

The women’s team took charge against West Georgia, finishing the doubles portion of the match in less than 35 minutes and shutting out the Wolves in all three spots.

Sophomore Kayla Barksdale and senior Bertille Leon played out of the No. 1 spot and beat their opponents 8-0.  Sophomores May Johnson and Michelle Lingner followed suit and flushed out their opponents 8-0 as well.

In singles, Lion played out of the No. 1 spot for the Bobcats and shut out her opponent 6-0, 6-0. Johnson toppled her opponent in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0, and sophomore Kim Lochner continued the trend in the third spot, winning 6-0, 6-1. Freshmen Lisa Seyton, Tracy Bain and Kelly Edwards played in the fourth, fifth, and sixth singles spots and finished up the sweep, each dominating their opponents (6-0, 6-0; 6-0, 6-1; 6-2, 6-0).

While the women’s team made it four straight wins on April 11 as they edged past Flagler, the men’s team struggled and lost a close match, 5-4.

The men found themselves in a 3-0 hole after the doubles matches.

Sophomore Johan Wadstein and junior Jerome Leborgne played out of the No. 1 spot but lost 8-6.  Junior Leo Bernardes and sophomore Tyler Franks also lost their match 8-6.  In third doubles action, juniors Tobias Rausch and Robert Angelucci were defeated 8-2.

While the Bobcats dominated singles play, winning 4-2, their scores were not high enough to offset their doubles loss, and the team dropped a close one to the Saints.

“I tell everyone, ‘You’ve got to work hard,’” Head Coach Steve Barsby said.  “Everyone is good, so you just have to outwork them.”

In the women’s game against Flagler, Barksdale and Lion played out of the No. 1 spot and defeated their opponents 9-8.  The pair is now 14-7 in the season.  Johnson and Lingner dropped the first match of the day, 8-3.  Seyton and Edwards played out of the No. 3 spot and dropped their match as well.

“I think we have more overall talent as a team,” Edwards said.  “When I play I see that they [Flagler] give up more when we get ahead.”

The women scooted by in singles, with Lion giving Georgia College their third victory of the day 6-3 in the first set and 6-2 in the second set.  Johnson won her three-set bout 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.  Barskdale dropped her match 6-3, 6-3, Lochner dropped hers 6-4, 6-3 and Seyton came up short in her three sets 6-7, 6-4, 10-4.  Lingner finished off the day with a win 6-1 in the first set and 6-0 in the second.

Bain said that the women’s team was more nervous to take on Flagler than West Georgia because of their closeness in ranking.

“It’s a really big win for us,” she said.

This marks the end of both teams’ regular seasons. Both teams will play in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament, set for April 15 to 17 in Augusta and hosted by Augusta State University.

The women are the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will take on No. 4 seed Clayton State in the quarterfinals at 2 p.m. on April 15. The men are the No. 6 seed and will be rematched against No. 3 seed Flagler April 15 at 5 p.m. The winner will face the winner of No. 2 Lander and No. 7 Augusta State.