Tennis teams ousted in Peach Belt quarterfinals
Bobcats fall short in conference tournament, await potential at large birth in NCAA Regional tourney
The Georgia College men’s and women’s tennis teams fell short in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament April 15.
The women’s team (16-8) lost to No. 12 Clayton State (14-6), 5-2.
Vanessa Whited | gcsunade.comJunior Jerome Leborgne and his doubles teammate sophomore Johan Wadstein won their match in Georgia College’s 5-3 loss to Flagler in the Peach Belt quarterfinals on April 15.
“At the start of doubles Michelle and I played great,” Johnson said. “We became very nervous, but were able to keep it together and pull through with a good win.
The No. 1 doubles for the Bobcats, sophomore Kayla Barksdale and senior Bertille Lion, came up short in their match against Ivanna Krommelova and Viktoriya Semyrodenko.
In the third doubles, freshmen Lisa Setyon and Kelly Edwards fell to Martina Dedag and Jessica Budd, 8-6.
In singles, Lion dropped her match to Semyrodenko in two in a row, 6-2 and 6-0. Sophomore Kim Lochner played fourth for the team but lost out to Cerceletti, 6-1, 6-0.
The match was stopped after Clayton’s Dedaj took down Setyon 6,3, 7-5.
“With the girls, they played very well. Clayton I think is a deeper team than us and on paper they’re better than us,” said Head Coach Steve Barsby. “If we had played it out, it would have been 5-4. I was very proud of the effort the girls game.”
The men’s tennis team (14-8) also had a rough time in the Peach Belt Conference losing to No. 12 Flagler College Saints (11-6), 5-3.
Two of the three victories came from the doubles. Sophomore Johan Wadstein and junior Jerome Leborgne won in the No. 1 spot against David Cotrone and Gino Ramirez, 8-2. In third doubles, junior Tobias Rausch and junior Robert Angelucci took down Peter Coulils and Adam Hunt, 8-6.
The No. 2 doubles junior Leo Bernardes and sophomore Tyler Franks were defeated 8-4 by Uriel Oquendo and Harry Snoxell. Bernardes took his revenge in singles, topping Snoxell, 6-3, 6-4.
“I felt pretty good on the court this past weekend, I lost to that guy a couple weeks ago,” Bernardes said. “I knew I had to play my best tennis to beat him. And I did.”
“Leo came out and competed unbelievably hard,” Barsby said. “He was in control of the match the whole time.”
The rest of the team wasn’t as successful in singles. Leborgne lost, 6-2, 6-1, to No. 3 Cotrone after winning the first set, 4-6.
“Even though Jerome lost his singles, I think he performed very well,” Bernardes said. “He played a nice doubles match and have a tough match against David Cotrone.”
Wadstein played three against Coulis, winning one, 2-6, and losing the other two, 6-2, 6-2. Franks lost out to Hunt, 6-3, 6-3. Despite going to a tiebreaker, sophomore Wictor Andersson dropped to Oquendo. The loss by Andersson stopped the matches at 5-3.Barsby felt the guys played well, just didn’t finish strong.
“We competed hard we just couldn’t get it done,” Barsby said. “I don’t know if it was because we were up 2-1 to begin with or they were looking to the (NCAA Regional) tournament.”
The men’s and women’s team now await to see if they receive an at-large bid for the NCAA Regional tournament.The announcement will come on April 26.
“The girls I’m 90 percent sure they’ll get in,” Barsby said. “The guys I’m about 80 percent.”
As for the leading up to the tournament, Barsby said the women’s team will get some resting time so they’ll be refeshed for the tournament. For the men’s, Barsby is confident of success if they get a tournament bid.
“We play doubles really great some days; we play singles really great some days,” Barsby said. “If we get in, we can beat anyone if we put it together on the same day.”
Posted by Matt Chambers
on Apr 21 2011. Filed under Sports.
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