Men’s tennis claims seven titles

The men’s tennis team was at home Sept. 16-28 for its first Fall tournament. At the Windstream Men’s Fall Championship, the Bobcats won five of the seven flights and took seven titles, two in doubles and five in singles.

“I thought we played well, it’s a good start,” Head Coach Steve Barsby said. “The field was not as deep this past weekend as it will be this upcoming weekend at Regionals but it’s a good indication of where we are.

The Windstream Tournament is hosted by Georgia College in which three different schools attend including Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Augusta State University and Lander University. The round-robin-style tournament had seven flights with one GC player in each.

“The tournament went well, it was a good practice run for the spring season,” junior Tyler Franks said.

Lauren Davidson | gcsunade.com

Junior Wictor Andersson serves in his match on Friday, Sept. 16.

To prepare for the season, the team works out Monday through Friday, either in the gym or conditioning, followed by practice on the court.

In the Fall Championships, the Bobcats played 14 singles and three doubles matches and the players were divided into groups.

“We got them in good shape pretty quick, we don’t have any problems with conditioning,” Barsby said. “A lot of teams early in the season will have those problems but with the program we put in, our guys are usually in really good shape.”

In the first group, junior Johan Wadstein took on Lander University’s Samuel Poutigant. Wadstein played hard but was defeated 6-4 in both sets. In his afternoon match against Augusta State University, but suffered a  6-4, 6-4 defeat once again.

In the second group senior Jerome Leborgne won the first title of the day against Lander University’s Ross Armstrong with ease, 6-1, 6-1. After his first victory, Leborgne then went on to defeat Augusta State’s Henrique Boturao, 6-3, and won his second set in a tiebreaker with the final result of 7-6.

Junior Kasper Konyves took home the third group title after defeating Lander University’s Max Desmars in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and Augusta State’s Victor Guimaraes 7-5, 6-2.

the fifth group, senior Leo Bernardes, was no disappointment receiving the title for fifth group. He quickly took Lander University’s Gary Bertoldo in two sets, 6-1, 6-2 then beat Augusta State’s Jenner Stevenson 6-2, 6-2.

Winning by a landslide Junior Wictor Andersson won against Sergi Forcadell, 6-1, 6-0 then defeated ABAC’s Thomas Flowers, 6-1, 6-1.

“It felt good, especially to go in with a good confidence for this upcoming weekend,” Andersson said.

Finally in the sixth group, sophomore Mario Cardenas took home the group title winning against Augusta State’s Max Coulomb 6-1, 6-2 then against Jacob Tompkins 6-2, 6-0.

In doubles, Wadstein and junior Tyler Franks both won their first match but fell to their opponents in the second.

“The tournament was a good test to see how we match up against the other teams, we have a lot of potential but we need to improve and keep working hard to reach that potential,” Franks said.

The pair, Wadstein and Leborgne defeated Fernandes and Boturao 8-4 for the first group victory. Following that, Bernardes and Cardenas took down Stevenson and Coulomb, 8-6, to take third group title.

The Bobcats leave on Sept. 22 for the Fall Regional Tournament in Sumter, S.C.

Lauren Davidson | gcsunade.com

Junior Johan Wadstein following through on his overhand strike.

“I think you can expect great things from the team in the spring season,” Franks said. “We have a lot of great players this year, and with a lot of hard work and practice this fall, we can expect a successful season and hopefully a national championship.”

The full season will pick up in early January.

“We got a few matches under our belt to get ready for this weekend,” Barsby said. “I think they just need to keep working hard. We’re trying some new doubles teams, getting out there and grinding the weight. I don’t really think we need to change much but just keep improving.”

Posted by Gabrielle.Carrier on Sep 22 2011. Filed under Lead stories, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.