>>>PURCHASE PHOTO PRINTS
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The No. 20 Georgia College men's tennis team (12-7, 8-2 PBC) swept all four matches of singles play to topple No. 8 Columbus State University (16-4, 7-3 PBC) 5-2 Tuesday at the Centennial Center Tennis Facility.
The win marks the highest-ranked victory for GC Men's Tennis since Feb. 24, 2009 when the Bobcats beat then-No. 1 Armstrong Atlantic State University 5-4.
Georgia College found itself down 2-1 after doubles. The victory came in the first slot, where No. 23 Yannick Hass (Troisdorf, Germany) and Vincent Castermans (Grenoble, France) upset No. 17 Adi Malicbegovic and Marco Almorin 8-6. The win brought Hass and Castermans to 8-8.
In second doubles, Taylor Powell (Martinez) and Jannik Kumbier (Neumunster, Germany) took Martynas Zakaitis and Oussama Zoghlami to the limit in a 9-8 Cougar win. In the third slot, Mattia Campus (Concorezzo, Italy) and Pedro Ecenarro (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) fell 8-6 to Maciej Kierkus and Benedikt Wilde.
The Bobcats ran the table in singles action, straight to the clinching victory at sixth singles. The first result came in the third slot, where Kumbier tied the team score 2-2 with a dominant win over Wilde 6-1, 6-1. Kumbier is now 9-7 in his rookie campaign.
Hass followed that with an upset win over No. 16 Zoghlami by a 6-2, 7-6 score. Hass has wins in six straight and owns a 9-7 mark. Castermans then added an upset of his own over No. 22 Malicbegovic 6-3, 6-2. The win evened the Bobcat freshman's singles record at 8-8.
Needing just one more victory to complete the program's biggest upset in over six years, Powell provided the clinching point by making quick work of Zakaitis in sixth singles 6-4, 6-1. The Bobcat junior is now 10-2 on the year, tying Hass with six wins in a row.
The Bobcats' 8-2 conference record gives them the No. 3-seed in the upcoming Peach Belt Conference (PBC) Tournament in Florence, South Carolina. Georgia College will start by taking on No. 6-seed Young Harris College in the opening round Friday, April 24 at 1 p.m.
The Georgia College Department of Athletics, two-time winners of the PBC Commissioner's Cup, sponsors 11 varsity athletic programs at the NCAA Division II level. As a Division II program, Bobcat Athletics prides itself on balancing the life of the student-athlete, evidenced by the teams' multiple appearances in post-season competition as well as documented academic success and community-service involvement. Sign up at @GCBobcats on Twitter and Facebook for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests.
