By Sean Montgomery, Sports Information Student Assistant
SAVANNAH, Ga. – The No. 10 Georgia College Men's Tennis team (2-3, 0-1 PBC) travelled Sunday to face off with Peach Belt Conference (PBC) foe No. 3 Armstrong State University (4-0, 1-0 PBC) at Bacon Park in Savannah.
With the team score set at 4-2, the match result depended on three tightly-contested singles matches to decide the winner.
The Bobcat men trailed 2-1 after doubles action, with the lone win coming in third-slot doubles.
Taylor Powell (Martinez) and Kyle Kinsler (Suwanee) showed exceptional teamwork and blazed through their opponents, defeating Alberto Caceres and Marek Pesicka, 8-4.
In the first slot, Christian Graff (Lohmar, Germany) and Jannik Kumbier (Neumünster, Germany) bid for the upset of National No. 2 doubles pair, Pablo Gor and Ignacio Hernandez. Graff and Kumbier fell behind early and were defeated, 8-4.
The No. 8-ranked team of Yannick Hass (Troisdorf, Germany) and Vincent Castermans (Grenoble, France) matched up with the No. 1 duo of Luca Cerin and Otakar Lucak in the second slot. Cerin and Lucak got the better of the Bobcat teammates, defeating them 8-1.
Fifth-slot singles finished first, as Castermans once again faced Cerin. Cerin quickly finished out the first set with a 6-1 win. However, Castermans battled back, hanging tough in a close second set. The two dueled back and forth, but Cerin regained to lead to take the 7-6 set victory and claim the match.
No. 47 Kumbier and No. 29 Lucak clashed in a second-slot matchup, leading to a victory by a narrow margin for the Pirates. Kumbier kept things close, but was conquered 6-4, 6-3.
With the team score at 4-1, Armstrong State needed to achieve a winning result in one more contest to claim the overall team victory.
Powell kept the Bobcat hopes alive with a dramatic comeback victory in the fourth slot. The Georgia College senior clinched a point by erasing Jan Porteset's lead in a three-set thriller. Powell dropped the first set 4-6, but showed poise and shone in the second and third, winning each by a score of 6-3.
Each of the remaining three matches would need a third set to decide the victor. Hass, Graff and Pedro Ecenarro (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) were all locked in tight duels with Pirates.
The first-slot heavyweight matchup of No. 2 Gor and No. 14 Hass was a good one. Gor got the better of Hass, notching the 6-3 result in the first set. However, Hass responded with a win of his own in the second, 6-4. With a tight third set coming down to the wire, Gor pulled away to claim the 6-3 set and match victory.
Graff claimed the first set, but fell to No. 35 Hernandez, 6-3, 4-6, 4-6 in the third slot and Ecenarro split the first two sets before dropping the third-set tiebreak to suffer the 7-6, 6-3, 10-4 defeat.
Following a hard-fought day, the Bobcat men will be back in action Wednesday, March 2 when they host Coker College at the Centennial Center Tennis Facility. Match time is set for 2 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 social media for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests.
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