By Sean Montgomery, Sports Information Student Assistant
VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 12 Georgia College Men's Tennis team (1-1) traveled Friday morning to take on non-conference foe No. 9 Valdosta State University (1-0). Trailing early, the Bobcats comeback bid fell just short as they lost a tightly-contested match by an overall team score of 5-4.
Sophomore Vincent Castermans (Grenoble, France) and senior Yannick Hass (Troisdorf, Germany) kicked things off for the Bobcats in first-slot singles. The national No. 8 duo was locked in a battle, but eventually fell to Valdosta State's Gereon Heitmann and Niklas Herbring, 8-4.
Finishing next was third-slot doubles, in the pairing of Taylor Powell (Martinez) and Anton Waern (Taby, Sweden). The Bobcat teammates were unable to dig out of an early hole and suffered an 8-3 defeat to Joachim Schemm and Fernando Rivas. Christian Graff (Lohmar, Germany) and Jannik Kumbier (Neumünster, Germany) also were defeated in doubles play, 8-6 by Xavier Pineda and Leo Blay, putting the Bobcats in an early 3-0 deficit in the overall team score.
In singles play, Georgia College battled back.
All-American and first-slot singles player No. 14 Hass met the Blazers' No. 10 Blay and picked up the first win of the day for Georgia College. The senior was leading 5-2 in the first set when Blay retired, sealing the win by default.
Castermans finished next, making quick work of Schemm with 6-3 and 6-4 victories in straight sets. The win pulled the team score to 3-2.
Valdosta State struck back with a win in third-slot singles as Rivas beat Powell 6-4, 6-3. Graff responded with a 6-4, 6-3 Bobcat victory, once again bringing them to within a point. With just two matches remaining, the pressure fell on second and fifth-slot singles.
Second singles finished first. No. 47 Kumbier was matched against Heitmann in a tight contest. Kumbier hung tough in the first set, but eventually suffer a close 7-6 loss. In the second set, Heitmann sealed the individual and team victory with a 6-3 score.
Pedro Ecenarro (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) finished out the day for the team with a three-set victory over Herbring, by scores of 2-6, 6-3 and 7-5.
The Bobcat men won four out of the six singles matches, but their comeback effort fell just short. The team will be back in action tomorrow, Feb. 6 as they stay in Valdosta and take on No. 7 St. Leo University beginning at noon.
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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