By Sean Montgomery, Sports Information Assistant
MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. – The No. 10 Georgia College Men's Tennis team (5-4, 2-2 PBC) successfully defended their home courts in a top-20 matchup Wednesday, defeating Peach Belt Conference (PBC) opponent No. 20 University of North Georgia (7-3, 2-3 PBC) 5-4 in a back-and-forth contest at the Centennial Center Tennis Facility.
With the team score tied late, the overall result came down to the final three matches of the day.
The Bobcat men worked their way into the team lead early, claiming two of the three doubles contests.
In third-slot doubles, senior Taylor Powell (Martinez) and junior Kyle Kinsler (Suwanee) fought their way to the first win of the day. Powell and Kinsler dominated throughout the entire match, defeating Andre Canino and Lukas Moritzen, 8-3.
The lone doubles loss for Georgia College came in the second slot, as Jannik Kumbier (Neumünster, Germany) and Pedro Ecenarro (Santiago de Compostela, Spain) fell to Joe Klokow and Alexander Reinauer, 8-5.
First-slot pairing of Yannick Hass (Troisdorf, Germany) and Christian Graff (Lohmar, Germany) edged out a tough battle with Philipp Mueller and Niklas Zielen, taking the 8-6 victory and giving the Bobcats the lead heading into singles play.
The Nighthawks mounted their comeback, stealing the first two singles matches and jumping out to a 3-2 lead.
Powell got off to a slow start against Reinaur, dropping the first set, 6-2. However, the senior maintained his composure and raced back to force a third with a 6-4 win. The two rallied back and forth in a close set, but Reinaur stretched his lead and sealed the set and match win with a 6-4 victory. Kumbier also fell in singles, losing a tight three-set match versus Zielen, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2.
No. 14 Hass was downed by Mueller 6-3 in the first set, but settled into his game and rallied back to notch victories in the second and third, 6-1, 6-1. The resurging win tied the overall team score at 3 apiece, as all eyes turned to the final three contests of the day.
Vincent Castermans (Grenoble, France) rallied to give the Bobcats the lead. Castermans, matched up with Canino in the sixth slot, made quick work of the Nighthawk, controlling the match throughout to earn the 6-4, 6-3 result.
With Georgia College needing just one more victory, Ecenarro came through in the clutch in a fifth-slot contest with Moritzen. The Bobcat sophomore dispatched of Moritzen handily in the first set, 6-4, but faced an even greater challenge in the second. Ecenarro trailed 5-2 but remained confident, as he raced back to win the final five points and shut the door on North Georgia's hopes. His win was the fifth of the day, clinching the overall result for the Bobcats.
Graff later fell in the fourth slot to Hugues Renald in the final match of the day, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.
With the important win, the Bobcat men have now defeated two straight nationally-ranked opponents. They will aim to make it three when they host No. 41 Young Harris College Saturday, March 12 at the Centennial Center Tennis Facility. Match time is set for 11 a.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 all social media formats for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests.
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