COLUMBUS, Ga. – In a battle of top-15 teams, the No. 13 Georgia College Men's Tennis (13-7, 5-5 PBC) squad's upset bid fell just short Saturday in a 6-3 loss at No. 10 Columbus State University (15-4, 8-2 PBC).
CSU started with a 2-1 advantage after doubles play.
All three doubles matchups were hotly contested, with Georgia College earning its win in the first slot. Senior Yannick Hass (Troisdorf, Germany) and junior Christian Graff (Lohmar, Germany) edged Maciej Kierkus and Marco Almorin 8-6.
In the second slot, senior Taylor Powell (Martinez) and sophomore Jannik Kumbier (Neumunster, Germany) teamed for an 8-6 loss, falling to KP Pannu and Zach Whaanga. The third slot was an 8-4 defeat, as sophomores Vincent Castermans (Grenoble, France) and Pedro Ecenarro (Santiago de Compostella, Spain) fell to Jorge Vargas and Martynas Zakaitis.
The Cougars took singles action 4-2, but the Bobcats didn't go down easy. One of the losses took three sets, while two others required extra points in at least one of the sets.
The Bobcats got their two wins from the second and fifth slots, as Kumbier and Ecenarro put two team points on the board. Kumbier took down Almorin in a tough 7-5, 7-5 battle, while Ecenarro had a bit easier time, topping Kierkus 6-1, 6-4.
In the first slot, No. 12 Hass fell in the match's only ranked battle, dropping a 7-6, 6-2 score to No. 30 Pannu. Third singles was the three-set matchup as Powell lost to Vargas 4-6, 7-6, 10-7.
In fourth singles, Graff fell to Whaanga 6-4, 7-5, while Castermans came up short against Benedikt Wilde in sixth singles by a pair of 6-2 sets.
The loss finishes Georgia College at 5-5 in Peach Belt Conference (PBC) play, part of a three-way tie for fourth in the league standings. The Bobcats have clinched a spot to the PBC Tournament, and now await the result of one more league match April 19 as well as tiebreaker scenarios to determine tournament seeding.
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. Keep up with @GCBobcats on social media for up-to-the-minute reports, and visit GCBobcats.PhotoReflect.com to purchase photo prints from home athletic contests.
