No. 13 Bulldogs accelerate into R23 semifinals
ELLISVILLE — No. 13 Mississippi Gulf Coast played efficient tennis Thursday, winning its NJCAA Region 23 Men's Tennis Tournament quarterfinal 5-0 over Itawamba.
"It's massive," Gulf Coast coach Sam Blackburn said. "You don't want to spend any extra time out here. If you do, it's just hurting you, so to be done in under two hours today is huge for us, preserving our bodies for the next couple days."
The Bulldogs will play the No. 18 Copiah-Lincoln, which swept No. 19 Meridian in the last match on Thursday.
The Bulldogs will play the No. 18 Copiah-Lincoln, which swept No. 19 Meridian in the last match on Thursday. The Bulldogs beat the Wolves 6-3 in February.
It's the second semifinal Friday and will be played at 2 p.m., with Jones and Northwest Mississippi at 10 a.m. Tournament Central, which includes links to live scoring, can be found at https://jcbobcats.com/sports/2023/4/10/2024-njcaa-region-23-mens-tennis-championships.aspx.
The Bulldogs (11-6) split up their internationals for the doubles matches and still won convincingly on all courts. Santiago Enriquez (Fr., Encarnacion, Paraguay/CEUCE) and Brennan McGlothin (Fr., French Camp/French Camp Academy) picked up the first point 8-1 at No. 3, and Angel Hernandez (Fr., Puebla, Mexico/UPAEP) and Ryland Buford (So., Gulfport/Gulfport) won 8-3 at No. 1.
Jan Bako (Fr., Ostrava, Czech Republic/Hladnov) and Warren Hudson (Fr., Ocean Springs/Ocean Springs) gave Gulf Coast a 3-0 lead by winning No. 2, dropping four games.
McGlothin double-bageled his No. 6 singles opponent, and Hernandez won 6-1, 6-2 at No. 2 just a couple hours after being named All-MACCC.
"It was about the team altogether, everybody coming together to be just one force," Blackburn said. "Doubles were great with all the guys back out there. They felt good, and it showed. It gave us a lot of room to play free and get us rolling in the right direction with the tournament."
ICC is 3-9.
Results
Team: Gulf Coast 5, Itawamba 0
Doubles
No. 1: Angel Hernandez-Ryland Buford (GC) def. Josue Segrelles Tronchoni-Kole Kusek, 8-3
No. 2: Jan Bako-Warren Hudson (GC) def. Andrea Cattaneo-Andrej Taseveski, 8-4
No. 3: Santiago Enriquez-Brennan McGlothin (GC) def. Matthew Durrett-Jacob Christ, 8-1
Singles
No. 1: Hernandez (GC) def. Tronchoni, 6-1, 6-2
No. 6: McGlothin (GC) def. Durrett, 6-0, 6-0
NJCAA Region 23 Men's Tennis Tournament
April 16-18
Ellisville
Quarterfinals
Thursday, April 16
No. 1 Jones 5, No. 8 East Central 0
No. 4 Northwest Mississippi 5, No. 5 Southwest Mississippi 2
No. 2 Gulf Coast 5, No. 7 Itawamba 0
No. 3 Copiah-Lincoln 5, No. 6 Meridian 0
Semifinals
Friday, April 17
Jones vs. Northwest, 10 a.m.
Gulf Coast vs. Copiah-Lincoln, 2 p.m.
Championship
Saturday, April 18
Finals, 10 a.m.
Third-place, 2 p.m.
For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
