No. 15 Bulldogs top No. 19 Rangers 6-3

PERKINSTON — No. 15 Mississippi Gulf Coast needed to get out of the blocks quickly Tuesday playing No. 19 Northwest Mississippi at the MGCCC Tennis Complex.

The Bulldogs did, and they went on to a 6-3 win in an important MACCC women's tennis match.

"They played well under some pressure today," Gulf Coast coach Sam Blackburn said. "We knew that Northwest has a good team, and we knew that we needed to come out ready to play in doubles. We felt confident if we went up 2-1 and had the advantage after doubles, we had a really good chance to win."

Gulf Coast (7-6, 5-2 MACCC) moved ahead of the Rangers (6-5, 5-3) in the conference standings.

Katelyn Walker (Fr., Sumrall/Sumrall) and Meredith Matthews (So., Wiggins/Stone) won their No. 3 doubles match 8-4. Pia Pugliese (Fr., San Juan, Argentina/Colegio Central Universitario Mariano Moreno) and Paige Baronich (Fr., St. Martin/St. Martin). gave the Bulldogs the edge headed to singles with an 8-5 win at No. 2.

Ros Fabuel won her No. 3 singles match 6-1, 6-1, and Pugliese won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 2. Isona Arnaus (So., Barcelona, Spain/Centre Lopez Vicuna) made it 5-2 with a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 1.

"I'm very proud of our top three coming out and getting straight-set wins to clinch," Blackburn said. "That was just huge for them to step up like that. I'm proud of everybody, our top three really just came up big time today in singles, too."

The Bulldogs will be back in action at Perk on Friday. Meridian visits, with first serves set for 2 p.m.

Results

Team: Gulf Coast 6, Northwest Mississippi 3

Doubles

No. 1: Laura Camara Blanco-Claudia Lopez Chaparro (NW) def. Isona Arnaus-Victoria Ros Fabuel, 8-5

No. 2: Pia Pugliese-Paige Baronich (GC) def. Angela Oritz-Sanchez-Meg Daves, 8-5

No. 3: Katelyn Walker-Meredith Matthews (GC) def. Brooke Kicker-Ava McCain, 8-4

Singles

No. 1: Arnaus (GC) def. Oritz-Sanchez, 6-4, 6-4

No. 2: Pugliese (GC) def. Lopez Chaparro, 6-1, 6-3

No. 3: Ros Fabuel (GC) def. Camara Blanco, 6-1, 6-1

No. 4: Daves (NW) def. Baronich, 6-4, 6-1

No. 5: Walker (GC) def. Kicker, 6-3, 6-2, 12-10

No. 6: McCain (NW) def. Andee Rogers, 4-6, 6-4, 10-4

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