No. 15 Bulldogs win MACCC finale 6-3

No. 15 Mississippi Gulf Coast wrapped up MACCC regular-season play Thursday with another victory, this time on the road. The Bulldogs won 6-3 over No. 24 East Central in Decatur.

"We played well," Gulf Coast coach Sam Blackburn said. "(No. 1) doubles lost a tough battle, but we were up headed to singles, which was great. They have good players that really played well today, but our depth prevailed, and the girls did their jobs."

Gulf Coast improved to 9-6 overall, 7-2 in the conference. East Central is 8-6, 3-6.

Victoria Ros Fabuel (Fr., Valencia, Spain/Colegio Sagrado Corazon Hermanos Maristas), Paige Baronich (Fr., St. Martin/St. Martin), Katelyn Walker (Fr., Sumrall/Sumrall) and Andee Rogers (So., Wiggins/Stone) cruised to singles match wins at the final four spots. They didn't drop a set, losing only seven games total.

The Bulldogs will finish no worse than third in the final MACCC standings, and that finish will determine their seeding in the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament. It will be played April 9-11 in Ellisville.

"It's a privilege and an honor to be towards the top of the standings, but it also kind of fires us up to finish strong," Blackburn said. "It's going to give them some more motivation going into the region tournament to finish higher than that, which I think we're capable of doing. The girls know that, too."

Gulf Coast closes out the regular season Friday in Jasper, Ala. The Bulldogs' match at Bevill State begins at 10 a.m.

Results

Team: Gulf Coast 6, East Central 3

Doubles

No. 1: Ivanna De Gregorio-Shana Mao (EC) def. Isona Arnaus-Victoria Ros Fabuel, 8-6

No. 2: Pia Pugliese-Paige Baronich (GC) def. Isabella Estrada Avila-Samantha Boykin, 8-4

No. 3: Katelyn Walker-Meredith Matthews (GC) def. Cecilia Burroughs-Aaliyah Coghlan, 8-1

Singles

No. 1: De Gregorio (EC) def. Arnaus, 6-0, 6-2

No. 2: Mao (EC) def. Pugliese, 6-2, 6-0

No. 3: Ros Fabuel (GC) def. Estrada Avila, 6-1, 6-2

No. 4: Baronich (GC) def. Boykin, 6-1, 6-1

No. 5: Walker (GC) def. Burroughs, 6-2, 6-0

No. 6: Andee Rogers (GC) def. Coghlan, 6-0, 6-0

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.