MGCCC PERFECT FOR MACCC TITLE

No. 13 Mississippi Gulf Coast clinched the outright MACCC men's tennis title and a perfect conference regular season in style Monday in Ellisville.

The Bulldogs (18-2) waxed No. 14 Jones 8-1 to finish an unblemished 16-0 in the league.

Gulf Coast swept the three doubles matches, with Seth Macute (Fr., Brisbane, Australia/St Joseph's Nudgee College) and Wesley Fontaine (So., Biloxi/Biloxi) closing out Jones' No. 1 team 8-1.

Pedro Molero (Fr., Maracaibo, Venezuela/U.E. Instituto Americano Joseph John Thomson) won his No. 2 singles match in straight sets, as did Clay Fudge (Fr., Madison/Madison Central) at No. 4 and Jackson Ward (Fr., Gulfport/Gulfport) at No. 6.

Fontaine rebounded from a first-set tiebreaker loss in No. 3 singles to win the second in a tiebreak and win the third-set tiebreaker 10-7.

Anderson Dulaney (Fr., Long Beach/Long Beach) also had to slug his way back from a first-set loss at No. 5 singles, but he did so authoritatively. He won the second set 6-1 and the third-set tiebreaker 10-3.

Gulf Coast heads into the NJCAA Region 23 as the No. 1 seed, which earns the Bulldogs a first-day bye. The official bracket will come out Tuesday, but it appears Gulf Coast will get the winner of the No. 4 Itawamba-No. 5 East Central quarterfinal scheduled to be played Thursday.

The semifinals are set for Friday, with the finals Saturday, weather permitting.

This year's Region 23 tournament will be played in a team format, with Jones earning the right to host by way of winning the women's MACCC title.

Results

Team: Gulf Coast 8, Jones 1

Doubles

No. 1: Seth Macute-Wesley Fontaine (GC) def. Daniel Panzica-Gaspar Meda, 8-1

No. 2: Pedro Molero-Clay Fudge (GC) def. Nacho Vanecek-Trey Hilton, 8-4

No. 3: Anderson Dulaney-Jackson Ward (GC) def. Braxton Wallis-John Jabour, 8-5

Singles

No. 1: Meda (JC) def. Macute, 7-6, 6-0

No. 2: Molero (GC) def. Vanecek, 6-3, 6-4

No. 3: Fontaine (GC) def. Panzica, 6-7, 7-6, 10-7

No. 4: Fudge (GC) def. Hilton, 7-5, 6-3

No. 5: Dulaney (GC) def. Parman, 4-6, 6-1, 10-3

No. 6: Ward (GC) def. Ryan Myers, 6-2, 6-3

For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.