No. 15 Gulf Coast beat No. 22 NWCC in season finale

In a top-25 matchup to close the regular season, No. 15 Gulf Coast blanked No. 22 Northwest Mississippi 9-0 Tuesday in Senatobia.

The Bulldogs (11-5) finish the MACCC season 9-1, good for second place in the regular-season chase.

"We played pretty good," Gulf Coast coach Sam Blackburn said. "Against a ranked team, you can never take them lightly. We came out and played well. Being the last regular-season match, they wanted to finish on a good note. They did just that."

He said the three doubles courts were "rock solid," and the Bulldogs played well on all six singles courts.

They'll have a long wait before the NJCAA Region 23 Tournament, which will be played in Ellisville. It won't start until April 20. With 11 teams now playing tennis in the conference, eight teams will be in the tournament.

Gulf Coast will need to win three straight days to claim the region crown.

"We're definitely going to stay on top of our working out and conditioning," Blackburn said. "We want to be as fit as we can be for the region tournament. We'll play three matches in a row. We want to make sure we don't lose a match because we aren't ready fitness-wise. We're going to be working hard on the court, as well. We want to be peaking at the right time."

Results

Team: Gulf Coast 9, Northwest Mississippi 0

Doubles

No. 1: Paul Gayk-Owen Stice (GC) def. Chris Albert-Ian Gordon, 8-3

No. 2: Orren Ladner-Kyle Bond (GC) def. Bratton Willoughby-Samuel Turner, 8-4

No. 3: Anderson Dulaney-Triston Hill (GC) def. Kaleb Parish-JD Nelson, 8-0

Singles

No. 1: Gayk (GC) def. Gordon, 6-1, 6-2

No. 2: Stice (GC) def. Albert, 6-1, 6-1

No. 3: Dulaney (GC) def. Nelson, 6-3, 6-1

No. 4: Bond (GC) def. Parish, 6-3, 6-1

No. 5: Ladner (GC) def. Willoughby, 6-3, 6-2

No. 6: Hill (GC) def. Turner, 6-3, 6-1

For more information on MGCCC's 11 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.