No. 13 MGCCC edges No. 18 Coastal Alabama-South

No. 13 Mississippi Gulf Coast closed out its men's tennis season Friday with a good tune-up for the postseason, edging No. 18 Coastal Alabama-South 5-4 in Daphne, Ala.

"We knew they had gotten better as the year went on," Bulldogs coach Sam Blackburn said. "They added a couple of players to their starting six and knew it was going to be a different team than we saw in the fall. We went down 1-2 after doubles, and I told the guys we were going to have step up and be courageous and play singles to win."

Vicente Faria (Fr., Lisbon, Portugal/Escola Secundária de Fonseca Benevides) and Gonzalo Cotter (Fr., Valencia, Spain/IVLA) got the only doubles win on the No. 1 court, and they won their two singles matches in straight sets.

Duarte Mestre (Fr., Lisbon, Portugal/Escola Secundária Sebastiao e Silva) gutted out a 10-point tiebreaker to win a long match at No. 3, and Triston Hill (So., Perkinston/Stone) won a tight 10-point tiebreaker at No. 4.

Gulf Coast will open the postseason on Thursday, April 18, with an NJCAA Region 23 Tournament quarterfinal against seven-seed East Central. The Bulldogs are the No. 2 seed, and with a win would advance to the semifinals at 2 p.m. April 19 to play the winner of the Itawamba-Hinds match. The championship will be played April 20 at 10 a.m. 

"Hopefully we can take care of the first round, and then most likely play Itawamba in the semifinals," Blackburn said. "We beat them earlier in the season, and we played a really good match against them. They are not a team you can take lightly. If we get through that, we know the finals will be a heckuva match. We're excited."

Results

Team: Gulf Coast Men 5, Coastal Alabama-South, 4

Doubles

No. 1: Vicente Faria-Gonzalo Cotter (GC) def. Ryan Robertson-Guido Loayza, 8-2

No. 2: Blake Roberson-Santiago Castillo (CAS) def. Triston Hill-Duarte Mestre, 8-4

No. 3: Jack Morris-Evan Little (CAS) def Hiram Havard-Jeremiah Layton, 8-4

Singles

No. 1: Cotter (GC) def. Roberson, 7-6 (0), 6-3

No. 2: Faria (GC) def. Loayza, 6-2, 7-6 (5)

No. 3: Mestre (GC) def. Robertson, 3-6, 6-1, 10-1

No. 4: Hill (GC) def. Morris, 6-7, 6-3, 10-8

No. 5: Castillo (CAS) def. Havard, 6-0, 6-1

No. 6: Sergio Forcall (CAS) def. Layton, 6-0, 6-4

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