MGCCC tennis faces rugged week

PERKINSTON — The Mississippi Gulf Coast tennis teams face a busy three days, with MACJC matches on tap at the MGCCC Tennis Complex each day starting Thursday.

Northeast visits Thursday at 2 p.m., with East Central coming to Perk on Friday at 1 p.m. and Copiah-Lincoln on tap Saturday at 1 p.m.

"I wanted to prepare to test our conditioning and see where we are physically," Gulf Coast coach Gary Bourgeois said. "When you play the state tournament, you have to have recovery built in."

The men's and women's teams are each 3-3 after a challenging match against Eastern Florida State, which are both ITA top 10 teams.

The Bulldogs and Lady Bulldogs expect stiff competition against this week.

"Co-Lin and East Central are playing really well," Bourgeois said. "They both have their chests out and are looking to come in here and do some damage."

Paulina Estrada (So, San Luis, Mexico/Colegio Del Bosque) and Bianca Buie (Fr, Baia Mare, Romania/Gheorghe Sincai National High School) play Nos. 1 and 2 singles and combine at No. 1 doubles.

"The women are really impressive at the top of the lineup," Bourgeois said. "Paulina and Bianca have been really playing well. Bianca really stepped up in her match against Eastern Florida."

Bianca got MGCCC's only win against EFSC, and Katie Burrall (So, Hernando/Hernando) and Jenna Lyons (Fr, Pascagoula/Pascagoula) are solid at No. 2 doubles.

The ultimate success of the squad will probably revolve around the four, five and six spots in the singles lineup.

"Our success is going to be based on the bottom of the lineup," Bourgeois said. "This is a real good test how we are conditioning-wise, mentally and how we defend our home court."

The men have been battling the flu and some injuries. He will do some more tinkering with those last three spots on the men's side, too.

Those bumps and bruises let some other players step into the lineup, and they've played well. That makes a good problem to have to fix.

"I think we're going to experiment a little bit this week and see how we stand, because we play them all again," Bourgeois said. "There are still a lot of challenger matches being played (on the team). This will give us a barometer where we stand in the league and let us know what we need to do to improve."

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