No. 17 Lady Bulldogs claim MACJC/Region 23 titles
PERKINSTON — No. 17 Mississippi Gulf Coast claimed its first state women's tennis championship since 1987 over the weekend at the MGCCC Tennis Complex.
The Lady Bulldogs had won their last 12 dual matches heading into the MACJC/Region 23 Tournament, and they won the school's ninth women's state championship. The region title sends them to Arizona next month.
"We decided before the tournament that going to the national tournament without the championship ring was going to be anticlimactic," Gulf Coast coach Gary Bourgeois said. "They had a meeting they decided this was their championship. They'd played all the teams, they'd beaten all the teams, they knew they had the talent, the work ethic, the experience."
MGCCC finished with 28 points, four more than Meridian and seven more than Jones County.
Gulf Coast was led by Katie Burrall (So, Hernando/Hernando), Bianca Buie (Fr, Baia Mare, Romania/Gheorghe Sincai National High School) and Jenna Lyons (Fr, Pascagoula/Pascagoula). They combined to win two singles and a doubles championship.
Burrall won her three No. 3 singles matches in straight sets, defeating Meridian's Kyra Holway 6-4, 6-2 in the finals. She also won No. 2 doubles with Lyons when they beat East Central's Caney Mills and Andi McCrimon 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
"Katie Burrall stepped up and was really our leader on and off the court," said Bourgeois, who was named Region 23 Coach of the Year. "She rallied the team and just kept reminding them what was at stake. She kept them focuses and ready to play every time they went on the court."
Buie continued her dominance at No. 2 singles, beating Jones County's Anastasiia Bukhanova 6-4, 6-0 in the finals. She hasn't dropped a set all spring, a stretch of 21 matches.
Gulf Coast now heads to the NJCAA tournament for the 20th time. The event takes place May 7-12 in Tucson, Ariz.
Bourgeois will be taking a women's team to nationals for the sixth time, but this one will be different.
"I'm very, very happy that we're going to the nationals as champions and not as second or third place," he said. "That's big for the program."
For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCAthletics on Twitter and BulldogLIVE on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
