MGCCC has talented freshmen
PERKINSTON — The 2020 Mississippi Gulf Coast women's tennis season is filled with promise from a roster composed entirely of freshmen.
The season was scheduled to start Friday, but that match has been postponed because of expected bad weather. Gulf Coast will open play Friday at East Central, followed by a match Saturday at Itawamba. The first home match will be Feb. 11 against Hinds.
The Bulldogs struggled with a half-strength squad last season, sending only two players to the NJCAA tournament. This year figures to be different, though.
Coach Gary Bourgeois has a full complement of international players this year. Noni Charlton (Fr., Ipswich School/Ipswich, England) and Krissy Georgieva (Fr., Epsom and Ewell High School/Sutton, England) are a strong British duo.
"I'm very optimistic about our team, even though we have eight freshmen," he said. "We have two really solid players at the top of the lineup with Noni and Krissy. I think they're really playing well right now and had a really good fall. I'm expecting good leadership at the top of the lineup."
The Bulldogs' No. 3 and No. 4 players both won state championships at Stone High last year. Anna Stringer (Fr., Stone/Wiggins) and Kaylen Bond (Fr., Stone/Perkinston) have a lot of big-match experience.
Tia Topps (Fr., Grenada/Grenada) is penciled in to play at No. 5 singles, and she's improved as a doubles player since reporting in August. Bourgeois calls Chasity Snyder (Fr., Florence/Florence) one of the hardest-working players on the team, and she will start the season at No. 6.
The team has some depth to help in case of injury or illness issues. Tirzah Ginn (Fr., Laurel Christian/Laurel) and Anna Leigh Sandridge (Fr., Canton Academy/Canton) can help make up for lack of depth Gulf Coast had in some past seasons.
"If the freshmen understand what it takes to win, and that's what we've been drilling since August, how to play the big points," Bourgeois said. "That's been a big point of emphasis, what's the difference between a winner and a champion. The winner's about immediate results, but the champions about the process."
Gulf Coast has a majority of its home matches scheduled in the first half of the season. That's to take advantage of better weather in the southern part of the state, but also to get his young squad into collegiate action on their home court.
The Mississippi portion of the season will conclude April 15-18 with the MACJC/NJCAA Region 23 Tournament right here at the MGCCC Tennis Complex. That should also give his young squad an advantage.
The conference will see the usual suspects battling it out for the three spots to go to nationals in Tucson, Ariz., in May. Bourgeois expects Jones, Copiah-Lincoln and East Central to be slugging it out, and he thinks ECCC has its best squad in his 15 years at Perk.
Bourgeois has added assistant coach Sam Blackburn to his coaching staff. Blackburn returns to his alma mater, where he won MACJC All-Academic honors and won MACJC/Region 23 titles in singles and doubles as a freshman and the backdraw title at the NJCAA Division I Championship as a sophomore in 2016. He went on to play at Point University where he won ITA All-Academic honors. He's worked as a professional tennis instructor in New York.
"Sam has been a big addition to our team," Bourgeois said. "Living on campus, he's allowed us to have morning workouts. He does one-on-one work with the players, which gives us two coaches providing that. I've seen a lot of improvement with this situation that we haven't had in the past. I think that's going to translate into some big wins for us."
For more information on MGCCC's 10 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.
