No. 12 Bulldogs win 5-0 in quarters

ELLISVILLE — No. 12 Mississippi Gulf Coast started later than scheduled Friday, which isn't uncommon in the postseason tournament, but the Bulldogs quickly took care of business against Northwest Mississippi.

Gulf Coast won 5-0 in the last quarterfinal of the NJCAA Region 23 Women's Tennis Tournament.

"There's always a little pre-tournament nerves that come into play, but they shook those off in doubles and steamrolled after that," Gulf Coast coach Sam Blackburn said. "I'm proud of the girls. They came ready to play."

The Bulldogs improved to 13-4 on the season, and they'll play early Saturday morning in the semifinals. Because of expected bad weather later in the day, the match against No. 17 Meridian will be played at Tatum Park in Hattiesburg. First serves are set for 8 a.m., and the Jones-Itawamba semifinal will be played at 8:30 in Ellisville.

"It's nothing new for us," Blackburn said. "We've had a lot of early starts and long road trips. This will be another day for us. We're excited, and I'm pumped up to play in the semifinals."

Gulf Coast and Northwest had closed out the regular season against each other 10 days before, and the result was the same. The Bulldogs swept doubles, and the match ended after Kendall Burn (Fr., Wiggins/Stone) and Niyah Strickland (Fr., Quitman/Pacuta) closed out their matches 6-0, 6-0 at Nos. 5 and 6 singles.

The Bulldogs hadn't dropped a singles game when the other matches were stopped after the clinch.

Results

Team: Gulf Coast 5, Northwest Mississippi 0

Doubles

No. 1: Tanyaradzwa Kaome-Angela Moreno (GC) def. Amelia Anding-Grace Ann Wade, 8-3

No. 2: Hayden Hensarling-Kendall Burn (GC) def. Raney Peacock-Holly Stewart, 8-1

No. 3: Bayley Askin-Abigail Garman (GC) def. Rivers Tarsi-Lia Ramos, 8-0

Singles

No. 1: Kaome (GC) def. Anding, 6-0, 3-0

No. 2: Moreno (GC) def. Stewart, 6-0, 3-0

No. 3: Askin (GC) def. Wade, 6-0, 2-0

No. 4: Hensarling (GC) def. Peacock, 6-0, 4-0

No. 5: Burn (GC) def. Tarsi, 6-0, 6-0

No. 6: Niyah Strickland (GC) def. Ramos, 6-0, 6-0

NJCAA Region 23 Women's Tennis Championship

April 13-15

Ellisville

Friday

Quarterfinals

No. 1 Jones 5, No. 8 Southwest Mississippi 0

No. 3 Meridian 5, No. 6 East Central 1

No. 4 Itawamba 5, No. 5 Copiah-Lincoln 4

No. 2 Gulf Coast 5, No. 7 Northwest Mississippi 0

Saturday

Semifinals

Meridian vs. Gulf Coast, 8 am at Tatum Park in Hattiesburg

Jones vs. Itawamba, 8:30 a.m. in Ellisville

Sunday

Championship, 10 a.m.

Third-place match, 2 p.m.

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