The No. 1-seeded Georgia Gwinnett College men's tennis team is once again in familiar territory, playing for a national title after sweeping its third straight match at the NAIA National Championships at the Mobile (Alabama) Tennis Center.

The Grizzlies (20-0) scored a 4-0 victory against No. 4 seed Indiana Wesleyan University on Friday morning. That puts the team four points away from collecting its eighth consecutive NAIA championship.

Saturday's championship match will have GGC playing No. 3-seed Keiser University (Florida).

Georgia Gwinnett College, which hasn't lost a point in three matches in Mobile this year, has a 31-0 record all-time in matches at the national championships and a 167-match winning streak.

Against Indiana Wesleyan, the Grizzlies jumped out to fast starts on the No. 1 and No. 3 doubles courts. The senior tandem of Valentino Caratini and Agustin Tamagnone won five straight games to grab a 5-1 lead at No. 1 doubles. At the same time, sophomore Alex Gurmendi and freshman Guilhem Perez Le Tiec, playing together for the first time this spring, broke the serve of their No. 3 doubles opponent to take a 4-1 lead.

After the Wildcats won back-to-back games on the No. 1 court, Caratini smashed a serve during a deuce point to secure the 6-3 victory.

A minute later, Perez Le Tiec followed with a hard serve to clinch the match and doubles point by another 6-3 edge.

In singles, Caratini won 12 of the 14 games on the No. 4 court to continue his strong play this spring. The three-time NAIA All-American won all six games during the second set to close out the match.
Gurmendi earned his second victory of the day with a 6-0, 6-4 triumph on the No. 2 court. He won the last two games of the match to give the Grizzlies their third point of the match.

All attention then turned to senior Vicente Lagos on the No. 5 singles court. After capturing the opening set 6-3, he came back with an identical 6-3 score in the second set against Indiana Wesleyan's Isaac Steiner.

That moved GGC into the national championship match.
 
Coach's Corner
"The new doubles team of Alex (Gurmendi) and Guilhem (Perez Le Tiec) gave us a nice lift and new energy. Meanwhile, Valentino (Caratini) and Agustin (Tamagnone) were outstanding today at No. 1 doubles. Doubles was key and that 1-0 lead was huge. I'm most proud of Vicente (Lagos) in coming back after being taken out of the doubles lineup and failing to play singles in the Round of 16 match (Wednesday's 4-0 victory against Florida's Ave Maria University). At the end of the day this time of the season is about getting four points (to win the match)," said Head Coach Chase Hodges.
 
Up Next
Georgia Gwinnett College is scheduled to face No. 3 seed Keiser University (Florida) for the 2022 NAIA national championship on Saturday, May 21, at 9 a.m. central time from the Mobile Tennis Center.