The No. 2-seeded Georgia Gwinnett College women's tennis team used a fast start in doubles and strong play throughout singles for Friday's 4-1 semifinal victory over No. 6 Southeastern University (Florida) to advance to the championship match of the NAIA national tournament at the Mobile Tennis Center in Mobile, Alabama.

GGC (20-1) has reached the championship match in all nine seasons of the program's postseason eligibility, winning seven national titles.

Not dropping a game in doubles, the Grizzlies quickly grabbed the early lead in the match. Seniors Angel Carney and Tereza Koplova won all six games on the No. 3 court to claim the first victory. A few minutes later, the junior tandem of Stephanie Fernandez and Eva Siska sealed the doubles point with a 6-0 triumph on the No. 2 court.

All three doubles teams jumped out 3-0 advantages less than 10 minutes into their matches.

Junior Justine Lespes hit a strong forehand to close out one of the early games on the No. 1 court with sophomore Cassidy Mataia.

"Cassidy and I make for a good doubles team because we communicate well on the court. Our (tennis) games complement each other very well," said Lespes.

The strong starts continued in singles as the Grizzlies won the opening set on five of the six courts.

Carney collected a 6-0, 6-1 victory at No. 5 singles for her third straight postseason singles triumph on the No. 5 court. Moments later, Fernandez was victorious 6-0, 6-2 in the No. 6 match, giving GGC a 3-0 advantage.

Southeastern got on the scoreboard with Simone Simas' straight-set victory at No. 4 singles.

However, Lespes became the third different Grizzly to clinch the match victory at the NAIA Championships by winning the second set on No. 2 court by a 6-1 score. That came after she scored a 7-5 triumph over Southeastern's Micah Sypert in the opening set.

"It is a good feeling to clinch the team victory and send us to the national championship match. I played my type of game in the second set and won a lot of points at the net," said Lespes about her match-clinching singles match.

GGC will be facing top-seeded Keiser University (Florida) in the NAIA national championship match on Saturday, May 20, starting at 10 a.m. The teams will be facing each other in the finals for the fifth consecutive season.
  "Southeastern is a great team that plays with a lot of energy. We've been executing our game plan in doubles. Today's performance was just amazing. Our team is really unified and playing well together. I'm excited about tomorrow. They deserve to be playing for a championship," said Head Coach Hannah Keeling.
  Georgia Gwinnett College is scheduled to play No. 1 seed Keiser University (Florida) in the 2023 NAIA National Championship match on Saturday, May 20, from the Mobile Tennis Center, starting at 10 a.m.