The Georgia Gwinnett College men's tennis team once again finds itself playing for championship hardware following a dominant 4-0 semifinal victory against Southeastern University (Florida) on Saturday afternoon at the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's NAIA Indoor National Championships, being played in the Rome (Georgia) Tennis Center.
The No. 2-seeded Grizzlies (5-0) will play No. 4 Tennessee Wesleyan University for this year's title after the Bulldogs upset No. 1 and defending NAIA outdoors champ Keiser University (Florida) in Saturday's other semifinal.
GGC quickly seized control of its match behind strong doubles play against the No. 3 Fire (1-1).
Senior
Juan Carlos Garcia and freshman
Yerassyl Yerdilda teamed to win six of the seven games on the No. 3 court, setting the tone in the doubles portion of the dual match. Senior
Francisco Perez Esnaola joined sophomore
Gian Durrer in a 6-2 triumph at No. 2 doubles. That gave GGC an early 1-0 advantage.
The Grizzlies then won the first set in five of the six singles matches to further cement their control of the match.
Perez Esnaola doubled GGC's lead to 2-0 with a convincing 6-1, 6-0 victory at No. 5 singles. Senior
Luis Francisco Sampedro collected a 6-2, 6-0 win on the No. 2 court to tally the third point in the match.
Junior
Kanan Gasimov sealed the match victory with a straight-set 6-2, 6-4 triumph at the bottom of the singles lineup.
GGC is making in its fourth straight indoor national championship final, winning the last two titles. GGC and Tennessee Wesleyan met in the final match of last year's indoor nationals.
Coach's Corner
"The journey and growth continues for our group. I like that we're getting consistent performances in every lineup spot. That makes us tough to beat. All eyes turn now to the final match. We must prepare to bring our best competitive effort, from the first to the last point," said Head Coach
Tom Rees.
Up Next
Georgia Gwinnett College is scheduled to face Tennessee Wesleyan University in the championship match of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association's NAIA Indoor National Championships on Sunday, February 15, in Rome, Georgia, starting at 5:30 p.m. This marks the second straight year that the two teams have meet in the tournament's final match.
