Box Score GSC Championship Central
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – For the second-straight year and 13
th overall, the Valdosta State men's tennis team won the 2019 Gulf South Conference Championship with a 4-2 win over West Florida Saturday afternoon.
The Blazers, ranked No. 16
th nationally and the top-seed in the GSC Championship after going a perfect 10-0 during the regular season in league play, won their 15
th-straight match Saturday. VSU (15-3) will earn the automatic bid for the GSC into the NCAA South Regional as the NCAA Division II Men's Tennis Selection Show will be Tuesday, May 7 at 8 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.
In the second thriller of the season with UWF, the Blazers jumped out to the early 1-0 lead with a pair of doubles victories as juniors
Yohan Nguyen and
Axel Holm won at No. 1, over No. 25-ranked Serdar Bojadijiev and Vitinho Galvao, 6-4. VSU also won at No. 2 doubles as senior
Jordi Mas and sophomore
Florian Simbozel downed Robin Rafaitin and Pedro Cordeiro, 6-4.
No. 7-ranked UWF (20-6) tied the match 1-1 with a win from Rafaitin at No. 4 over senior Xavi Pineda, 6-3, 6-2. The Argos took a 2-1 lead at Cordeiro won at No. 6 over freshman
Robert Cizek, 6-1, 6-2, but that's when VSU mounted its comeback.
VSU tied the match with a win from Nguyen at No. 3 as he defeated Lucas Sanchez, 6-4, 7-5, and the Blazers took a 3-2 lead as Simbozel downed Juan Cabrera at No. 2 in the only match in three sets, 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.
Only fitting, in a battle of two top 15 players, No. 14 Mas bested No. 5 Bojadjiev at No. 1 singles in a pair of 7-6 tiebreakers to win the championship.
This marked the fifth-straight year VSU and UWF have played in the conference final with VSU taking the 3-2 lead in the five matchups. The Blazers now hold the GSC all-time record for men's tennis conference titles with 13.
Check back with vstateblazers.com on Tuesday evening to see if VSU will host a portion of the NCAA South Regional at the VSU Tennis Courts.
