No. 13 Men’s Tennis sails on Sophomore Day

PERKINSTON — No. 13 Mississippi Gulf Coast's Sophomore Day went off without a hitch Friday, with the men's tennis team cruising to an 8-1 win over No. 19 Meridian at the MGCCC Tennis Complex.

"Our depth prevailed again," Bulldogs coach Sam Blackburn said. "We got some good wins at the top of the lineup against good players, which is just great to see. From start to finish, our guys played at a high level and really did their jobs. We got good tennis overall from the whole team."

Gulf Coast (8-6, 7-1 MACCC) was celebrating three sophomores: Ryland Buford (So., Gulfport/Gulfport), Connor Hartfield (So., Oak Grove/Oak Grove) and Nick Dulaney (So., Long Beach/Long Beach).

Buford is out right now, but Hartfield and Dulaney won their matches. Hartfield teamed with Cree Cunningham (Fr., Wiggins/Stone) to win their No. 3 doubles match without dropping a game. Dulaney dropped only one game in a straight-sets victory at No. 5 singles.

"Those three guys have contributed in their own different ways," Blackburn said. "They're all different guys, and all brought different things to the program. They've all been incredibly positive, and we would not have the season we're having without those three guys. They're gonna leave big shoes for our freshmen to fill when those dudes leave."

Meridian is 4-9, 2-6.

Gulf Coast will head over to New Orleans early Saturday morning to scrimmage Dillard University at 10:30 a.m. The Bulldogs' next MACCC match is Tuesday when they head to Decatur to play East Central at 2 p.m.

Results

Team: Gulf Coast 8, Meridian 1

Doubles

No. 1: Daniel Espin-Jared Escobar (MCC) def. Angel Hernandez-Brennan McGlothin, 8-3

No. 2: Jan Bako-Warren Hudson (GC) def. Ned Simpson-Gavin Robles, 8-5

No. 3: Cree Cunningham-Connor Hartfield (GC) def. Jack Tutor-Hayden Williams, 8-0

Singles

No. 1: Hernandez (GC) def. Escobar, 3-6, 6-4, 10-4

No. 2: Bako (GC) def. Espin, 7-6, 6-2

No. 3: Hudson (GC) def. Simpson, 2-1 (retired)

No. 4: Brennan McGlothin (GC) def. Jackson Grady, 6-0, 6-0

No. 5: Nick Dulaney (GC) def. Gavin Robles, 6-0, 6-1

No. 6: Cunningham (GC) def. Tutor, 6-1, 6-0

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