No. 15 Bulldogs launch postseason against No. 24 ECCC

PERKINSTON — No. 15 Mississippi Gulf Coast is making some minor tweaks headed into the NJCAA Region 23 Women's Tennis Tournament. It starts Thursday in Ellisville.

The Bulldogs will be playing No. 24 East Central in a match scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

"We've made some adjustments to our doubles lineup, which I think could be really beneficial for us in the tournament," Gulf Coast coach Sam Blackburn said. "Honestly, we're just working on maintaining the level that we finished the season with. We finished really strong, and if we can maintain a good mindset and stay physical and improve the doubles, we have a good shot to do really well this week."

The teams met exactly a week before Thursday's showdown. It was their final match of the MACCC schedule, and Gulf Coast won 6-3 in Decatur after winning two of three doubles matches. The third-seeded Bulldogs finished 10-6 overall, while the sixth-seeded Warriors are 8-6.

The winner will advance to the semifinals to play the winner of the match between second-seeded Copiah-Lincoln and seventh-seeded Southwest Mississippi. That match will be at 2 p.m. on Friday.

"There's a little more pressure, and every court really matters a lot," Blackburn said. Everybody plays singles at the same time, and matches can go really quickly, or it could go the other way pretty fast if you're not ready to play. There's a little more on the line, for sure, but I think after all the big matches we played, and the tough teams we played this season, we'll be ready for that."

Tournament Central, with live scoring links, can be found at https://jcbobcats.com/sports/2023/4/10/2024-njcaa-region-23-wtennis-championships.aspx.

NJCAA Region 23 Women's Tennis Tournament

April 9-11

Ellisville

Quarterfinals

Thursday, April 9

No. 1 Jones vs. No. 8 Meridian, 8:30 a.m.

No. 4 Northwest Mississippi vs. No. 5 Hinds, 10:30 a.m.

No. 2 Copiah-Lincoln vs. No. 7 Southwest Mississippi, 1 p.m.

No. 3 Gulf Coast vs. No. 6 East Central, 3:30 p.m.

Semifinals

Friday, April 10

Jones/Meridian winner vs. Northwest/Hinds winner, 10 a.m.

Copiah-Lincoln/Southwest winner vs. Gulf Coast/East Central winner, 2 p.m.

Championship

Saturday, April 11

Finals, 10 a.m.

Third-place, 2 p.m.

For more information on MGCCC's 12 intercollegiate athletic teams, follow @MGCCCBulldogs on Twitter and MGCCCBulldogs on Facebook, and go to mgcccbulldogs.com.