The Georgia Southwestern State University tennis teams continued their strong start to the 2019 season as the Hurricanes combined to go 5-1 in matches last week.
The women's team remains undefeated and is off to its best start in school history since joining the NCAA ranks in 2007. Freshman Sophia Winters led the way as she was perfect last week, winning all six of her matches. Winters racked up a 37-9 game record in singles and was 19-5 in doubles action.
On the men's side, Alex Canovas Ferrando, Nacho Garcia de Sola, Kenneth Limyadi, Beau Millwood and Matthew Limyadi all went 4-2 in their matches last week.
Both teams return to the Susan K. Smith Tennis Complex on Wednesday for a 2 p.m. match against Reinhardt University.
GSW WOMEN 7, FORT VALLEY STATE 0
The Lady Hurricanes made quick work of Fort Valley State on Wednesday. GSW won 72 of the 74 games played.
Hannah Hogg, Maria Taboada, and Winters did not drop a game in singles or doubles competition. FVSU had to default at No. 3 doubles and No. 6 singles.
GSW MEN 7, FORT VALLEY STATE 0
Similarily, the men wasted little time disposing of the Wildcats. GSW won 90 of the 95 games played.
Millwood and Matthew Limyadi were perfect on the day. Neither player lost a game in singles nor doubles competition.
GSW WOMEN 6, POINT 1
GSW won two of three matches in doubles on Friday afternoon to earn the team point and proceeded to take five of six singles matches for the road victory. All three doubles matches were close. Hogg and Winters won 7-5 at No. 1 over Sofia Villalobos and Joanna Gallman. Charli Allen and Alexandria Rhodes came through at No. 3, 7-6 (7-5), over Martina Belloni and Eman Cohen. Taboada and Celia del Castillo lost 6-4 at No. 2.
In singles play, del Castillo rebounded for a 7-6, 6-1 win over Gallman at No. 2. Taboada won 6-2, 6-1 against Maria Martinez at No. 3 and Winters cruised past Maddi Marler, 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4.
GSW MEN 0, POINT 9
The men lost in straight sets in every match but No. 3 singles where Kenneth Limyadi won the opening set and forced a decisive 10-point tiebreaker. Federico Barbon held off Limyadi, 4-6, 6-3, 1-0 (10-2). GSW lost two of the three doubles matches by 8-4 scores.
GSW WOMEN 4, SHORTER 3
GSW swept the three doubles matches on Saturday for the team point and won three of four singles matches to remain undefeated this spring and pick up a 4-3 win over Shorter.
Rhodes, Winters and Allen won in singles and doubles competition. Rhodes cruised to a 6-0, 6-0 win over Taylor Harper at No. 6 singles after teaming with Allen for a 6-2 victory over Harper and Anaelle Marchand at No. 3 doubles. Winters and Kendall Crew had no trouble securing a 6-0 victory at No 2 doubles. Winters held off Marchand at No. 3 singles, 6-2, 7-6. The match of the day came at No. 4 singles where Allen had to shake off an opening set loss against Alana Mulkey and rally for a 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 win.
GSW MEN 6, SHORTER 1
The lopsided score is not indicative of how tight and competitive this match was on Saturday, especially in singles play where four of the six matches were not decided after two sets.
GSW swept doubles, but had to rally from a set down in two of the singles matches to win by a comfortable margin. GSW's only loss was decided by a 10-point tie breaker after Kyle Eason and Anthony Lekoko split the first two sets. Lekoko won 6-4, 6-7, 1-0 (10-5). Canovas Ferrando rallied from a set down to win for GSW at No. 1 singles, 2-6, 7-5, 6-4 over Gregoire Vincent. Garcia de Sola couldn't have had a much closer match at No. 2, where he prevailed 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 over Malik Yawar. Millwood shook off a first set loss at No. 4 and won 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 over Benjamin Ginter. The Limyadi brothers were straight set winners in singles. Kenneth won 6-2, 6-3 against Kirandevaa Namadevan at No. 3 and Matthew won 6-3, 6-2 against Caleb Diller at No. 6.