The men’s and women’s tennis teams made their first trips to the Sun Belt Conference Championship in school history over the weekend and returned with some promising results.
The men captured the SBC title in a tense, five-hour marathon final match. It’s their first conference crown since capturing the 2007 Colonial Athletic Association championship.
Junior Robert Schulze earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award and was responsible for the match clinching point versus Middle Tennessee State University in the finals.
Schulze dropped the first set, 3-6, to MTSU’s Ettore Zito before claiming the final two sets, 6-4, 7-6 (7-1).
Victor Valente, Lucas Santa Ana and Paul Schuette won their singles matches in the finals to help Georgia State secure the four precious points needed to earn the seventh conference title in school history.
The team will be headed to the NCAA Tennis Championships in Urbana, Ill. later in May. Their position in the bracket will be determined on April 30.
The women’s team defeated Louisiana-Monroe and MTSU before falling to North Texas in the finals.
The team dropped the doubles point to begin the match and wasn’t able to rally in the singles portion, losing by a final score of 4-2.
Georgia State’s two points in the final came from singles victories by junior Abigail Tere-Apisah and freshman Linn Timmermann, who were both named to the All-Sun Belt Conference Championship team.
Tere-Apisah, currently ranked No. 41 in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings, should receive an invitation to compete in the NCAA national championship as an individual.
