COLUMBUS, GA – The top-seeded Columbus State Cougars and third-seeded Flagler Saints each won their respective semifinal matches on Saturday and will face off in the PBC women’s tennis tournament championship match on Sunday morning. Columbus State beat fifth-seeded Augusta 4-1 while Flagler downed second-seeded North Georgia.
The two teams will meet in the championship match for the second straight year. Flagler defeated CSU in 2021, ending CSU’s run of three straight tournament titles.
In Saturday’s semifinal, the Cougars had their hands full with an Augusta team that defeated Georgia College on Friday. In doubles, the #2 CSU team of Niela Trklja and Agostina Bigotti dispatched Augusta’s Carlota Costa and Edith Rueda 6-2. Augusta fought back at third doubles as Claudia Borbon and Clara Bascunana entered a tiebreak with CSU’s Sara Ramirez and Luciana Galves tied at 6-6. The AU team did not falter, winning all the tiebreaker points 7-0 to win the match 7-6.
That left the doubles point in the balance at #1 singles where CSU’s Mariana Ramirez and Valentina Abrile were also headed to a tiebreak with AU’s Teresa Franco and Julia Moraes. This time it was the Cougars who strung points together, winning the break 7-1 and the match 7-6 to give the doubles point to CSU.
The Cougars carried that momentum into singles where Galves beat Bascunana 6-0, 6-1 at fifth singles for a 2-0 CSU lead.
Rueda then scored a point for Augusta at fourth singles with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Yelena Labat. But that would be the only point for the Jaguars as all other singles matches went the way of the Cougars.
CSU’s Bigotti defeated Costa 6-2, 7-5 at sixth singles and the Cougars clinched at #1 singles where Trklja defeated Borbon 6-1, 7-6.
The other semifinal was even tighter, but did not begin that way as Flagler took the doubles point in fairly straightforward fashion. The Saints’ Luisa Hrda and Eden Schlagenhauf beat UNG’s Vaishali Jorge and Claudelle Labonté-Frey 6-0 at #1 singles while Alessandra Traub and Anika Nissen beat the Nighthawks’ Johanna Lippert and Svetlana Teterina 6-3 to take the point.
North Georgia rallied in singles, winning their first point at sixth singles with Cibeles Zuddy beating Addie Breunich 6-1, 6-0.
Flagler then picked up two more points for a 3-1 lead. Nissen defeated Teterina 6-0, 6-2 at fourth singles while Hrda took out Jorge 6-1, 6-4 at #1 singles.
But North Georgia responded again. Lippert defeated Schlagenhauf 6-4, 6-2 at second singles while Labonté-Frey edged Florencia Massardo 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 at fifth singles to tie the match at 3-3.
That left the match in the hands of #3 singles. Flagler’s Traub took the first set from Anna Markvartova 6-3 and held a 5-2 lead in the second set before Markvartonva rallied with three straight games. She trailed 40-0 in the third of those games before winning five straight points to knot the set at 5-5. Traub then held serve for a 6-5 lead and then broke Markvartova’s serve with three straight points to take the set and the match for Flagler.
The winner of the PBC tournament receives the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.