COLUMBUS, Ga. – For the third consecutive season, the No. 5 University of North Georgia (UNG) women’s tennis team will appear in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship after the Nighthawks defeated No. 28 Georgia College (GCSU) 4-1 in the semifinals in Columbus, Ga. on Saturday.
UNG (17-6) advanced to the finals after handling the Bobcats (15-6) expeditiously on Saturday.
The Nighthawks started the day by quickly earning the doubles point as Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) women’s doubles No. 8 Angelina Linnikova and Carolina Reis scored a 6-3 victory in the #1 match.
Senior Ashley Moinard and freshman Vasilissa Kupriyanova then won the #3 doubles match 6-3 moments later to earn the overall match point.
UNG then improved its lead to 2-0 in the match as ITA women’s singles No. 2 Linnikova raced past Chiara Santoro 6-1, 6-1 in the #1 singles match. Linnikova improved to 20-0 in singles play this season with the victory.
In #2 singles, Moinard earned her second victory of the day with a 6-4, 6-3 disassembly of Jada Young. Moinard’s 13th singles victory of the season pulled the Nighthawks within clinching territory in the semifinals.
Freshman Linn Goerdes then clinched the match with a thrilling comeback victory at #4 singles. Goerdes dropped the first set 1-6 to Rachel Black but rallied for 6-3 and 6-4 victories in the final two sets.
Despite only being a rookie, Goerdes now ranks second on the team with 14 singles victories this season. Her resilience in Saturday’s clinched the 4-1 victory and put UNG through to the PBC Championship for the third straight year.
No. 10 Columbus State was victorious on the other side of the bracket over No. 7 Flagler, setting up a rematch of last year’s Southeast Regional Championship which UNG won 4-3 to aid its run to the NCAA Division II National Semifinals.
In this year’s regular-season meeting, the Nighthawks took down the Cougars 4-3 at home.
UNG will go for its second straight PBC Tournament Championship Sunday, April 27 at 1 p.m. against the Cougars. A victory would make the Nighthawks the first team to win back-to-back tournament titles since 2019.
