GGC (NAIA) wins 100th straight match but can they win vs D2 powerhouse Columbus State this week

jcgatennismom

Hall of Fame
Georgia Gwinnett, NAIA national champion for multiple years, won their 100th match in a row this afternoon. They have not lost a match since late spring 2015. In spring 2015, GGC lost to d2 powerhouses Barry and Azusa Pacific. GGC has some close calls this spring beating Emory 5-4 (last year they beat Emory 9-0 so Emory is getting close) and Barry 4-3. There is no challenge to GGC within NAIA; the most games out of 9 any NAIA team has won vs GGC over the last 5 years has been 2. Outside those two matches, no NAIA team has come closer than 2-7 in their other 15 matches this year. Too bad GGC does not play more D1 matches; they have played and beaten Kennesaw State and Tennesee Tech in past years, and every team's favorite whipping boy Citadel. Would be a great match if GA State and GGC would play-teams are even across all lines. GGC has its best matches for individual singles and doubles in fall playing some events with D1 and D2 players. Got to think Chase would be getting bored... Wish there were more crossplay between the best NAIA and D2 teams and the better MMs or lower power D1 teams-would provide close matches within a short drive for many teams.

Anyway tomorrow GGC plays Columbus State (in Columbus) which will be their only remaining opponent to pose a threat this year. Should be a close battle at 1 and 2 between the schools with GGC having a slight edge at the lower lines. Pannu who plays 1 for Columbus State went 3 sets with Gabriel DeCamps of UCF at the Southern Intercollegiates in Athens in Sept; DeCamps went on to win the A flight of the event. Pannu also won the WC to Qualifying at the BBT 250 in Atlanta last summer. He lost 3,4 to Kokkinakis (UTR 15.2) yet is only a UTR 13 himself mainly due to only a handful of 13s in all of D2-can't boost UTR without playing a lot of high ranked players.

While GGC won 100 matches straight since spring 2015, one of its few D1 opponents Citadel lost 137 matches in the same time period, winning only one match in its conference in 4 years. Citadel plays a lot of doubleheaders vs Power teams, helping them stay above .5. One season Citadel played 43 dual matches losing 32. So far in 2019 with at least 4 weeks to go, Citadel has already managed to lose 21 matches. Thought it was an interesting contrast between a team that cant lose and a team that is only too willing to get blanked by any Power team needing a sure win or two in an afternoon. Ironically Kriese used to hold summer tennis camps at the GGC site.
 
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tennisfan17

Professional
So happy to see a post not about only D1 teams! Columbus is a very tough team. My university plays them every year and their line up is scary good in D2 and just in general. One of their guys who floats around 3-5, Kokulewski, lost at the beginning of last semester to Zielinski in three tight sets. I think it will be a heck of a match! GGC is also just scary. Their line up is almost all at least 13 utrs, and they just have insane depth. I know when they barely won against Emory, they did not field the top two guys IIRC, but still. I think it will come down to the doubles point and bottom line up for the most part.
 

The Dawgs

Rookie
I wonder why they don't give much information on there site about the players. There is no age listed. Nor do they give much information on their tennis before they reached college. But congrats are in order. That is a tough feat on any level.
 

jcgatennismom

Hall of Fame
GGC did earn its 101st win today 4-2 in the matchup between the 2018 NAIA national champ and the 2018 D2 national champ Columbus State. I remember some of the first GGC players-former ATP 500 players like jr Wimbledon finalist Jordan Cox and Kevin Konfederak. I saw KK give some top D1 guys some competition in past Southern Intercollegiate fall events at UGA. Those guys graduated a year or two ago. Now that D1 teams are managing to bring in recruits with ATP and TTW points, it's doubtful GGC will bring as high a level of players, but still Chase brings in some of the top recruits among D2 and NAIA. GA is fortunate to be the home of recent NAIA, D2, and D3 champions as well as UGA who has won several D1 championships but not recently. GA used to be home of Armstrong State D2 powerhouse but that team was lost in the consolidation of GA Southern and Armstrong State campuses in recent years.

GGC has 4 remaining matches plus up to 4 matches in its 2019 championship run so GGCs tally should be 109 wins by May-the closest NAIA competitor has a UTR Power 6 of 73 to GGC's 77 (same as Dartmouth, Utah State, Clemson, Old Dominion, GA State, South Alabama and a little below South Florida, Ole Miss, OK State, Arkansas).
 
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