By Christian Malone
VALDOSTA — The Lady Blazers are going back to nationals.
Valdosta State’s tennis team earned another trip to the national tournament in Altamonte Springs, Fla., a suburb of Orlando, with a 5-0 sweep of West Florida Saturday morning at the VSU tennis courts.
The Lady Blazers can’t wait to get to central Florida and take on the best teams in Division II later this week.
“We are so excited. We are really pumped up,” said Natali Gumbrecht, the Gulf South Conference’s East Division Player of the Year. “We love Orlando.”
“We’re real proud of the team. They’re an exceptional bunch of girls, and we’re real lucky to have them,” said VSU assistant coach Hollie Bees, who coached the team this weekend.
It was an especially memorable day for VSU’s Karine Redon. Redon, the Lady Blazers’ only senior, sealed her team’s victory with a 6-1, 7-6 win over West Florida’s Renata Mattos at No. 5 singles. She also won in doubles with Raphaelle Durante, 8-1. Then she left the tennis courts, put on her cap and gown and walked across the stage to receive her diploma at VSU’s 1 p.m. commencement ceremony at The Complex.
After she won the final point of her match, Redon leaped in the air and let out a loud scream of joy. She shook hands with Mattos, and within seconds, was mobbed by her happy teammates. First it was Durante, her doubles partner and fellow Frenchwoman. Then it was Kristel de Groot, who was playing on the court next to Redon. The rest of the team quickly converged on her, and all of them began to celebrate the big win. Soon after, they called VSU head coach John Hansen, who was in Boca Raton, Fla. with the men’s team, and let him celebrate with them via cell phone.
Valdosta State President Dr. Patrick Schloss even got involved in the celebration. After VSU’s morning commencement, Schloss walked over to the tennis courts to watch the end of the match — still dressed in his robe from the graduation ceremony — and afterwards, posed for a photo with the team, kneeling on the ground next to Blaze, the school’s mascot.
The team could not have been happier to earn another trip to nationals.
“It’s wonderful,” Gumbrecht said. “I am so excited.”
“This is the culmination of all the hard work they’ve put in for the whole season,” Bees said. “They do it all so that we can go to nationals.”
On paper, Saturday’s matchup looked very even. Valdosta State is ranked No. 4 in Division II, West Florida No. 5. Also, VSU was playing without its No. 1 singles player, Dominique Rothlaender, who is out with a broken foot (but sat in the stands and cheered on her teammates, wearing her VSU uniform). But on Saturday, the match turned out very one-sided.
The Lady Blazers dominated.
Valdosta State jumped out to a huge lead by sweeping the doubles matches. Redon and Durante routed Suzanne Calvacante and Paulina Ojeda 8-1 at No. 1 doubles. Gumbrecht and Tina Trautmann defeated Mattos and Caitlyn Baines 8-5 at No. 2 doubles. Sonya Haggstrom and de Groot completed the doubles sweep with a 9-7 win over Taylor Brewster and Yana Bokareva at No. 3 doubles.
“That made all the difference today,” Bees said about the three doubles wins.
Valdosta State only needed to win two of the six singles matches to advance. Durante blazed through her match with Ojeda, winning the first set 6-0, then closing it out with a 6-3 second-set win. Then Redon gave her team the victory it needed with her straight-sets win over Mattos.
The rest of the Lady Blazers were doing quite well, too, when Redon won the final point. Gumbrecht (who won a first-set tiebreaker with Calvacante, the nation’s No. 5 player), Trautmann and Haggstrom were all up one set when the team clinched the win.
“They all went out there and they all gave their best,” Bees said. “We knew that we didn’t have Bommi (Rothlaender), and that was going to make it tougher. They just all stepped up to the plate in an exceptional manner, and I’m really, really proud of them, and so is Coach Hansen.”
Durante and Redon came up especially big this weekend. They moved up to No. 1 doubles and won both of their matches. And against both Nova Southeastern on Friday and West Florida on Saturday, they won the team’s two singles points.
“The girls did really, really well, especially Rapha and Karine, stepping up to the No. 1 spot,” Bees said. “They played an excellent match. They’re on fire. Hopefully they’ll be able to continue this into next week.”
