Kicola Kusy hits a backhanded shot during his singles match on Sunday in Valdosta.

Valdosta State tennis returned to action Sunday after a long break. Both tennis teams put up strong showings to beat North Alabama, 6-3, in both matches.

The Lady Blazers actually fell behind early after doubles play, 2-1. Michelle Fischer and Sara Braun and Juliana Boehm and Alina Nagel both fell in the top two spots of doubles. Fischer and Braun lost, 8-3, to Natalia Barragan and Victoria Rees while Boehm and Nagle fell, 8-5, to Mackenzie Bishop and Madison Patey.

Maja Ehses and Tina Trautmann were able to keep North Alabama from sweeping doubles with an 8-2 victory over Bruna Vieira and Teresa Franco.

Down one, the Lady Blazers nearly swept singles play, only dropping the second position. Ehses fell to Bishop, 7-5, 6-4. All the other Lady Blazers not only won, but won in two sets. Fischer beat Rees, 6-0, 6-2, in the top spot while Boehm won over Vieira, 6-3, 6-4, in the third spot.

Trautmann and Nagel beat Barragan and Patey, 6-2, 6-1 and 6-2, 6-2 respectively while Jessica Tuggle stepped up in the sixth position to beat Ashley Alfonso, 6-3, 7-6 (2).

With that, the Lady Blazers move to 4-3 on the season and an undefeated 3-0 in conference play.

In the men’s match, the Blazers were able to gain the early upper hand with two victories in doubles play. Konstantin Kutschenko and Sebastian Jasyk beat Constantin Witten and Mirko Sommerfeld, 9-7, in the second spot while Tammok Haake and Nicola Kusy defeated Rob Whitsitt and Jonathan Vick, 8-2, in the third doubles position.

Unfortunately, VSU could not make it a clean sweep in doubles play with an 8-3 loss in the top spot from Christian Hansen and Niklas Herbring.

Both players, however, bounced back to get wins in singles action.

No. 21 Hansen beat Witten, 6-2, 6-0, in the top position while Herbring beat Alexey Kavalenka almost as easily, 6-3, 6-4, in the third spot. At second singles, No. 50 Kutschenko took down Matt Feury, 6-0, 6-1.

In the final singles spot, Haake beat Jonathan Vick, 6-4, 6-0, and that would be all of Valdosta State’s victories in the match as VSU fell in fourth and fifth singles.

With the 6-3 victory, the Blazers improve to 5-2 on the season and an undefeated 3-0 in GSC action.