GREENWOOD – How strong is the Peach Belt Conference in men’s tennis? The No. 1 team in the nation, Armstrong Atlantic State, isn’t even the No. 1 seed of the Peach Belt Tournament which begins Friday.
The No. 1 seed belongs to Georgia College & State University, while Lander is sixth in the tournament which will run Friday through Sunday at the Clayton County Tennis Center in Jonesboro, Ga.
The Bearcats will face No. 3 seed Columbus State Friday at 2 o’clock. The winner advances to Saturday afternoon’s semifinals while the championship will be decided on Sunday.
The PBC tournament will be one of the premier Division II men’s events in the nation with seven of the league’s nine teams ranked in the latest ITA national poll, by far the most from any single conference. PBC singles players also account for more than 25 percent of the top 50 ranked players in the country.
Georgia College captured its first-ever PBC regular season championship with a 7-0 conference record, going unbeaten in conference play for the first time. The Bobcats are currently ranked No. 6 in the nation.
Armstrong State will be the No. 2 seed despite being the No. 1 team in the nation and defending national champions. The Pirates fell to Georgia College, 5-4, on Feb. 24. However, Armstrong has not lost since, winning 14 straight matches for a 21-1 overall record to regain the top spot in the national poll.
Lander’s first-round opponent Columbus State fell to Georgia College, 5-4, then to Armstrong Atlantic, 6-3, in back-to-back matches in February, then went on a 12-match winning streak to be the third seed in the PBC. The Cougars, 15-4 overall, are ranked 8th in the nation.
"This has been an up year in our conference," Lander Coach Brett Simpson said. "We have four teams ranked in the top nine nationally. What that says is there are only five teams in the country who can compete with the top four in our conference. That’s highly accurate.
"And some of the top teams in our conference our going to lose a few matches in the Peach Belt which actually hurts their ranking. To say we have four of the top nine, we could possibly deserve even better than that."
The Bearcats lost 7-2 at Columbus on March 21, winning their only points in doubles.
"We were up 2-1 in doubles but lost all six in singles," Lander senior Damien Cordesse said. "It’s a team that we can beat. We had some very close losses. Our team matches up well against their players."
The Bearcats hope to win at least two of the doubles matches again and can then upset Columbus with some victories in singles. In the first meeting, Lander’s Levan Clark and Maxime Demars both lost in three sets after winning the first set, and teammates Sheharyar Wali and T.C. Valle both lost 7-6 sets.
"We were close to being up 3-0 in doubles," Cordesse said. "We’ll try to do the same thing in doubles. We had some very close (singles) matches. We are going to change the lineup a little bit because some of the matchups (Friday) could be better for us. They are not necessarily better players. We just have to figure out how to win those matches."
Simpson said "it is up to us to step it up" against Columbus.
"They are ranked eighth in the nation for a reason," Simpson said. "They are extremely tough in every position. There is no easy point out there. But I don’t think there’s a point that we can’t possibly get either. We’ll have to really play at a high level just to have a chance. We are going to give it all we’ve got and they (Columbus) are going to take us seriously."
The match starts with doubles and Lander hopes to get off to a good start Friday.
"I think that is our best chance right there," Simpson said. "It’s possible to be up 3-0, but it’s possible to be down 3-0. Since we did go up 2-1 on them, I’m sure they are going to be more than ready and hungry not to let that happen again."
Lander will line up with senior Cordesse, freshmen Clark and Wali, sophomore Juan Manrique, senior Valle, and sophomore Carlos Marques at Nos. 1 through 6 singles. The doubles teams are Wali and Valle at No. 1, followed by Cordesse and Manrique, and freshman Gary Bertoldo with Clark.
The Bearcats are not accustomed to the record that they have posted thus far in 2009. They are 8-7 overall and 3-4 in the Peach Belt. But as a testament to the strength of the PBC, Lander is ranked No. 18 nationally.
"There are no easy matches and we’ve had some injuries," Simpson said. "Right now, we are not a top 10 team. If you are not a top 10 team, you’re in the middle of our conference. You either have to be unbelievably good or you are not going to have a great year in our conference. We are a good team. We are capable on our day of beating a top 10 team. We haven’t done it yet. We might do it in the conference tournament."
Win or lose Friday, the Bearcats are also likely to reach the NCAA Southeast Regional because 12 teams from the Peach Belt, Conference Carolinas and the South Atlantic Conference will make the field. Three of the 12 bids are automatic with each of the conference tournament champions qualifying.
Lander would expect to be among the other nine, though a loss on Friday could possibly leave the team with some doubt.
"We are hoping to get a bid, but a win would be nice," Simpson said, meaning a victory over Columbus would all but assure the Bearcats of qualifying for the Regionals. "It is kind of a waiting game."
Regardless of the regional situation, Cordesse said Lander "needs" to beat Columbus.
"I think we have to win for our confidence," the left-hander said. "We could still go to nationals (with a loss), but we need some confidence to be able to beat one of those good teams. We have been close."
The Bearcats aren’t conceding anything in the PBC Tournament.
"Last year, we were seeded number two and now we have dropped to six," Cordesse said. "But look at what happened last year. The number six team last year was Francis Marion and they went to nationals. We have a very good conference. We have six very good teams. Anything can happen."
Cordesse said the team’s worse loss came Feb. 15 at home, 8-1, against USC Aiken.
"We lost all the doubles. We were down 3-0 very quickly. That was very disappointing," Cordesse said. "I don’t know what happened that day. It was a very bad day."
The other three conference losses were to three of the top teams in Armstrong, Columbus and Francis Marion. The Bearcats did not play Georgia College.
Cordesse said the team’s biggest win came March 29 at Augusta State, 6-3.
"We needed to beat them to keep up the sixth spot in the conference," he said. "We were 2-1 down in doubles and won all six singles. We are the only team that won all six singles against Augusta."
Cordesse and Simpson said the team is making progress.
"I’m a senior. But this is just my second year," Cordesse said. "We are a very young team. We are a work in progress. But we are playing better and better."
"All year, we’ve had injuries and other issues," the coach said. "We never quite knew who was going to be playing. Our doubles teams were always up in the air. We practice one way and all the sudden a guy gets hurt and we have to shuffle.
"We also had a lot of rainouts where we were prepared to play a team. It’s hard to get momentum in your lineup because we had weeks where we didn’t play because matches got rained out. But I think the lineup is pretty settled right now."
