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AUGUSTA, Ga. – The Augusta University women's tennis team earned the seventh seed in the 2018 Peach Belt Conference Tournament and will play second-seeded Georgia College in the quarterfinals on Friday, March 20. The PBC Tournament is a three-day event from April 20-22.
The event returns to the Dr. Eddie Floyd Florence Tennis Center for the sixth year in a row and will be hosted once again by Francis Marion.
Augusta went 10-9 on the season and 3-6 Peach Belt play to get into the postseason. Sophomore Alejandra Gonzalez Arranz leads the Jaguars with an 11-7 overall singles record, while lone AU senior Amelia Pinoargote posted a 10-7 mark in singles. Freshman Ana Faria and sophomore Merye Gobernate have a team best 10-8 mark in doubles play for Augusta.
The tournament begins with the women's quarterfinal matches on Friday at 9:00 a.m. The four winners will advance to the semifinals on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. and the championship match will be on Sunday, again at 9:00 a.m. The winner of the PBC tournament receives an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
Ranked No. 3 in the nation, Columbus State returns to the PBC Tournament as the No. 1 seed for the second year in a row. The Cougars won their first tournament title in 2017 and are the defending champions in 2018. Georgia College and North Georgia both finished the season with 7-2 league records. The PBC tiebreaker formula first examines head-to-head results and Georgia College will be the No.2 seed thanks to their 5-4 win over North Georgia.
Young Harris had their final regular-season match with Flagler snowed out on Tuesday and enter the PBC Tournament with a 6-2 league record and the No. 4 seed. Flagler will be the No. 5 seed and face Young Harris in the quarterfinals.
Augusta, Francis Marion and USC Aiken all finished the regular season with identical 3-6 records and needed all three steps of the PBC multi-team tiebreaker to be sorted. All three teams were 1-1 against each other and all had lost and beaten the same conference opponents during the season. The third step of the PBC tiebreaker adds up all match points won against all conference opponents throughout the season. USC Aiken had 36 points against league opponents with Francis Marion at 34 and Augusta at 25. PBC rules only separate out the top team in the tiebreaker, giving USCA the No. 6 seed.
Augusta and Francis Marion then re-start the tiebreaker process with head-to-head results. Augusta defeated FMU 5-4 on Feb. 20 and take the No. 7 seed, FMU will be #8.
Admission to the PBC Tournament is free.
2018 Peach Belt Conference Women's Tennis Tournament
Friday, April 20
9 am - Match 1 Women's Quarterfinal #1 Columbus State vs. #8 Francis Marion
9 am - Match 2 Women's Quarterfinal #4 Young Harris vs. #5 Flagler
9 am - Match 3 Women's Quarterfinal #3 North Georgia vs. #6 USC Aiken
9 am - Match 4 Women's Quarterfinal #2 Georgia College vs. #7 Augusta
Saturday, April 21
9 am - Match 9 Women's Semifinal Match 1 vs Match 2 winners
9 am - Match 10 Women's Semifinal Match 3 vs Match 4 winners
Sunday, April 22
9 am - Match 13 Women's Championship Match 9 vs. Match 10 winners
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