Freshman Fatyha Berjane won the No. 2 singles national championship. (Photo by David Tulis)
Women’s tennis has roared back into the limelight at Georgia Perimeter College.
Freshman Fatyha Berjane and sophomore Idia Amen won national singles championships, Georgia Perimeter finished in fifth place, and Berjane and sophomore Nea Krpo finished second in the No. 2 doubles flight at last May’s national tournament in Tuscon, Ariz.
Sophomore Idia Amen, No. 3 singles national champion, won seven matches in two national tournaments, losing only one. (Photo by Bill Roa)
Without a doubt, 2013 was the best season the women’s tennis program has produced since winning a National Junior College Athletic Association national championship in 2000.
Berjane won the No. 2 singles championship, and Amen won the third flight. The victories give each a berth on the NJCAA All-America team.
Both prevailed in the title matches by defeating higher seeded opponents from the team champion, Tyler Junior College (Texas), which won its fourth consecutive national title.
Head coach Mohamed ‘Reda’ Nait Omar expressed utmost pride in his team’s accomplishments at nationals. He and assistant coach David Bennett got points from up and down the roster—all six players won at least one match.
“My motto is, ‘Go hard or go home,’ and that is what the girls did all week,” Nait Omar said. “Very proud of them. This is a great result that has been many years in the making.”
Amen, in her two-year career at GPC, won seven matches at nationals and lost one.
Before finishing in fifth place at the 24-team tournament, the Jaguars won another coveted prize in April, the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association championship. They did it with a convincing 7-2 victory over perennial conference champion Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College. It was the GPC program’s first conference title since 2001.
GPC freshman Niriantsa Rosolomalala won the No. 1 singles title and was named the GCAA Most Valuable Player, and Nait Omar earned the Coach of the Year award.
Also winning GCAA singles championships were Berjane, Amen, Larissa Nelson and Nea Krpo. In No. 1 doubles, Rosolomalala and Amen won the GCAA championship match, and Berjane and Krpo took the No. 2 title.
When Nait Omar took over the women’s program in 2007-08, he announced his goal to return Georgia Perimeter to the prominence in tennis it enjoyed when coach Joyce Garrett’s teams won eight straight region titles and a national championship in 2000.
In 2012 the Jaguars won an at-large bid to nationals, their first trip since 2001, and finished tied for 12th place.
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