{"id":10529,"date":"2023-03-16T08:24:40","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T12:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/?p=10529"},"modified":"2023-03-16T08:24:41","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T12:24:41","slug":"undefeated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/2023\/03\/16\/undefeated\/","title":{"rendered":"Undefeated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

UNDEFEATED<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Former Women\u2019s Tennis Player Anita Buggins 
Inducted into the Southern Conference Hall of Fame<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
\n
\n

Former Georgia Southern tennis player Anita Buggins (\u201898) was one of five athletes inducted into the Southern Conference (SoCon) Hall of Fame in May of last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A native of Swindon, England, Buggins was a standout player at Georgia Southern, boasting a 30-0 record \u2014 undefeated in conference play for both singles and doubles matches her entire college career. When asked how she kept the streak going, she says she was always looking forward, not backward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI never really dwelled on the record or what we had done in the past,\u201d she said. \u201cI was always looking forward, looking to the next match and seeing what I could do in order to win that. Otherwise, it would start messing with your head and you put extra pressure on yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressure never seemed to phase Buggins, who won SoCon singles and doubles championships in 1995, 1996 and 1997, when she was named the SoCon Tournament Most Valuable Player. Along with Britta Wilms, her doubles partner and singles standout, Buggins helped the Eagles win SoCon titles in 1995 and 1996 and regular-season titles in 1995, 1996 and 1998. She was also a two-time SoCon Player of the Year for all women\u2019s sports, and was ranked as high as 30th in the country during her career with the Eagles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was very quiet, composed and focused on the court,\u201d said Cathy Beene, former tennis coach and Georgia Southern administrator. \u201cShe was an outstanding student and took care of her business. She was easy to coach and she always strived to get better. She\u2019s one of the best players I\u2019ve ever coached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe certainly deserves to be in the Southern Conference Hall of Fame,\u201d she added. \u201cWhen you go through your whole career and never lose a singles or doubles match in the conference, that\u2019s pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

PHOTOS: <\/strong>Anita Buggins (left) playing a match for Georgia Southern in the late ’90s. Buggins (right) a few years ago with her son, Lochlan, and her partner, Josh.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A geology major, Buggins was a GTE Academic All-District selection as a senior, and received her master\u2019s in geology from the College of Charleston. She returned to England to play tennis professionally, but after two years, a lack of sponsorship and a wrist injury led her to hang up her tennis career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buggins came back to the states to work as a geologist with several international firms and now resides in New Jersey. A few years after the birth of her son, Lochlan, she decided to become a stay-at-home mom, a role she\u2019s kept for 7 years. Needless to say, the Hall of Fame was a pleasant surprise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy tennis days are a long way behind me,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m definitely not doing that anymore. But it was kind of a chance to look back and reminisce, you know. Because often when you\u2019re in it and when you\u2019re doing it, you don\u2019t really have time to celebrate the wins and really reflect on what you did. Since looking back and looking at the records, I was like, \u2018Wow! That was actually pretty impressive.\u2019 So it was a nice little walk down memory lane.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked about her favorite memories from Georgia Southern, she says it was her team that she remembers the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI feel like the team camaraderie, both with the boy’s team and the girl’s team, we were a very tight-knit group,\u201d she said. \u201cOne year, Coach Beene took us to Disney because we were all foreigners and had never been there. That was a lot of fun. Also, getting to see other parts of the country \u2014 we went to Virginia and West Virginia and Tennessee and other cool places that none of us had ever been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a long time,\u201d she added. \u201cWe\u2019re probably overdue for a reunion.\u201d \u2014 Doy Cave<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Eagles tennis player Anita Buggins, receives the highest honor for Southern Conference student-athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":10532,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"wp-custom-template-post-with-feature-top-section","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[75],"class_list":["post-10529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","tag-spring-2023"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ww2.georgiasouthern.edu\/news\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}