Saints Split but Women’s Tennis Comes Up Empty

The 12th ranked Seward County Men’s Tennis team saw
their season long three match win streak extended to four Thursday
afternoon in Arkansas City as they defeated Southwest Christian 7-2
before seeing the streak come to an abrupt end with an 8-1 loss to rival
Cowley on Friday. The Saints won the top two doubles and the top five
singles spots to defeat the Eagles while Seward’s #1 doubles squad
grabbed the only point of the day in their loss against #7 Cowley.

The Saints took a quick 2-0 lead over Southwest
Christian on Thursday with an 8-1 win at #1 doubles from Justin Pena and
Luke Robertson and another 8-1 victory from Donnersson Penna and Daniel
Alonte at #2 doubles to put Seward in front. Southwestern fought back
and grabbed a point in #3 doubles, as Dennis Sutterthwaite and Jessie
Riggs took an 8-3 decision over the Saints Josh Hamilton and Adrian
Amado to make the score 2-1.

Singles play was a breeze for the Saints at the top five
spots. Alonte and Robertson took care of business 6-1, 6-1 at both the
#3 and #4 spots to put Seward up 4-1 and Hamilton did the same at #5
singles to clinch the match for the Saints with their fifth win. Pena
defeated Josh Sapp 6-3, 6-1 at #1 singles to earn the Saints another
point and Penna dropped Nick Morris 6-0, 6-3 at #2 to finish off a 7-2
win for Seward.

#12 SEWARD COUNTY/SOUTHWESTERN CHRISTIAN MATCH RESULTS
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Next up things would get a little tougher for the Saints
as they prepared for a Region VI battle against 7th ranked Cowley.
Cowley notched the first point of the match with an 8-0 win in #3
doubles, but the Saints came back with an upset win in #1 doubles as
Robertson and Pena downed 7th ranked Jack Busby and Josh Coleman 8-5 to
even the match at 1-1. Seward looked well on their way to another
surprising win in #2 doubles as Penna and Alonte held a 6-2 lead on
Edgardo Tapia and Ryan Hoverson, but the Saints duo couldn’t hold on as
the Tigers roared back to win the match in a tiebreak 9-8 (7-1) to take
a 2-1 lead in the dual.

It didn’t take long for the Tigers to secure the win as
Busby got his revenge on Pena with a quick 6-1, 6-0 win in #1 singles
while Tapia won 6-0, 6-0 over Penna in #2 singles and Carlos Rodriguez
downed Amado 6-0, 6-1 to give Cowley a 5-1 lead. Hamilton battled Evan
Keller in #5 singles but fell 6-4, 6-0 while the two matches of the day
came in #3 and #4 singles with Alonte and Robertson. Alonte went up
against Coleman at the #3 spot and won a great first set 7-6 (7-5), but
Coleman came back to tie things up at 1 with a 6-4 win in the second set
to force a tiebreak. In the tiebreak it was another epic battle between
the evenly matched players with Coleman eventually coming out on top
10-7 to take the match. The match at #4 singles was an interesting one
as Robertson took on Hoverson. Robertson took the first set rather
easily 6-2, but Hoverson returned the favor in the second with a 6-1
victory to send that one to a tiebreaker as well. In the tiebreak it
was a back and forth battle with Hoverson finally breaking free at the
end of the set to win 10-8. Cowley came away with the win that on paper
looked like a route 8-1, but with three tiebreaks going the way of the
Tigers, it easily could have been a 5-4 match instead.

#12 SEWARD COUNTY/#7 COWLEY MATCH RESULTS
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The Saints remain one win above .500 with the 1-1
weekend which brought their overall record to 5-4 on the year. The
Saints will be back at it on Saturday when they travel to Salina to take
on a pair of four year schools in Bethany and Ottawa before returning to
Region VI action next Wednesday against Johnson County in Wichita.

WOMEN

Following a subpar performance in a win over Barton on
Tuesday, the 10th ranked Seward County Lady Saints tennis team knew that
they would have to step up their game this weekend as they traveled to
Arkansas City to take on a pair of fellow top 20 teams in #18 Cowley and
#8 Seminole. Unfortunately for the gals in green, that didn’t exactly
happen as Seward was blanked by the Lady Tigers 9-0 before falling 5-1
to the Lady Trojans in their next match to come home without a win on
the trip.

In a tough Region VI matchup with Cowley the Lady Saints
got off to a decent start, batting the Lady Tigers in all three doubles
matches, but were unable to come up with a single point. In #1 doubles
Anna Braun and Katiuska Adarmes made the 4th ranked duo in the country,
Ana Ruzir and Lexie Maytubby, work to knock them off before falling 8-4.
In #2 doubles it was Leticia Monteiro and Kathryn Roohan for Seward
County battling Erianne Adams and Melissa Bassoo for Cowley, a match
that the Lady Tigers pair came away with 8-3. The third doubles spot
was another encouraging performance for Seward County despite an 8-4
loss as Kurstie Zepeda and Alma Varela went toe to toe with Sarah
Giraldo and Bailey Cornejo before going down to give the Lady Tigers a
3-0 lead.

Singles action was dominated by the Tigers for the most
part as Cowley won at #1, #3, #4, and #6 rather easily to secure the
match win, but Adarmes and Roohan put up a fight for the Lady Saints at
the #2 and #5 singles spots. After falling 6-0 in the first set to
Giraldo, Adarmes fought all the way back to tie the match at 1 and force
a third set tiebreak after a 7-6 (9-7) dramatic victory in the second
set. The third set was another good one between the two as they went
back and forth until finally Giraldo broke through in the end to come
away with a 10-7 win to take the match 2-1. In #5 singles Roohan was
the aggressor, taking the first set 6-4 over Adams, but the Lady Tigers
star clawed back to draw even with a 6-3 second set victory and won
easily in the tiebreak 10-2 to secure the sweep for Cowley 9-0.

#10 SEWARD COUNTY/#18 COWLEY MATCH RESULTS
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On the heels of their battle with Cowley, the Lady
Saints didn’t have much time to recover as they then had to turn around
and take on an even tougher task as they went head to head with #8
Seminole State, a team that had already defeated them twice in the
2012-2013 season. Seminole took an early 2-0 lead with 8-2 and 8-3 wins
in #1 and #3 doubles, but Zepeda and Roohan gritted out an 8-6 win in #2
doubles over Ashley Bryen and Kirby Shannon to give the Lady Saints
their first point of the day to make it 2-1.

Seward was blown away at the first two singles spots,
winning just four total games in the two matches to fall behind 4-1 and
despite leading 5-3, Montiero was unable to finish her match with
Shannon due to an injury and retired to give Seminole their fifth point
of the day to seal the match for the Lady Trojans. With five points and
another match with Cowley still on the schedule for Seminole, the two
coaches decided that that would do it for the dual and the Lady Trojans
came away with a 5-1 win. The stoppage probably cost the Lady Saints a
couple of points on the scoreboard as Roohan was leading 6-0, 2-1 in #5
singles and Zepeda was tied 2-2 in #3 singles at the time the match was
called.

#10 SEWARD COUNTY/#8 SEMINOLE STATE MATCH RESULTS
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6711:wtn-10-sc-1-5-seminole-st-5&catid=39:wtennis&Itemid=221>

The losses drop Seward to 2-5 overall on the season.
The Lady Saints will be back at it on Saturday when they travel to
Salina to take on a pair of four year schools in Bethany and Ottawa
before returning to Region VI action next Wednesday against Johnson
County.