Fourth Ranked Seward Tennis Dominates Barton

It was the Jayhawk Conference opener for the Seward County Saints and the Barton Cougars Tuesday afternoon at Blue Bonnet Park in Liberal. It was also a matchup between top 25 teams as the 4th ranked Saints took the court against the 25th ranked Cougars. The buildup was bigger than the show however as Seward had no problem in hammering Barton dropping just 13 total games in the nine match dual, beating Barton 9-0 to move to 11-0 on the season.

In doubles action, Seward cruised with Carlos Anez and Ondrej Nice pairing at the top spot to down the Cougars 8-2 and Alvaro Rengifo and Ngoni Makambwa teaming up to bounce Barton 8-1 at #2 to put Seward up 2-0. The #3 score was even more lopsided as Felipe Casares and Tare Mariga crushed the Cougars 8-0 without breaking a sweat to give the Saints a 3-0 lead into singles play.

Singles play wasn’t a whole lot of fun for the Cougars either as the Saints held nothing back, earning 6-0, 6-0 wins from Nice and Makambwa at #3 and #5 and 6-0, 6-1 wins from Anez and Alex Mosehle at the top two spots to take a 7-0 lead in the match. Casares played a close first set, winning 6-3 at #4, but stepped on the gas and won 6-0 in the second to put the Saints within one win of a sweep. Zach Suico took the court at #6 for the Saints and battled a blustery wind to knock off Benjamin Zamora 6-2, 6-3 to finish off the dual with a 9-0 Seward County win.

The Saints improve to 11-0 on the year with the victory, earning their first win over a ranked NJCAA opponent this season. Barton rough start continues as they fall to 0-6 on the year with the defeat.

Seward will remain in the friendly confines of Blue Bonnet Park in Liberal on Friday when they take on Kansas Wesleyan at 1:00 in the second of three home matches this week. The Saints will wrap the week with a huge matchup with the Cowley Tigers Saturday morning at 10:00.

#4 SEWARD COUNTY/#25 BARTON MATCH RESULTS<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/mten/2015-16/files/SewardBartonM2016.pdf>

While there isn’t an official Jayhawk Conference Tennis schedule currently in place, Tuesday’s matchup between the visiting Barton Lady Cougars and the 4th ranked Seward County Lady Saints had a different feel about it as the two Sunflower State schools hooked up. However, the results weren’t any different than the Lady Saints first 13 of the year as Seward cruised at seven of the nine spots and gutted out wins at two others to blow Barton out 9-0 to improve to 14-0 on the year.

Things got kicked off with doubles play and it didn’t take long for the Lady Saints to get out to a 2-0 lead as Nthabi Mogopodi and Thalita Rodrigues teamed up for an 8-0 whipping of the Cougars at #2 and Madison Hoelting and Tadi Mrewa did the same at #3. The #1 spot wasn’t much more contested as the sister duo of Maminiaina Rakotondrazafy and Mialiniaina Rakotondrazafy put away Barton’s top duo 8-2 to give Seward a 3-0 sweep heading into singles action.

Seward cruised in the bottom two spots of singles play as Hoelting and Mrewa finished their perfect afternoons with 6-0, 6-0 wins at #4 and #5 to quickly clinch the match victory for the Lady Saints. Seward continued to roll as Mialiniaina Rakotondrazafy took down Juliana Seabra 6-0, 6-2 at #2 and Mogopodi bounced Karli Beck 6-2, 6-1 at #4 to put the Lady Saints up 7-0. The match of the day came as expected at the #1 spot where Seward’s Thalita Rodrigues took on fellow Brazilian Daniela Sanz who came into the match for Barton ranked 6th in the country. Rodrigues came out with a 6-4 win in the first set before gutting out a 7-5 highly contested win to hand Sanz her first straight set loss of the season. The final match to get done Tuesday was at #3 singles where Maminiaina Rakotondrazafy took on Barton’s Idah Longwe. Rakotondrazafy had little trouble in the first, winning 6-3, but struggled in the second and Longwe took advantage, winning 6-2 to send the match to a tiebreak. In the tiebreaker, Rakotondrazafy found her stride once again, coming away with a 10-4 victory to seal the win as well as the 9-0 blanking for the Lady Saints.

The Lady Saints continue to build on a record breaking season as they improve to 14-0 on the year while Barton falls to 0-6.

Seward will continue a three match homestand on Friday when they host Kansas Wesleyan at Blue Bonnet Park for a 1:00 start before taking on Cowley in a Jayhawk Conference showdown Saturday at 10:00 in their biggest match of the young season.

#4 SEWARD COUNTY/BARTON MATCH RESULTS<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wten/2015-16/files/SewardBartonW2016.pdf>