Coyos/Lopez Shine to Wrap Up Seminole Tourney

Seward County sophomores Paula Lopez and Paula Coyos all but wrapped up the #1 seed in #1 doubles for the NJCAA National Tournament next month on Saturday as the nation’s 2nd ranked pair going into the weekend, not only defeated a national contender from Seminole State, but also upset the #1 ranked duo from Tyler to improve to 11-0 on the year. Outside of the Argentinians, the Lady Saints struggled though, losing 7-2 to Tyler and 6-3 to Seminole to fall to 4-7 as a team on the season.

Continuing a busy weekend against top notched competition, the Lady Saints took on #2 Tyler to open up their play at the Seminole State Classic Saturday morning in Oklahoma City. The Lady Apaches quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Seward, picking up matching 8-1 wins at #2 and #3 doubles, but the match that everyone had their eyes on was at #1 where the #1 and #2 ranked duos in the country went head to head. Seward’s #2 ranked pair of Paula Lopez and Paula Coyos took on Tyler’s top ranked duo of Joanna Savva and Paige Murdock in a rematch of the 2014 ITA National Championship match. After seeing Tyler jump out to an early lead, the Lady Saints stormed back to win the match 8-6 to all but guarantee themselves the top seed for May’s National Tournament. As they did in the lower spots in doubles, Tyler dominated the 3-6 spots in singles action as well, as Seward managed just two total games in the four matches as the Apaches clinched the match and went up 6-1. Lopez and Coyos both had marquee matchups in singles as well as 3rd ranked Lopez took on #1 ranked Saava at #1 singles and 10th ranked Coyos battled 5th ranked Elizabeth Bagerbaesh at #2. Coyos was sharp, handling Bagerbaesh in a 6-1, 6-4 win to finish her finest day of her Seward County career while Lopez battled hard before falling to Saava 6-3, 7-6 (3) in a possible National Championship preview. In the end, it was Tyler coming out with a 7-2 win to drop the Lady Saints to 4-6 on the year.

#14 SEWARD COUNTY/#2 TYLER MATCH RESULTS<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wten/2014-15/files/SewardTylerW.pdf>

In their second match of the day, the Lady Saints took on the host team, the Seminole State Lady Trojans. Once again Seward struggled in #2 and #3 doubles, dropping both to fall behind 2-0, but Lopez and Coyos earned the Lady Saints a point with a 8-6 win over Miranda Rodriguez and Jaycie Talbot at #1 to make it 2-1 Seminole into singles play. Lopez and Coyos both cruised to victories at the top of the Lady Saints ladder, Lopez knocking off 9th ranked Rodriguez 6-1, 6-3 and Coyos continuing her unparalleled success with a 6-0, 6-0 blanking of 27th ranked Ana Ojeda to put Seward ahead 3-2 for the moment. The Lady Saints battled at their other singles spots as well as Kellyn Peters dropped a 6-4, 6-3 decision at #3, Naomie Bukassa fell 6-3, 6-1 and Xochitl Gonzalez and Grace Golden lost 6-2, 6-2 at #5 and #6 as Seminole came from behind to win the match 6-3.

#14 SEWARD COUNTY/#5 SEMINOLE STATE MATCH RESULTS<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/wten/2014-15/files/SewardSeminoleW.pdf>

The Lady Saints fall to 4-7 after the weekends action. Lopez and Coyos improve to 11-0 in #1 doubles play together while Lopez is now 10-1 in #1 singles and Coyos 11-0 in #2 singles.

Seward will play their final home match of the season on Thursday when they host Region VI foe Hesston for a 3:00 match on campus and at Blue Bonnet Park in Liberal.

Roy Allen

It looked like the 3rd ranked Seward County Saints were back on the right track after a pair of big wins over top 15 ranked opponents on Friday at the Seminole State Dual Match Classic, but after Saturday’s action, it was back to the drawing board for the guys in green as Seward fell 9-0 to the team one spot ahead of them in the rankings, Tyler, and dropped a 5-4 decision to #7 Seminole to fall to 8-3 on the year.

The Saints faced a tall task first thing Saturday morning in Oklahoma City as they took on perennial NJCAA powerhouse and 2nd ranked Tyler. Things did not start well for Seward in doubles play as they were hammered by the Apaches 8-2 in #1 and #3 doubles and were blanked 8-0 in #2 to fall behind 3-0 early on. Tyler had their way in singles action as well, throwing out five players in their six man lineup ranked inside the ITA top 50. Ronzai Saurombe and Vitor Galvao both hung tough at #1 and #2 singles against top 10 ranked players but fell 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5, 6-3 respectively as Tyler sealed up the match. Seward played respectably at the bottom of their lineup as well, but Tyler proved too much as they held the Saints without a single set win, blanking Seward 9-0.

#3 SEWARD COUNTY/#2 TYLER MATCH RESULTS<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/mten/2014-15/files/SewardTylerM.pdf>

The Saints second battle of the day was against 7th ranked Seminole State. Unlike the Tyler match, all three doubles matches in this one were close. In #1 doubles Saurombe and Galvao battled one of the top doubles teams in the country in Guy Iradukunda and Ismail Mzai. The Saints gave the Trojans a run, but in the end it was Seminole getting the best of an 8-5 decision to go ahead 1-0. Felipe Casares and Alvaro Regnifo picked up a solid 8-6 win at #2 doubles while Seminole earned an 8-6 win of their own at #3 doubles to go up 2-1 after doubles action. Saurombe faced another tough match in singles as he took on longtime friend and foe in #1 ranked Iradukunda. Saurombe pulled the upset in the first set, winning 7-5, but couldn’t hang on, dropping the second 6-3 and the tiebreaker 10-2 to come up just short. Regnifo picked up the Saints best win in singles, winning 6-4, 6-3 at #3 while Tare Mariga and Paul Arslanian both won in straight sets at #5 and #6 to give the Saints two more points. But in the end, Seminole squeaked just past the Saints 5-4 to hand Seward their first back to back losses of the season.

#3 SEWARD COUNTY/#7 SEMINOLE STATE MATCH RESULTS<http://www.sewardsaints.com/sports/mten/2014-15/files/SewardSeminoleM.pdf>

The Saints drop to 8-3 on the year with the losses and will look to bounce back with much less of a foe when they take on Hesston at home in Liberal at 3:00 Thursday.

Roy Allen