Saint Men Tie School Tennis Record

With a 6-3 win Friday over Hesston, the Seward County
Saints Men’s Tennis team has made history, tying the school’s all-time
team wins mark at 6, a record that was set during the 2006 Spring
season. Things started well for the #16 Seward County Saints this
weekend in their final road trip of the 2013 regular season as they
began things with a 6-3 win over region opponent Hesston, but things
didn’t finish so peachy for the guys in green as they were knocked off
9-0 by #10 Johnson County in a match that was much closer than the final
count would indicate.

The Saints got things started on the trip with two early
wins against Hesston in doubles play. Justin Pena and Luke Robertson
continued to show why they are true contenders for the Region VI crown
as they breezed by Luis Ramirez and Keenan Jensen in #1 doubles 8-1 to
give Seward their first point of the day. In #2 doubles Donnersson
Penna and Daniel Alonte made things look equally as easy, besting Taylor
Ermoian and Drew Hostetler 8-2 to put the Saints on top 2-0. Hesston
drew to within one with a 8-5 victory at #3 doubles, but the Saints took
a 2-1 advantage into the singles portion of action.

There wasn’t a whole lot of drama in any of the six
singles matches on this day. Penna easily took care of Jensen in #2
play 6-0, 6-0 to put Seward up 3-1 and Robertson and Alonte sealed the
match win for the Saints with 6-1, 6-0 wins at #3 and #4 to put them
ahead 5-1. Hesston picked up points at #5 and #6 singles to make the
score respectable at 5-3, but Pena finished the Saints big day with a
6-2, 6-3 win at #1 singles over Ramirez to wrap up Seward’s 6-3 victory.

#16 SEWARD COUNTY/HESSTON MATCH RESULTS
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Next up the Saints had to crawl into a stirred up
hornets’ nest against Johnson County after the Cavaliers dropped from #4
to #10 in the ITA rankings just one day earlier. Johnson quickly showed
their might with a blanking of the Saints at #3 doubles 8-0 to take a
1-0 lead and took a 2-0 lead with an 8-3 win in #2 doubles. The matchup
at #1 singles was a marquee one as the 11th ranked duo in the country
Spartak Rahachou and Pedro Garcia from Johnson County took on the 13th
ranked pair in the nation Pena and Robertson from Seward. The match
lived up to its billing, going the distance before Rahachou and Garcia
pulled ahead late to win 8-6 to give the Cavs a 3-0 lead.

Johnson picked up the first two points in singles play
with wins at #5 and #6, dropping just one game in the process to secure
the match victory and earned easy wins at #2 and #3 singles to blow the
score wide open at 7-0. The matches at #1 and #4 singles were almost
identical as both Pena and Robertson won 6-3 first sets in their matches
before dropping their second sets 6-1 to force a third set tiebreak.
Taking on Rahachou, who is ranked 9th in the country, Pena, the
country’s #24 ranked player, battled to the bitter end before going down
10-5 to put Johnson up 8-0. The #4 match between Robertson and Olivier
Nimmegeers was the match of the day. In the third set tiebreak
Robertson held a late lead despite battling through a nagging shoulder
injury that has plagued him all year. Up 8-6, Robertson hit a shot that
looked to be a winner that would have sent him to match point, but
without officials assigned to regular season NJCAA tennis matches,
Nimmegeers called Robertson’s ball out and it swung the momentum to the
Cavalier side. Nimmegeers went on to win the final three points of the
controversial set to win 10-8 and wrap up the sweep for Johnson County
9-0.

#16 SEWARD COUNTY/#10 JOHNSON COUNTY MATCH RESULTS
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Seward finishes the regular season just one match under
.500 at 6-7 overall. The 6 wins tie the school’s all-time record for
wins in a spring season, matching the 2006 squads total. The Saints
will now head to the Region VI Tournament this weekend in Wichita as the
#3 seeded team. To qualify for the NJCAA National Tournament, the
Saints will need to finish in the top 3 at the region event which will
be played at the Riverside Tennis Center in Wichita. Play will begin at
9:00 at both days with the championship matches to be played Saturday
morning.