Saints Show Growth During Day One at ITA’s

Jay Daubenberger

The Seward County Tennis program enters its second season with Brett Bridel at the helm and with that comes his first time coaching these Saints at the ITA Regionals since he came to campus in December of 2022. Coming off of a 6^th place finish at the 2023 on the women’s side and a reload on the men’s side this is the first proving ground for the 2023-24 squads.

The first day of the ITA Regionals for the Central division started on September 29^th with the Men’s Singles Open Draw opening the competition at 9 AM CT. The early start saw 5 Saints in action with Cem Atlamis putting himself in the win column after a 6-4, 6-0 match victory over Tadeo Sanchez of Iowa Central CC. Right below Cem Atlamis on the bracket was the 8^th seeded Samuel Antwi for your Saints. Antwi cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 victory in straight sets over Sixto Golobart of Pratt Community College. With these two Saints’ victories it was Saint vs Saint in the Round of 16 with Antwi pulling the victory out in the third set super-tiebreak.

The Saints went 1-2 after the first two singles matches with Sebastian De Las Salas defeating Martin Despodov of Pratt Community college with a score of 6-2, 6-2. Unfortunately, Antoine Adamiak and Ognjen Gajic fell to the back draw after first round defeats to two seeded opponents from Pratt and Cowley. Following his first round victory, De Las Salas dropped his second singles match of the day to the 6 seed Omar Suarez from Cowley College.

Next up were the Lady Saints who took the courts for their singles matches before the doubles matches began in the afternoon. Otoha Mogi started things off for the ladies and captured a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Im Garba of Iowa Central CC. Next was Lara Torres Baron who moved to the backdraw after dropping her match to Adjowa Sika Geil of Iowa Central CC 3-6, 4-6. Next came a straight set victory for Polya Nikolova over Yamile Mendoza of Pratt. Emma Petton, Camila Corrales, and Ana Serrano also moved on to the second round due to a BYE in their draw. However, after the second round Ana Serrano is the only one left standing for the Lady Saints after she defeated Camila Corrales to move on and Nikolova, Torres Baron, Petton and Mogi all dropped their second round matchups.

For doubles, on the men’s side Richard Patte and Antoine Adamiak won their opening round matchup 8-1 over a pairing from Iowa Central CC. This victory means that it will be more friendly fire for the Saints as Adamiak/Patte will face off against Cem Atlamis and Sebastian De Las Salas after their first round victory. On the women’s side, multiple pairings for the Lady Saints wound up in the quarterfinals, but none are left standing after their matchups.

Day two has a chance to be a memorable day early on in the Fall season for the Saints as multiple still stand unscathed in the main draw.

Tomorrow’s Schedule is as follows:

Men’s Singles Open Draw – 9 AM CT (Quarterfinals)

#1 Bruno Nhavene (Cowley College) vs. #8 Samuel Antwi

Men’s Doubles Open Draw – Following Singles Matches (Semifinals)

Antoine Adamiak/Richard Patte vs. Cem Atlamis/Sebastian De Las Salas

Women’s Singles Open Draw – Following Men’s Singles (Quarterfinals)

#4 Ana Serrano vs #5 Roselida Asumwa (Cowley College)