Saints Win NJCAA Tennis Title

Kenny Hernandez

TYLER, Tex. – Seward County Community College claims a program’s first National Championship. The Saints won three finals championships on Friday, May 20th to secure the NAtional title outright. Karlo Krolo and Kyllian Savary won in their singles final and Luke Quaynor and Savary won their doubles match to give the Saints the final 45 points in the tournament.

Head Coach Mitch Vechione was named the Max Grubbs Coach of the Tournament and was presented with a plaque during the trophy ceremony.

The Saints had four singles matches to start the final day of competition and had two doubles matches to follow.

Luke Quaynor was the four seed and competed in the No. 2 singles final against the two-seeded Cheng En Tsai from ABAC. Quaynor fell 2-6, 7-6 (1-7) to En Tsai, and with the second-place finish in the draw, Quaynor was named to the second All-American team.

Kyllian Savary was the top seed and faced off against Hanamichi Carvajal from Cowley College who was the second seed in the tournament. Savary won the first set 6-2 but fell in the second 4-6. He pulled it together and dominated the third winning 6-1 and winning the No. 3 singles draw. Savary was named to the first-team All-American team with the victory.

Karlo Krolo was the three seed in the draw and faced off against the top seed Jakob Mosvold from TJC. Krolo won the first set 6-4, fell in the second set 1-6, and won the third set in a tiebreaker 7-6 (7-2). Krolo was named to the first-team All-American team with the victory.

Martins Abamu was in a rematch from the 2021 NAtionals number six finals with the top-seeded Andoni Garmendia from Cowley College. Martins fell in a tiebreaker in the first set 6-7 (10-12) and lost in the second set 3-6. Abamu was named to the second-team All-American team with his success in the tournament.

Seward County led Cowley by one point 44-43 with the Saints having two doubles teams set to play and the Tigers only had one team remaining in the No. 3 doubles draw. Cowley had to withdraw from their doubles match and with that, the Saints secured the NAtional title outright with two matches remaining.

The top-seeded Krolo and Fisicaro faced off against the second-seeded Fisher and Mosvold from TJC. Krolo and Fisicaro fell 3-6, 6-7 (5-7). Krolo and Fisicaro were named to the second All-American team with their success in the tournament.

In the final match, the Saints had their number two doubles team Quaynor and Savary taking on the second-seeded Dalisay and Riedel from TJC. The Saints fell in the first set 1-6 and battle back in the second set to win 6-4 after trailing 1-4 in the set. In the third set, Seward County came out and won 6-3 to win the match and improve the Saints overall tournament total to 45 points. Quaynor and Savary were named to the first-team All-American team for their success in the tournament.

The Saints win the program’s first National Championship and finished the season with a 14-3 regular-season record.