Seward Fall Tennis Update

The Seward County Saints tennis team finished their fall
season this weekend at the ITA Fall Regional Tournament in Wichita,
posting a 6-8 team record against some of the best players in the
nation. Justin Pena led the charge for the guys in green in the
tournament, reaching the semifinals in the singles draw and teaming up
with Luke Robertson to win the consolation draw on the doubles side of
things.
The Saints sent four players to the tournament, which
lumps players of all skill sets and lineup positions into one draw with
the winners going to the ITA Fall Nationals in Alabama. Daniel Alonte
and Donnersson Penna both hit the court for Seward in the first round
while Justin Pena and Luke Robertson drew byes to the second round.
Alonte had a rough go of things in the tournament, falling 6-1, 6-1 to
Edgar Vitkovski in the first round and then going down to 5th seeded
Ryan Hoverson of region rival Cowley in the consolation bracket 8-6.
Penna was able to come up with the Saints first win of the tournament,
knocking off Stephen Baker of Seminole State in his opener 6-2, 6-0 but
ran into a buzzsaw in the second round when he squared off against 2nd
seeded Daniel Dezamacona of Johnson County, losing 6-1, 6-1 to end his
run. After picking up the first round bye, Robertson matched up against
another Seminole State player in Mitch Vechione and the Minnesota native
had no problems with his Trojan opponent, winning 6-2, 6-0 to breeze to
the quarterfinals. In the quarters Robertson faced the stiff task of
taking on the top seed in the tournament Tendai Tapfuma of Seminole
State. Robertson gave Tapfuma all he could take, dropping the first set
6-3 before battling the #1 player to a 7-5 decision in the second set to
be eliminated from the tournament in 5th place. Pena was the Saints
unsung star on the weekend, playing a thriller in his first match
against Dimitar Komov of Seminole State, winning 6-1, 1-6, 12-10 before
pulling off the upset of the tournament against 4th seeded Pedro Garcia
of Johnson County, winning 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the semifinals. In
the semi’s, Pena’s magical run came to an end at the hands of Tapfuma as
well, as the top player for Seminole took him down 6-1, 6-0 to reach the
final which he eventually won as well.
In doubles, the same four players took the court for
Seward as Alonte and Penna teamed up as did Pena and Robertson for the
guys in green. Both received first round byes and had trouble in their
first official matches. Alonte and Penna went down 8-4 to Brown and
Vitkovski of Seminole State while Pena and Robertson fell 8-3 to
Dezamacona and Garcia of Johnson County. Alonte and Penna were first up
in the consolation draw as well and weren’t able to outdo Azucey and
Vechione of Seminole, falling 8-4 but their teammates picked them up as
Pena and Robertson breezed to an 8-0 win in the consolation semi’s over
Keller and Rodriguez of Cowley before putting the same blank on Azucey
and Vechione in the final to take the consolation bracket title.
Seward finished the tournament a respectable 6-8 overall
with a 4-5 mark in singles and a 2-3 record in doubles and finish the
fall at 21-38 overall, but doesn’t do the Saints justice after having to
forfeit a number of matches this fall because of numbers. The Saints
will have the winter off before hitting the court again in February to
begin their Spring season, looking to return to the NJCAA National
Tournament.

There may have been just four of them, but the four Lady
Saints that represented Seward County at the ITA Regional in Wichita
this past weekend did the green and white faithful proud as the doubles
teams of Leticia Monteiro/Kurstie Zepeda and Katiuska Adarmes/Anna Braun
each reached the tournament semifinals and three of the four reached the
second round of the tournament in the singles draw to end their 2012
fall season.
The first round of the tournament was a good one for the
Lady Saints at the ITA Regional. Anna Braun led things off with an easy
6-0, 6-0 win over Krystal Morris of Seminole State and Katiuska Adarmes
did the same, winning in straight sets against Alyssa Schurle of Cowley
to move to the round of 16. Kurstie Zepeda got a bye in the first round
while Leticia Monteiro lost her matchup to Erika Castillo-Lopez of
Johnson County 6-0, 6-0. The Lady Saints didn’t have as much luck in
the second round of the tournament though as Braun fell 6-4, 6-2 to top
seeded Shannon Beckett of Johnson County, Zepeda went down 6-0, 6-0 to
4th seeded Shawnee-Ann Brelsford of Seminole State, and Adarmes fell in
a good 6-4, 6-3 battle against 5th seeded Jean Ochs of Johnson County.
In the consolation bracket Monteiro lost 8-5 to Erianne Adams of Cowley
to end her tournament while Zepeda got revenge for her teammate, winning
8-1 over Adams to advance to the consolation semis. In the semifinal of
the bracket Zepeda knocked out Ashley Bryen of Seminole State 8-2 to
earn a spot in the final and she had no problem with another Lady
Trojan, Kirby Shannon, there, winning 8-2 to claim the consolation
title.
On the doubles side of things the Lady Saints showed
well again. Monteiro and Zepeda got an upset "win" over Brelsford and
Pinones, the top seeded team from Seminole State, when the duo was
forced to withdraw because of eligibility issues. Adarmes and Braun
earned their way to the semifinals with an 8-5 win in a good match
against Buenger and Ochs of Johnson County to set up an all Region VI
semifinal in the doubles draw. Monteiro and Zepeda faced off against
Beckett and Castillo-Lopez from Johnson County and couldn’t ever get
their footing, going down 8-1 to end their tournament. On the other
side of the draw, Adarmes and Braun went up against the #1 seed Giraldo
and Ruzir of Cowley and played them to the wire before falling 8-6 in a
stellar match for both sides.
All in all the Lady Saints were 6-8 overall on the
weekend, going 5-5 in singles action and 1-3 in doubles. Seward
finishes the fall 26-34 overall and was 26-28 in actual matches played.
They will gear up over the winter before opening Spring action in
February.