With three returning sophomores and four new players
ready to don the green and white, the Seward County Lady Saints Tennis
team kicked off their 2010-2011 season last Friday in Oklahoma City and
put up a good showing against some of the best players from around the
region. The Lady Saints finished with 12 wins including four singles
players reaching the semifinals or consolation semifinals or deeper and
all three doubles teams accomplishing the same feat. On the day Seward
ended up 6-10 in singles action and 6-4 in doubles.
The Lady Saints placed a pair of players in the #1
singles bracket as Dariya Dashutina and 2010 NJCAA Freshman of the Year
Fanny Benincasa started play on the opposite side of the draw from each
other. Dashutina first matched up with Lisa Olian from Dallas Baptist
University and quickly advanced to the second round with a 6-1, 6-2 win.
Her second match came against Calia Respaut, the 3rd seeded player in
the bracket from Seminole State. Dashutina and Respaut went back and
forth through the first set and the Trojans Respaut narrowly came out
ahead 7-6 in a tiebreak. In the second set, Dashutina again played the
eventual tournament champion close but fell 6-3 to end her tournament
in 5th place. On the other side of the bracket, Benincasa dropped her
first match to Faiga Schmidt of Southwest Baptist 6-2, 7-5 but then came
back in the consolation bracket to win her first match there 8-2 over
Elly Johnson of Friends University. She then moved on to the second
round where she received a bye which set up a match against Karla
Martinez of New Mexico Military in the semis. Benincasa and Martinez
played a close match, going back and forth to the end but Martinez would
just edge out Benincasa at the end as she came away with an 8-6 victory.
Marcela Abrantes was the Lady Saints representative in
#4 singles play and would drop her first match of the day 6-4, 6-1 to
Melissa Reynolds of Oklahoma Wesleyan in the first round. She wouldn’t
let it get her down though as she fought back in the consolation bracket
to reach the final after an 8-3 win over Allison Gerber of Newman
University in the first round and then an 8-4 decision over Diana Barns
of Oklahoma Baptist in the semis. In the finals she would be pitted
against Alyssa Hawkins of New Mexico Military and would play maybe the
best match of the day as it took 5 tie break sets to determine it before
Hawkins came out the victor 9-8 (2) to win the championship.
In #5 singles it was Lindy Kowalchuk that drew the call
and she would play a drawn out first round match against Jessica Evans
of Cowley that she would come out on top of 7-6, 3-6, 6-1 to advance to
the round of eight. In the second round Kowalchuk squared off with 2nd
seeded Samantha Haight of North Central Texas and Haight was dominate,
winning 6-0, 6-0 to put Kowalchuk 5th for the tournament.
Seward’s #3 player Kauana Goncalves played the OKC Open
in the #2 singles bracket and after falling 6-0, 6-1 to Elise
Burnett-Godfree, turned things around with a 3rd place finish in the
consolation bracket after a loss to 3rd seeded Hannah Innes in the semis
8-5.
Caitlin Workman, another Lady Saint playing in her first
collegiate action of her career finished 5th in the #6 singles bracket
after picking up an upset victory over 3rd seeded Amber Evans of Collin
County before falling to Anna Le of Newman University in the quarters
6-1, 6-1.
In #3 singles play, Salitza Abrantes represented the
Lady Saints and went up against a tough draw, as she was matched with
2nd seeded Natalie Friend from Abilene Christian in the first round
where she lost 6-0, 6-0 and then against Mariana Rosa of Oklahoma
Baptist in the first round of the consolation bracket where she lost 8-1
to end her day.
In doubles play, the Lady Saints top two players in
Dashutina and Benincasa teamed up to make what should be expected to be
one of the top doubles teams in the country this season. The pair took
care of Zinnia Leamana and Kelsey Rebin of Collin County 8-4 and upset
the 3rd seeded team in the bracket Hannah Kelley and Cassie Carver of
Abilene Christian 8-6 to move to the semifinals. In the semis the two
ran up against Lilian Fereirra and Paola Costa who were open entrants
into the tournament and fell 8-4 to end their tournament in 3rd place.
In #2 doubles action Abrantes and Goncalves paired to
take on Micah Hermsdorf and Madelyn Walker of Abilene Christian
University where they fell 8-2 to send them to the consolation bracket.
In the consolation bracket however, the duo put on a show, defeating
Katie Metcalf and Amber Owens of Collin County in the first round 8-5
and then receiving a bye to get to the round of four. In the semis they
found themselves across the net from Emily Jones and Ashley Dunham and
dropped the pair from Newman University 8-5 to march on to the title
match. In the championship match they went up against Alyssa Hawkins
and Adalyn Hazelman of New Mexico Military who had won their previous
three matches 8-0, 8-0, and 8-0 to reach the finals. The Seward County
duo of Abrantes and Goncalves weren’t about to let that happen to them
though as they raced out to an early lead before closing the door 8-6 to
win the championship.
The feel good story of the day came in the #3 doubles
bracket for Seward County as Kowalchuk and Abrantes paired on the
bottom half of the bracket and Workman teamed up with Erica Pope of
Seminole State to form a team on the top half of the draw. Workman and
Pope got together as a result of both Seward and Seminole having an odd
number of players at the tournament and therefore didn’t have their
normal doubles partner there to play with them. Never having played
together the pair played extremely well as they lost a nail biter in the
first round to Katie Klausmey and Anna Le of Newman University 8-6 and
then fell 8-1 against the 4th seeded team of Jess Cossari and Monica
Lunardi of North Central Texas in the first round of the consolation
bracket in their final match. Kowalchuk and Abrantes played one of the
closest matches of the day in their first round matchup with Selby
Cornejo and Jessica Evans of Cowley as the teams went back and forth for
17 sets before the Tiger pair of Evans and Cornejo eventually came out
the victors of a 9-8 decision. In the consolation bracket Kowalchuk and
Abrantes were given a win in the first round over 2nd seeded Collin
County when Regan Perme and Fernanada Estrauzalus were stopped from
continuing with an injury and then got the second round off with a bye
to move to the semis. In the semifinal round the Lady Saints went up
against 3rd seeded Samantha Dunn and Bailey Martinez of New Mexico
Military and found themselves on the wrong end of an 8-3 score to finish
them in 3rd place in the consolation bracket.
Men’ tennis
After a successful first weekend of the season, the
Seward County Saints Men’s Tennis team was excited to hit the court
again Tuesday as it traveled to Wichita to take on the Newman University
Jets. What the young Saints squad lacked in experience against the
4-year University Jets, they made up for with their skills as they
cruised to a 12-1 victory on the day in their first dual of the season.
The Saints were a perfect 9-0 in singles play on the day
but not without a little bit of drama early on the afternoon. Laericeo
Lobo played out of the #1 spot for the Saints and had to come back from
an 0-1 deficit after falling 6-2 in the first set to Jimmy Dunseith.
Lobo got things together and returned the favor on Dunseith 6-2 in the
second set to even things at 1 apiece and then won the tie break 10-5 to
come away with the win. Seward’s #2 player Nathan Nelmes faced the same
situation as Lobo did earlier as he fell 6-4 in the first set but came
back with a 6-1 statement win in the second set against Chris Copenhauer
to even things up. Nelmes then took the momentum to the 3rd and final
set where he won 10-5 as well to pick up the victory. A common theme on
the day, Felipe Cruz followed his teammates footsteps in his first set
against Kevin Klein by losing 6-3 and turning around for a big 6-1 2nd
set win to knot things up. In the tie break Cruz and Klein battled back
and forth with Cruz coming away with the 10-8 win. The rest of the
Saints decided it would be more fun to just go ahead and take care of
business and be done with it as Raphael Machado, Cristiano Mendes, Lucas
Ikovitz, Eduardo Munoz, Alex Richards and Rafael Raw all won in straight
sets to put the Saints a perfect 9-0 in singles play. Machado defeated
Victor Bello 6-1, 6-4 while Mendes handled Nathan Peters easily 6-1, 6-2
to cruise to a victory. Izkovitz beat Andrew Haralson by matching 6-1
scores and Munoz beat Derek Emmert 6-3, 6-1. Richards took care of
Jered Ferris in a close match 6-3, 7-5 and Raw wrapped things up with a
6-2, 6-2 win over Daniel Dragomirov.
In doubles action the Saints had to work a little bit
harder as Lobo and Nelmes kicked things off with a 9-8 (7-2) thriller
win over Dunseith and Bello before the Saints only loss came at the
hands of Copenhauer and Klein who beat Cruz and Machado 8-6. Mendes
and Izkovitz had no problem with Ferris and Haralson, winning 8-3 and
Munoz and Raw teamed to knock off Dragomirov and Emmert 8-4 in the final
match of the day.
The Saints next action comes this weekend as they travel
to the Bethany Tournament in Lindsborg to play on Friday and Saturday.