Seward Nets 15th at National Tournament

After reaching the NJCAA National Tournament yet again in 2011 the Seward County Saints Men's Tennis team has a 15^th place finish to boast about going into next year.  The Saints finished the tournament with 15 points, just 1.5 points away from a 12^th place finish after a 10^th place finish at the 2010 tournament.

The Saints #1 singles player Laercio Lobo struggled in a draw with some of the nation's best players, dropping his first match in straight sets 6-0, 6-0 to Oliver Gilbert and then his consolation bracket match 6-2, 6-0 to 4^th seeded Mbonisi Ndimande to end his tournament.  Nathan Nelmes took on the field in the #2 bracket and lost by matching 6-4, 6-4 scores in his first match to Andrew Barnett before dropping down to the consolation bracket where he was 1-1 with a win over Jonothan Franz 6-2, 6-0 and a loss to Joan Valls 6-2, 2-6, 10-2.  The Saints #3 player for the tournament was Felipe Cruz who won his opening round match over Matt Canelon 6-3, 6-1 before falling to 4^th seeded Pete Tomason 6-2, 6-2 to finish him 9^th in the tournament.  Raphael Machado was also a 9^th place finisher after beating Joey Nylund 6-1, 6-0 in the first round before dropping his match in the round of 16 6-1, 6-1 to Taylor Hardy.   Cristiano Mendes was a 6-3, 6-0 winner in the first round over Luke Wilson and played possibly the match of the tournament for the Saints in his second round contest where he fell to Rene Martinez 7-6 (4), 7-5 to place 9^th in #5 singles. Seward's top point getter most of the season, Lucas Izkovitz was again the Saints top performer at the National Tournament.  In #6 singles play Izkovitz defeated Mitch Peters 6-1, 6-0 and Jose Cobo 6-2, 6-0 to make his way into the final 8 players in the draw.  In his quarterfinal match Izkovitz split the first two sets with 2^nd seeded Rafael Bugiga 6-0, 1-6 before dropping the final set to the eventual National Champion 6-3 to finish his week in 5^th place. 

In the top pool of doubles pairs Lobo and Nelmes were first round winners over Barnett and Holton 7-6 (3), 6-3 but ran up against the top seeded and eventual tournament winners Kante and Lemtouni and lost 6-1, 6-1 to end their run.  Cruz and Machado didn't start their #2 doubles play how they would have liked with a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Clark/Rowe but bounced back to make an incredible run through the consolation bracket where they beat 5^th seeded Reynolds/Taylor 6-2, 6-2, Canelon/Nyland 6-3, 6-2, and Olsen/Ramdin 7-6 (6), 6-1 to reach the consolation finals.  In the finals they met up with their second ranked opponent and did the same thing they did to their first victims, beat them as 6^th seeded Marroy/Yepez fell to the Saints duo 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 to give Seward the consolation bracket championship. Izkovitz/Mendes grinded out a 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 win over Montgomery/Wilson in the first round but would go down 6-3, 6-4 to 3^rd seeded Bugiga/Raffaelli to end their chances at a title.

Seward was 6-8 in singles play but  were 6-3 in doubles action to finish in the top 15  yet again at the National event.