Three Saints to Play For Titles Saturday
Despite the fact that three of the four Saints tennis players on the roster for the Region VI Tournament in Wichita this weekend will be playing for championships on Saturday at the event, Seward's hopes for their 7th straight team bid to the NJCAA National Tournament are about as slim as the Cubs chances to break their historical streak in 2014.
The Saints first player to play for a Region Championship on Saturday will be Ronzai Saurombe at #1 singles where he came away Friday 2-0 with two vastly different victories. In his opening match of the draw he blew away Eric Cender of Hesston without dropping a game in a swift 6-0, 6-0 decision. In his second match it would be anything but easy as he took on top seeded and 8th ranked Spartak Rahachou from Johnson County. The first set was a sneak peak at what the match would be as Rahachou grinded out a 7-6 (3) win over Saurombe to take a 1-0 lead. Saurombe stormed back to win the second set 6-2 to force a deciding third set with the Cavaliers star. The third set again went right down to the wire as Saurombe led late before Rahachou came back to tie it at 6 and send it to a tiebreak. In the tiebreak Saurombe broke through, winning 8-6 to take the marathon match to advance to the finals. In Saturday's final Saurombe will square off against Cowley's Harry Busby, a former Seward recruit, with a trip to the NJCAA National Tournament in the balance.
Seward suffered a big blow in #2 singles where 20th ranked Alejandro Gonzalez dropped a three set battle to Cowley's 18th ranked Erik Eldagsen 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to push Gonzalez to the third place match on Saturday where he will take on Johnson County's Kevin Kochersperger at 10:30 AM.
The Saints second individual playing for a title on Saturday will be #3 singles player Trevor Kipping. Kipping continued his big 2014 campaign as he came from behind in his first match of the tournament to win 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 over Johnson County's Taylor Smith to move on to the finals. In the final Kipping will take on the #3 singles favorite in Cowley's 26th ranked Josh Coleman who played at #2 singles when Seward took on the Tigers in the regular season.
The only contested bracket in which the Saints will not pick up a point in is at #4 singles where Colin Glassman suffered an injury in his first round matchup against Dominic Murray of Hesston and was forced to retire to finish 5th out of 5 competitors in the draw.
Despite winning an ITA National Championship in the fall, Saurombe and Gonzalez had a rough regular season in 2014 and had to go into the Region VI Tournament as the #4 seed out of 5 in the #1 doubles draw. The pair picked up an easy win over Hesston in the first round, blowing by the Larks 6-3, 6-0 to reach the point round. In their second match of the day they went up against a duo from Barton which sent them on their bumpy regular season road. Saurombe and Gonzalez took the first set easily 6-2, but the favor was returned on them in the second set where Barton won 6-2 to even the match at 1. In the third set it was again all Seward County as Saurombe and Gonzalez breezed to a 6-1 win to clinch the match and their place in the Saturday final. In the finals the 5th ranked Saints top pair will go up against the 8th ranked duo from Cowley, once again with a trip to the National Tournament on the line.
With Glassman's injury, the Saints were forced to give up their first round match in the #2 doubles bracket and it is yet to be determined if Glassman and Kipping will compete in the third place match on Saturday against Barton. A Seward forfeit at the spot would eliminate them from National Tournament contention and would punch the Cougars ticket to the dance.
The team scores look like this after day one of the tournament. Cowley leads the way with 18 points and will play in all nine championship matches Saturday. Johnson County has 13 points and is trailed surprisingly closely by Barton who checks in with 11. The Saints are in fourth with 8 points and Hesston brings up the rear with 3.
Cowley and Johnson County have officially clinched their spots at the NJCAA National Tournament after day one. Three wins in their nine matches would automatically give the Tigers the Region VI title as well on Saturday. Battling for the third and final National bid is Barton and Seward. The Saints will literally need to play perfect on the final day of the tournament to qualify as a team while Barton needs just one win to eliminate the Saints from contention.