Seward Falls Back to Earth With Pair of Top 10 Losses
It looked like the 3rd ranked Seward County Saints were back on the right track after a pair of big wins over top 15 ranked opponents on Friday at the Seminole State Dual Match Classic, but after Saturday's action, it was back to the drawing board for the guys in green as Seward fell 9-0 to the team one spot ahead of them in the rankings, Tyler, and dropped a 5-4 decision to #7 Seminole to fall to 8-3 on the year.
The Saints faced a tall task first thing Saturday morning in Oklahoma City as they took on perennial NJCAA powerhouse and 2nd ranked Tyler. Things did not start well for Seward in doubles play as they were hammered by the Apaches 8-2 in #1 and #3 doubles and were blanked 8-0 in #2 to fall behind 3-0 early on. Tyler had their way in singles action as well, throwing out five players in their six man lineup ranked inside the ITA top 50. Ronzai Saurombe and Vitor Galvao both hung tough at #1 and #2 singles against top 10 ranked players but fell 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5, 6-3 respectively as Tyler sealed up the match. Seward played respectably at the bottom of their lineup as well, but Tyler proved too much as they held the Saints without a single set win, blanking Seward 9-0.
#3 SEWARD COUNTY/#2 TYLER MATCH RESULTS
The Saints second battle of the day was against 7th ranked Seminole State. Unlike the Tyler match, all three doubles matches in this one were close. In #1 doubles Saurombe and Galvao battled one of the top doubles teams in the country in Guy Iradukunda and Ismail Mzai. The Saints gave the Trojans a run, but in the end it was Seminole getting the best of an 8-5 decision to go ahead 1-0. Felipe Casares and Alvaro Regnifo picked up a solid 8-6 win at #2 doubles while Seminole earned an 8-6 win of their own at #3 doubles to go up 2-1 after doubles action. Saurombe faced another tough match in singles as he took on longtime friend and foe in #1 ranked Iradukunda. Saurombe pulled the upset in the first set, winning 7-5, but couldn't hang on, dropping the second 6-3 and the tiebreaker 10-2 to come up just short. Regnifo picked up the Saints best win in singles, winning 6-4, 6-3 at #3 while Tare Mariga and Paul Arslanian both won in straight sets at #5 and #6 to give the Saints two more points. But in the end, Seminole squeaked just past the Saints 5-4 to hand Seward their first back to back losses of the season.
#3 SEWARD COUNTY/#7 SEMINOLE STATE MATCH RESULTS
The Saints drop to 8-3 on the year with the losses and will look to bounce back with much less of a foe when they take on Hesston at home in Liberal at 3:00 Thursday.