Seward Owns Top 25 Matchup with Barton
It was the Jayhawk Conference opener for the Seward County Saints and the Barton Cougars Tuesday afternoon at Blue Bonnet Park in Liberal. It was also a matchup between top 25 teams as the 4th ranked Saints took the court against the 25th ranked Cougars. The buildup was bigger than the show however as Seward had no problem in hammering Barton dropping just 13 total games in the nine match dual, beating Barton 9-0 to move to 11-0 on the season.
In doubles action, Seward cruised with Carlos Anez and Ondrej Nice pairing at the top spot to down the Cougars 8-2 and Alvaro Rengifo and Ngoni Makambwa teaming up to bounce Barton 8-1 at #2 to put Seward up 2-0. The #3 score was even more lopsided as Felipe Casares and Tare Mariga crushed the Cougars 8-0 without breaking a sweat to give the Saints a 3-0 lead into singles play.
Singles play wasn't a whole lot of fun for the Cougars either as the Saints held nothing back, earning 6-0, 6-0 wins from Nice and Makambwa at #3 and #5 and 6-0, 6-1 wins from Anez and Alex Mosehle at the top two spots to take a 7-0 lead in the match. Casares played a close first set, winning 6-3 at #4, but stepped on the gas and won 6-0 in the second to put the Saints within one win of a sweep. Zach Suico took the court at #6 for the Saints and battled a blustery wind to knock off Benjamin Zamora 6-2, 6-3 to finish off the dual with a 9-0 Seward County win.
The Saints improve to 11-0 on the year with the victory, earning their first win over a ranked NJCAA opponent this season. Barton rough start continues as they fall to 0-6 on the year with the defeat.
Seward will remain in the friendly confines of Blue Bonnet Park in Liberal on Friday when they take on Kansas Wesleyan at 1:00 in the second of three home matches this week. The Saints will wrap the week with a huge matchup with the Cowley Tigers Saturday morning at 10:00.