Saints Crack Top 10 on Day One at Nationals
The Seward County Saints won three of their four matches on day one of the 2016 NJCAA National Tournament in Plano, Texas to put themselves in 10th place at the end of the first day of competition on Monday.
Przemek Zielinski was the first Saint to hit the court for the weeklong event as he opposed Zachary McCullough of Spartanburg Methodist in the first round of the #2 singles draw. Zielinski and McCullough battled to a 6-4 opening set score with Zielinski eventually coming out on top before taking the second set 6-2 to finish off a win and advance to the second round. Zielinski's road will get exponentially tougher on Tuesday as he takes on 13th ranked Ciro Lampasas of Tyler.
Ondrej Nice represented the Saints in the #3 draw. His opening round match saw him across the net from Marion Military's Andrew Wright. Nice cruised in the first 6-1 to grab the early advantage and didn't have much trouble in the second, sailing to a 6-3 win to earn a pair of points for the Saints while moving onto the second round. Tuesday Nice draws 23rd ranked Aykut Apturahman of Abraham Baldwin with a trip to the quarterfinals on the line.
It was a Saint vs. former Saint matchup at #4 as Seward's Alex Mosehle took on New Mexico Military's Brian Collier. Mosehle dominated, hammering Collier 6-0 in the first and then blanking him again 6-0 in the second for a clean slate win. Mosehle advances to the second round where he will take on Victor Bravo of Laredo Tuesday morning.
The Saints other three singles players, Carlos Anez, Felipe Casares, and Ngoni Makambwa each received first round byes and will begin their action on Tuesday.
Only one Seward doubles team was in action on Monday and it didn't go well for the guys in green. The Saints 6th ranked and #1 duo of Casares/Zielinski took a huge upset on the chin as they were bounced in the first round by Leal/Lewis of Jones County to send them immediately into the consolation bracket. Casares/Zielinski will now need to sweep their way through the consolation bracket to have a chance to pick up a pair of big points for the Saints in that spot.
At the end of day one of action the Saints sit 10th with six points overall. The hosts, Collin lead the way with 12, equaled by Hartford 12 first round points. Seward's Region VI rival Cowley is in a four way 3rd place tie with 10 points.