Carlos Anez & Ondrej Nice Capture ITA National Championship

Seward County Saints Carlos Anez and Ondrej Nice continued their improbable run to an ITA National Championship on Friday in Surprise, Arizona as the dynamic duo bested the top ranked doubles team in the country from Tyler Junior College in a three set marathon to win the Saints second National Title in program history.  

It was a heated battle as expected between the Saints and Apaches who watched the same two pairs play to a 9-8 decision earlier in the fall season. A pair of key breaks in the first allowed Seward to take a 6-4 decision in the first set to go ahead 1-0 in the National Championship match.  The Saints looked like they were well on their way to a title in the second as they led 5-3 late following a break and a hold from Ondrej Nice, but Seward was unable to capitalize on multiple championship points in the set and watched as the Apaches came all the way back to even the match at five and eventually take the set 7-5 to send things to a deciding third set.  Tyler carried the momentum right into the third where they led 3-1 after a break and split the next two games to hold a 4-2 advantage late on the Saints.  But Anez and Nice continued to fight, holding serve and then breaking the Apaches to even the score up at 4.  The teams split the next two games to make it 5-5 and held serve to go ahead 6-5, needing just one more game to claim the title.  They got just that, breaking a big Apache serve to clinch the seventh and final point, winning the third 7-5 to bring the ITA National Championship home to Liberal.

 

The championship marks the second time in three seasons that the Saints have turned the trick as Ronzai Saurombe and Alejandro Gonzalez earned the first title in program history in 2014.  

Anez and Nice will now compete in the Oracle Cup Super Bowl on Saturday where the winners of all of the college division tournaments go head to head for the outright title.  First up in their quest to win the Super Bowl is a matchup against NCAA Division III Champions Jemison/Omsky of Emory University in Atlanta.