Saints Bring Pair of Titles Home From Texas
The Seward County Saints captured a pair of championships Saturday at the Southwest Juco Championships in Plano, Texas as Carlos Anez won the top flight in the singles draw while Duro Opacic and Przemek Zielinski collected a title at #3 doubles to wrap up a successful weekend for Seward in the Big D.
Carlos Anez finished his weekend off strong for the Saints, backing up a win over 2nd ranked Ferran Calvo in the semifinals with a straight sets victory over Cowley's Giovanni Dos Santos in the title match to collect the hardware at #1.
Duro Opacic played for the title at #2 on Saturday, but couldn't get past the top ranked player in the country in Tyler's Jorge Martinez, falling 6-2, 6-3 to settle for a second place finish.
At #3 it was Ondrej Nice's turn to play for a championship for the Saints, but like Opacic, couldn't outlast Tyler's Enrique Pardo in a hard fought title match and finished second in the tournament.
Przemek Zielinski took on Cowley's Julian Aubry-Damon in the third place match at #4 and breezed to a 6-3, 6-4 win to finish third on the weekend.
Claudio Quinones bounced back from an opening round defeat at #5 with a 6-4, 7-6 win against Zach Frisbe of Colin in the consolation final to finish fifth.
Tyler again got the best of Seward in a title match at #6 as Ngoni Makambwa came up short against Phillip Franken to finish second.
Anez and Nice faced two tough matches in #1 doubles action Saturday, first dispatching of Seminole State 8-3 in the second round to reach the title match where they fought Tyler to the finish, but came up short 8-6 to settle for second.
Alex Mosehle and Gabriel Nery played well, but again couldn't overcome a powerful Tyler team in their second round match, but finished the weekend on a high note with a win over Seminole State in the third place match to finish third.
Opacic and Zielinski paired at #3 for the Saints and played solidly, earning an easy 8-3 win over Seminole in the second round and then surprised Tyler with a 9-7 victory in the championship match to take home the booty in the #3 doubles bracket.
The Saints finish Saturday 7-5 as a team and take two titles back to Liberal.
Seward will now turn their attention to the postseason where they will lock up with Barton, Hesston, and Cowley on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in Great Bend at the Region VI Tournament.