Three Peat! Saints Dominate to Win Third Straight Region VI Title
There is a new boss on the block in Region VI Tennis and that is the Seward County Saints. Seward dominated the field Sunday in Great Bend at the Region VI Championships, collecting 17 of the possible 18 points across nine lines to win their third straight Region VI Title and qualify for the NJCAA National Tournament in Plano in three weeks.
The matchup at #2 singles was a good one between two of the top 35 ranked players in the NJCAA as Seward's Duro Opacic took on Cowley's Lucas Freitas. Opacic came out swinging and blanked Freitas in the first, but the Brazilian bounced back for a 6-4 win in the second to send the match to a deciding third. In the third Opacic outlasted Freitas 7-5 to claim the #2 title during his freshman campaign.
It was another solid performance for Ondrej Nice who took it right at Cowley's Lukas Michenka to the tune of a 6-4, 6-1 straight set win to capture his second straight individual Region VI Championship at #3.
It was another ranked matchup at #4 between Seward's Przemek Zielinski and Cowley's Julian Aubry-Damon. Zielinski snuck out a 7-6 win in the first set and then throttled Aubry-Damon in the second 6-1 to each his first individual gold.
Claudio Quinones avenged an earlier loss to Cowley's Ronald Rufyikiri at #5 for the Saints, winning a pair of tightly contested sets 7-6, 7-6 to take home the Region VI singles title there.
The match at #6 singles was a good one as Seward's Ngoni Makambwa outlasted Cowley's Jose Castro in a 6-4, 6-3 decision to give the Saints their fifth individual title of the afternoon.
Cowley's only win over Seward came at #1 where Guilehrme Dos Santos knocked off the Saints Carlos Anez in a three setter 4-6, 6-3, 6-1 to give the Tigers their lone point of the day.
In doubles, the Saints were equally as impressive. Nice and Anez defended their #1 national ranking with a 7-6, 6-0 win over Cowley's Dos Santos/Michenka at #1 for the title.
Alex Mosehle and Gabriel Nery saved their talents for pairs play where they took down Aubry-Damon/Castro at #2 by a count of 6-3, 6-2 to claim a Region VI Championship of their own.
Opacic and Zielinski finished off the clean sweep for the Saints in doubles play, bouncing back from a 6-3 first set defeat to Freitas/Borrero of Cowley for a 7-5 second set victory and a 6-2 win in the decider to take the #3 title.
Nobody was even close to the Saints in the final tournament standings as Seward won with an impressive 17 total points with Cowley a distant second with 10 and Barton a National Tournament qualifier with 4 points.
The Saints, Tigers, and Cougars will now prepare for the next three weeks before heading to Plano, Texas for the NJCAA National Tournament May 15-19 in the Lone Star State.