No. 3 Saints prevail in tough contest against Cougars

GREAT BEND, Kan. – The third-ranked Seward County Community College men's tennis team earned a hard-fought victory over Region Vi rival Barton Community College, 6-3, on Monday. The Saints are 12-5 overall.

Seward plays at Oklahoma Baptist at 3 p.m. on Monday and then hosts the Region VI Tournament on Friday, April 26 at Blue Bonnet Park.

The matches were close all day long. The Saints jumped out to a 2-1 lead in doubles when No. 1 Gabe Nery and Sander Jans handled Sebastian Pino and Guido Luna, 8-1, and No. 3 Carlo Izurieta and Francisco Vargas squeezed out a victory Oswaldo Cano and Mariano Cabrera, 8-6. The Cougars got in the win column when No. 2 Nic Rousset and Hugo Lobo lost to Octavio Carrasco and Tom Letecheur, 6-8.

Barton tied the matches at 3-3 by winning two of the first singles matches. No. 2 Lobo fell to Cano, 4-6, 1-6, and No. 3 Izurieta fell to Pino, 6-3, 3-6, 8-10. No. 4 Jans held on to beat Cabrera, 6-3, 3-6, 10-8.

With the matches tied at three, Seward took over and won the final three matches. No. 1 Rousset posted a 6-4, 3-6, 10-6 win over Luna to put the Saints ahead and No. 6 Alex Mesquida Berg defeated Letecheur, 6-1, 6-1 to give them the win with an insurmountable lead at 5-3. No. 5 Nery finished off the day with a 6-3, 6-3 triumph over Carrasco.