Lady Saints Fall in National Title Match
The Seward County Lady Saints duo of Paula Lopez and Paula Coyos had been unstoppable all season long this fall, but the pair was stopped at just the wrong time on Saturday, falling in the ITA National Championship match by perennial power Tyler to end their National Tournament in 2nd place. In singles action Paula Lopez was also knocked off by a Lady Apache in the semifinals but bounced back to finish 3rd in the tournament.
The Lady Saints laced up their sneakers for the programs first shot at a National Championship Saturday night in Sumter, South Carolina opposite of Joanna Savva and Paige Murdock of Tyler. Seward started up 3-1 in the first set, but quickly Tyler bounced back to win the next two to tie the score at 3-3. The teams traded games to 6-6 where they would go to a tiebreaker that Tyler snuck out 7-5 to take the first set. The Lady Saints got off to another good start in the second, holding serve and breaking Tyler to take a 2-0 lead, but the lead was short-lived as the Apaches came back to tie it at 3-3 and once again they traded games to 6-6 to force another tiebreaker. The tiebreaker was 3-3 at the changeover, but Tyler took a 4-3 lead and then finished the Lady Saints off after three straight Seward errors to take the tiebreaker 7-3 and win 2-0. The Lady Saints finish the fall 13-1 as a pair and 2nd at the ITA National Tournament, the programs best finish ever.
Earlier in the day on Saturday, Paula Lopez took the court against Joanna Savva of Tyler in the semifinal round of the singles bracket. Lopez was never able to get momentum rolling on her side, falling 6-3 in the first set and 6-2 in the second to suffer her first loss of the fall and end her quest for a singles title. In her 3rd place match, Lopez took on Natella Nabieva of the State College of Florida, the top seeded player in the draw. Lopez wasn't intimidated by Nabieva's ranking, hammering her 6-1 in the first before hanging on to win the second 6-4 to sweep the match and finish 3rd in the tournament. Lopez finishes the fall 15-1 overall and will likely open the 2014-2015 ITA rankings in the top 5 in singles.