Lopez & Coyos to Play For National Title After Semi Win
The two finest players in Seward County Women's Tennis history will wrap up their historic careers with the Lady Saints in style as after winning their National Semifinal on Wednesday, Paula Lopez and Paula Coyos will play for a National Championship on Thursday in the desert of Tucson, Arizona.
Paula Lopez and Paula Coyos both remained alive in the singles and doubles championship brackets Wednesday at the NJCAA National Tournament in Tucson. Coyos was first to take the court at #2 as she took on Elizabeth Bagerbaseh of Tyler in the semifinals. The two met one month ago in the Seminole State Dual Match Classic in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma with Coyos coming out on top of a 6-1, 6-4 match, but Wednesday was a different story as Bagerbaseh got the best of Coyos in a highly contested 6-4, 6-4 match to end the Lady Saint's run in 3rd place for the second straight season.
In #1 singles, Lopez took on a familiar foe in Joanna Savva from Tyler. With Wednesday's meeting, the pair, who both rank in the top 10 in the ITA Individual Rankings, have now met in the semifinal or final in the 2013 ITA National Tournament, the 2014 NJCAA National Tournament, the 2014 ITA National Tournament, and now the 2015 NJCAA National Tournament. It was heated early on as the 3rd seed Lopez outdueled 2nd seeded Savva 7-6 (3) in a first set tiebreak. The second was close to the same, but this time is was Tyler's star coming out on top 7-5. In the third, as the match pushed on to nearly three hours in the desert heat, Saava outlasted Lopez 6-2 to win the match 2-1. Lopez finishes 3rd and will likely be on her way to a second straight ITA All-American award at seasons end.
It was a potential grudge match for Lopez and Coyos in the #1 doubles semifinals as they had an opportunity to exact revenge on Tyler as they took on Paige Murdock and Saava. The first set shocked everyone keeping up with the match as Lopez and Coyos came out and hammered the Apaches stars 6-0 to take the early lead in the match. The second set was a little bit more what fans expected as two of the top three duos in the country battled it out to a 7-5 score, good news for Seward fans is that Lopez and Coyos came out on top to take the match 2-0 and advance to the National Championship match on Thursday. Lopez and Coyos will take the court at 11:00 AM MST in Tucson on Thursday for their shot at the programs first national title. They will take on the top seeded duo of Megane Bianco and Macarena Olivares of ASA.
As a team the Lady Saints remain securely in 9th place after day four with 20 total points. ASA leads the team standings with 45 points and will seek to become the first team in history to sweep each spot of the tournament finals.
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