#10 Seward Tennis Nets Four Top 20 Wins on the Weekend
I can't imagine first year Seward Tennis Head Coach Greg Owen could have pictured the opening weekend of the #10 Lady Saints 2016 season going much better than it did this weekend in Plano, Texas as the Lady Saints picked up wins over #13 North Central Texas, #18 Jacksonville, #9 New Mexico Military, and #5 St. Petersburg to begin the year a perfect 4-0.
The Lady Saints got after things right away in their opening match of the 2016 season, taking on #16 North Central Texas. Seward took care of business in doubles action, sweeping all three spots by scores of 8-3, 8-2, and 8-1 to take an early 3-0 lead in the match. The Lady Lions captures wins at the bookends of singles action at #1 and #6, but Seward brought home everything in the middle, getting straight set wins from Thalita Rodrigues at #2, Nthabi Mogopodi at #3, Tadi Mrewa at #4, and Madison Hoelting at #5 to secure a 7-2 victory.
#10 SEWARD COUNTY/#16 NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS MATCH RESULTS
In their second match of the day Friday, the Lady Saints mixed their lineup up as they battled another top 20 squad in #18 Jacksonville. The shuffling didn't matter though as once again Seward swept doubles play, getting an 8-5 win at #1 from Mogopodi/Rodrigues and an 8-2 win at #2 from Hoelting/Mrewa, plus a default win at #3 to go ahead 3-0 into singles. The Lady Saints utterly dominated singles action, dropping just three total games in route to a 9-0 win.
#10 SEWARD COUNTY/#18 JACKSONVILLE MATCH RESULTS
Seward's biggest tests of the weekend came on Saturday and the first was a date with #9 New Mexico Military, a team one spot ahead of them in the current ITA National Rankings. The Lady Saints lost their first doubles match of the season at #1, but bounced back with a pair of wins at #2 and #3 from Mogopodi/Rodrigues and Hoelting/Mrewa to take an early 2-1 lead in the match. In #1 singles, #15 Mialiniaina Rakotondrazafy notched her best win of her young career, downed #26 Thea Minor 7-5, 6-4 while her sister, Maminiaina Rakotondrazafy edged out 16th ranked Lorraine Banimarter at #3 by a score of 6-1, 2-6, 10-7 to put Seward within one of clinching the match. Rodrigues won a three setter at #2 to seal the deal while Mrewa and Hoelting cruised at #5 and #6 to give the Lady Saints a 7-2 victory.
#10 SEWARD COUNTY/#9NEW MEXICO MILITARY MATCH RESULTS
In their final match of the weekend, Seward took on NJCAA power #5 St. Petersburg who made the long trip from Florida to take part in the Colin County Invitational. The two teams split the top two doubles spots with Mogopodi/Rodrigues winning 8-1 at #2 and Hoelting/Mrewa secured a close 9-8 (10-7) win at #3 to put the Lady Saints in front 2-1 going to singles. In the best match of the dual, Mialiniania Rakotondrazafy took down #17 An Tagashira at #1 singles 4-6, 6-4, 10-5 to give her her second ranked win of the weekend. St. Pete picked up the wins at #2 and #3 to tie the score at 3, but Mogopodi clinched a huge win at #4 to put Seward back in front 4-3. The Titans won at #6 to make it 4-4, but Mrewa put up matching 6-3, 6-3 set victories at #5 to give the Lady Saints a 5-4 win.
#10 SEWARD COUNTY/#5 ST. PETERSBURG MATCH RESULTS
The Lady Saints start off their 2016 season a perfect 4-0 with four wins over ranked opponents. Seward will take this week off before returning to the court on Thursday, February 25th when they travel back to the Lone Star State for a rematch with North Central Texas.