Lady Saints Fall to UCO in ITA Tuneup
In a stiff test in preparation for the ITA Regional Tournament this weekend in Oklahoma City, the Seward County Lady Saints fell 5-3 to homestanding Central Oklahoma Thursday night in their first true dual of their fall 2016 season.
Seward was able to come up with just one win in doubles action to kick off play on Thursday as Lisa Suzuki and Sarah Manseri had little trouble at #2 with an 8-1 win over Emile Semid and Shali Schopflin to give the Lady Saints their first point of the day. Central Oklahoma took the points at #1 and #3 though, collecting 8-5 wins at both spots to take a 2-1 lead heading into singles action.
In #1 singles, Thalita Rodrigues was handed a rare defeat, falling 7-6, 6-2 to Allie Hodges. Nthabi Mogopodi won the match of the day, taking a 6-3, 3-6, 10-5 tiebreaker over Alix William at #3 while Suzuki picked up her second win of the day with a 6-0, 6-4 win at #4 over Schopflin to draw the Lady Saints even in the match. However, Seward couldn't sustain the momentum as the Bronchos cruised to easy wins at #5 and #6 singles to seal the win 5-3. The match at #2 was led by Central Oklahoma at the time the Bronchos clinched their fifth point to guarantee the win, so the dual between Seward's Manseri and Central's Kristen Bhat was not finished.
Seward will now turn their sights to hopefully a big weekend where they will compete against some of the top teams in the Midwest at the annual ITA Regional Tournament with a berth to fall nationals on the line.