Pair of Lady Saints to Play For Titles Saturday
Sarah Manseri and Fernanda Santana will play for titles on Saturday at the Southwest Juco Championships in Plano, Texas as the pair led Seward County to an 11 win day on day one of the tournament.
In the tournament's top bracket, it was Thalita Rodrigues taking the court for the Lady Saints. The sophomore earned an easy 6-1, 6-1 win in her first match of the weekend against Ana Orozco of North Central Texas, but couldn't get by Cowley's Sarah Frendo in the semifinals in a three setter to drop to the third place match in the tournament.
Sarah Manseri was the top performer of the day for the Lady Saints in the #2 slot. She hammered 36th ranked Sherly Bueno of Laredo 6-1, 6-0 in the first round and then put together another solid effort against Mikayla Lopez of New Mexico Military to advance to the finals.
Lisa Suzuki was the lone Lady Saint to fall in the first round as she dropped her #3 match to Sara Petric of Cowley before bouncing back for a straight sets win in the consolation bracket to reach the 5th place match Saturday.
At #4 Steffany Bermudez easily beat Nikiti Hall of North Central Texas in her opening round match, but couldn't get by Seminole's Carla Laschasseigne to settle for a 3rd place match Saturday.
Lefty Martina Borges had no trouble with Laredo's Xochitl Mendoza in her first round match, but like Bermudez, stumbled against Seminole in the semis at #5 to move down to the 3rd place match.
Fernanda Santana took the court for Seward at #6 and dominated her Friday competition. Santana locked up with Cowley's Maria Zimmerman in the opening round, disposing of her 6-3, 6-1 to push through to the semis. In her semifinal match, she had no trouble with Mariah Turney of Seminole, winning 6-1, 6-0 to earn her way into the championship match.
The Lady Saints cruised to three easy wins in the doubles portion of Friday's action as Rodrigues and Suzuki blanked North Central Texas 8-0, Manseri and Bermudez knocked off Laredo 8-2, and Mrewa and Hoelting held serve in an 8-3 decision to push them all through to the semis Saturday.
The Lady Saints finish the day 11-4 overall and will have shots at five titles at the tournament on Saturday.