Lady Saints Capture First Region VI Championship
The Seward County Lady Saints captured their first NJCAA Region VI Championship in program history in dominating fashion Sunday in Great Bend, bringing home individual titles at 8 of 9 spots to blow away the competition by a whopping 8.5 points in the two day event.
The Lady Saints couldn't have been any better in singles play starting with top gun Thalita Rodrigues who took the court at #1 against Cowley's Sarah Frendo. Rodrigues came out energized and built on that with a 6-2 first set victory. In the second she had to grind, but came up with a 6-4 win to claim the most coveted title as Region VI #1 Singles Champion.
Smooth as silk all year long, freshman Sarah Manseri looked like a veteran at #2 singles as she took on Cowley's Barbara Broville. Manseri took care of business in the first 6-3 and then hammered Broville in the second 6-1 to claim the crown.
Another rookie showed some savvy for Seward at #3 as Lisa Suzuki took on Cowley sophomore Sara Petric. Suzuki had little trouble in a 6-2 first set win over Petric and kept on rolling in the second with a 6-3 win to take the title in straight sets.
At #4 Steffany Bermudez came out on fire, taking it to Cowley's Maria Garduno 6-1 in the first before grinding out a 6-4 second set win to sweep her way to a Region Championship.
Martina Borges took a little while to get going at #5 for Seward against Cowley's Kasey Coker, but once she did, she was unstoppable, bouncing back from a 7-5 defeat in the first to take the second 6-1 and the third 6-2 to bring the #5 title back to Liberal.
Fernanda Santana used the same script as Borges, dropping her first set at #6 singles 6-3 to Maria Zimmerman of Cowley before flipping the switch for 6-2 and 6-4 wins in the final two sets to give the Lady Saints a clean sweep of all six singles titles.
With their first Region VI Championship in program history already clinched, the Lady Saints continued to push in pairs play.
Freshly ranked #11 in the country, Manseri and Bermudez fought tough with Cowley's Garduna/Coker at #2 to win 7-6, 6-4 for both of their second championships of the weekend.
At #3 it was a repeat Region VI Champion as Madison Hoelting and Tadi Mrewa took the book ends of a 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 match against Broville/Zimmerman from Cowley to collect the same hardware that they won at Blue Bonnet Park one season ago.
Seward's only loss of the day came at #1 doubles as the home team Barton got one thing to cheer about on the weekend, taking a 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 decision over Rodrigues and Suzuki for just their second point of the tournament.
The Lady Saints put up 17 points to win the tournament while second place Cowley had 8.5 and Barton had 6 to finish third. All three teams qualify for the NJCAA National Tournament in Tucson, Arizona May 7-11.