Lady Saints Lose First Match of Season

WICHITA, Kan. - The No. 3 Seward County women's tennis team dropped their first match of the 2018 season on Friday (Feb. 16) losing to NCAA Division II foe Newman University 2-7.  The loss puts the Lady Saints at 3-1 on the season.

The No. 3 doubles match finished first with Newman's Niamh Packer and Liza Gerasimova defeating Seward's Megan Petr and Yusra Hegy 8-0.  Steffany Bermudez and Maria Aveiga were defeated in the No. 2 doubles spot by Vlada Litvinova and Kateryna Stoianova 8-0 to give the Jets a 2-0 match lead.  Patricia panta and Alena Macharova gave the Lady Saints their first points of the match winning 9-8 over Janneke De Rijk.  Panta and Macharova took the tie-break set 7-0 over Rijk and Young to win the No. 1 double spot.

In the singles spot, Newman's Packer defeated No. 50 Bermudez in the No. 4 spot to start singles, 6-0, 6-2.  Hegy fell in the No. 6 spot 6-4, 6-1 to Mariana Gaviria before Liza Gerasimova defeated No. 14 Maria Aveiga in the No. 2 spot 6-3, 6-3 to guarentee the Jets victory.  Emily Young took down Martina Borges 6-4, 6-0 in the No. 5 spot, while No. 8 Panta was defeated by Vlada Litvinova in the No. 1 spot 6-3, 6-1.  The Lady Saints ended the match on a positive note, however, with No. 31 Alena Macharova winning handily 6-4, 6-3 over De Rijk. 

The Lady Saints now have an individual record of 24-12 in 2018.  Seward will be back in action on Friday (Feb. 23) when they travel to Oklahoma City to take on Cameron University.