Saints Drop Close Match to Open 2014
The good news is, the four Seward County Saints that were on the court Wednesday afternoon at Newman University in Wichita finished 4-2 in six matches. The bad news is, the Saints started the match down 3-0 because of three forfeits and therefore fell 5-4 to the Jets in their opening match of the 2014 season.
In singles action, the Saints picked up wins at each of the top three spots. #10 Ronzai Saurombe played a good match with Newman's Eduardo dos Santos at #1 singles, with Saurombe coming out on top of a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 decision. In #2 singles the Saints Alejandro Gonzalez, ranked #41 in the opening rankings of the season, had no problem with Evgeny Kim, dispatching him in a swift 6-2, 6-2 decision. Seward's Trevor Kipping and Newman's Freddy Sanchez played the match of the day in #3 singles. Kipping won the opening set 6-4 before Sanchez forced a tiebreak with a 7-5 second set victory. In the tiebreaker it was Kipping outlasting Sanchez 12-10 to give Seward wins at the top three spots in singles play. Newman took the point at #4 singles and Seward was forced to forfeit the #5 and #6 spots due to an unfilled lineup.
Saurombe and Gonzalez took the court in #1 doubles for the first time as the top ranked team in the nation against dos Santos and Sanchez and the two played a close match in which the Saints top pair came out on top of 8-6. In #2 doubles Kim and Pyle got the best of Kipping and Colin Glassman in an 8-0 decision. The Saints gave Newman a point in #3 doubles on a forfeit which in turn broke the 4-4 tie and gave the Jets the match.
9th ranked Seward County drops to 0-1 on the year while Newman improves to 6-5 overall.
The Saints will be back in action on Saturday as they travel to Great Bend to take on Barton in their first Jayhawk Conference match of the regular season.