Saints Split First Two Against Top 15 Foes in OKC
The #4 Seward County Saints were ready for the calendar to turn over on Friday. After all, following a 12-0 start to the season, the Saints had lost two straight to close out March. They flipped the calendar over Friday morning and flipped a 'W' back into the win column, downing #13 New Mexico Military 6-3 in Oklahoma City, but were hammered in their second match of the day against #3 Tyler, falling 9-0 to drop into the 3rd place match at the Seminole State Dual Match Classic.
In their first match of the day, the Saints took on 13th ranked New Mexico Military. Seward jumped out to a 2-1 lead after doubles play as Carlos Anez and Ondrej Nice picked up an 8-3 win at #2 and the Saints were giftwrapped a default win at #3 to grab the early advantage.
At the top of singles action, the Broncos turned the tables on Seward, taking the points at both #1 and #2 to go ahead 3-2. Another New Mexico Military default at #6 made it 3-3 and Seward closed it out from there as Alex Mosehle, Felipe Casares, and Tare Mariga earned straight set wins at #3, #4, and #5 to finish off a 6-3 win for the Saints.
#4 SEWARD COUNTY/#13 NEW MEXICO MILITARY MATCH RESULTS
With the win, the Saints advanced to the tournament semifinals which gave them their toughest matchup of the season against the team directly ahead of them in the rankings, #3 Tyler. Seward had a chance to make a statement early in doubles play, but couldn't take advantage of the opportunity as the Saints fell 8-4 at #1 and then 9-7 and 8-6 in close losses at #2 and #3 to fall behind the Apaches 3-0.
On paper, the Saints had a chance to get back into things in singles play as they featured three players ranked higher than their opponents. The Apaches showed though, why matches aren't played on paper as they dominated the singles action, with only one Seward player, Alex Mosehle managing to win a set before eventually falling as Tyler swept all six spots to blank the Saints 9-0.
#4 SEWARD COUNTY/#3 TYLER MATCH RESULTS
The split day moves the Saints record to 13-3 on the year. Seward will now take on Cowley in the 3rd place match at the tournament in a rematch of Monday's instant classic in Liberal. The Saints and Tigers will get underway at noon Saturday.