6th ranked Cougar tennis downed by 12th ranked Pratt #GoBarton
6th ranked Cougar tennis downed by 12th ranked Pratt.
The 6th ranked Barton Community College men's tennis team's rally from three down fell short Monday at Veterans' Memorial Park as the 12th ranked Pratt Community College Beavers held on for a 5-4 victory.
Barton dropped each of the three doubles matches before winning the first three singles matches to tie the match up. The Cougars took the lead on a come-from-behind three set victory in one of the three remaining but the comeback fell short as the Beavers won the final two matches including one in three sets.
The Cougars drop to 8-3 overall and 1-1 in league with its next match coming Thursday, April 6th, in a 1:00 p.m. first serve at top ranked Cowley College.
Following the Beavers' sweep of doubles action, Barton evened up the match on a trio of straight set victories.
In the No. 1 spot of nationally ranked individuals, 22nd ranked Gustavo Campos dispatched the Beavers' 43rd ranked Dante Despontin 6-2, 6-2, while Fernando Andre took care of David Arrieta in the No. 3 slot by 6-4 and 6-3 scores and 41st ranked Barnabas Kalaba won 6-2, 6-4 over Vitor Goncalves in the No. 4 spot.
With the match tied at three, Sebastiao Vilas and Gabriela Cuenca battled in the No. 2 slot, the Beaver taking the first set in tiebreak fashion with Vilas battling back to take the second set in the tiebreak and rolling 6-0 in the third set giving the Cougars' their fourth win in singles play.
The Beavers tied the match back up with Oleksandr Makarov winning the No. 6 slot 6-2, 6-1 over Marno Du Plessis in leaving the team victory up to the No. 5 matchup.
Tsholofelo Tsiang took the opening set 6-4 but the Beavers' Alex Ballinger began to surge ahead in play by winning 6-3 before taking the final set 6-1 to wrap up the match.
The top two doubles' matchups were narrow decisions, Despontin and Cuenca winning 8-6 in the No. 1 over Vilas and Andre with Arrieta and Valentino Iveli winning 9-7 over Kalaba and Tsiang. In the No. 3, Ballenger and Nathaniel Moore doubled up Campos and Du Plessis 8-4.