Facing the defending NJCAA champions, the 4th ranked Barton Community College men's tennis team stood firm but was knocked from the unbeaten Saturday to top ranked Cowley College in the conference opener 7-2.

The Cougars split the top two doubles matchups before trailing headed in singles competition trailing 2-1. Again splitting the top pair of singles play, the remaining four matches were competitive in the scoring but all results went to the Tigers' side of the scoreboard.

Barton drops to 9-1 on the season while Cowley improves to 9-2 including 4-1 against junior college competition.

Coming up on Thursday the Cougars' conference slate doesn't get any easier in welcoming 9th ranked Seward County Community College to Veterans Memorial Park's Shannon Schartz Tennis Courts for a 1:00 p.m. first serve in doubles action followed by singles play.

Gabriel Garay picked up two victories on the day against the Tigers, teaming first with Shane Tapera in knocking off the Tigers' Valentin Greco/Joao Teixeira in the No. 2 tandem 9-7. Garay would later meet Reiya Komagata in the No. 2 singles play in chalking up twin 6-1 set victories.

The Tigers' doubles victories came on big margin scores, the nation's top ranked Bruno Nhavene/Komagata winning 8-1 over the Cougars' Victor Alves/Fernando Andre with the 3rd ranked Omar Suarez/Sergio Gonzalez tandem registering an 8-2 win over Oliver Naude/Hayden Loffler.

In singles play Alves dropped a 6-0, 6-3 loss to the 10th ranked Nhavene in the top spot with 20th ranked Suarez beating 39th ranked Andre in 6-2 straight sets.

Barton battled in the lower third of singles play by winning four games in five of the six sets but came up short on taking a frame.

No. 4 player Tapera fell shy 6-4, 6-4 to Greco, Mateo Prado lost his No. 5 contest 6-3, 6-4 to Tadeo Gaggiofatto, with Naude also coming up shy 6-4, 6-4 to 6th ranked Gonzalez in the No. 6 spot of the lineup card.