Trailing 3-0 after doubles play Thursday at the Shannon Schartz Tennis Courts, the 4th ranked Barton Community College men's tennis team rallied to win five singles matches to pull out a 5-4 victory in holding off 9th ranked Seward County Community College's upset bid.
Now 1-1 in conference play and 10-1 overall, Barton will wrap up league action against its third straight nation's top ten team on Tuesday in traveling to 7th ranked Pratt Community College for a 1:00 p.m. first serve. Seward County drops to 1-1 in conference and 8-3 on the season and hosts top ranked Cowley College on Monday to conclude its conference slate.
The six-and-a-half-hour long day of action came down to the No. 5 singles slot between Mateo Prado and the Saints' Ognjen Gajic. Prado held off Gajic in the opener 6-4 but couldn't hold a 5-2 tiebreak lead in the second to fall 7-5 forcing a third set. Following a brief in-between set break, Prado regrouped to dominate the third 6-1 setting off a mass jubilation celebration with teammates.
Approximately forty-minutes earlier, Oliver Naude in the No. 6 slot gave the Cougars new life in forcing the decisive match by rallying from a 6-2 setback against the Saints Antoine Admiak to win the final two frames 6-1 followed by a nail-biting 6-4 victory.
Although competitive, Seward County came out on top of each of the doubles tandems to begin the afternoon. In the No. 1, the Saints' Sammy Antwi and Cem Atlamis prevailed 8-6 over the Cougars' Victor Alves and Fernando Andre.
Alves would get a little revenge in the top singles match with the lone straight set singles victory on the day, dispatching Antwi by twin 6-3 set scores but 39th ranked Andre would coming up short 6-4 in the third set after trading tiebreak 4-7 and 7-5 scores with Atlamis.
In the No. 2 doubles matchup, the Saints' David Roseler Caballero and Admiak won 6-4 over Gabriel Garay and Shane Tapera but both Cougars turned the tide in singles play.
Just before the conclusion of Naude's comeback victory, Garay had a marathon baseline slugfest conclude in the No. 2 match with Sebastian De Las Salas Vasquez in taking the first set 7-5 in the tiebreak before going to the third after a 6-1 setback. With both players methodically moving the ball around the baseline, Garay came up with timely drop shots providing critical difference makers in prevailing 7-5.
Tapera traded 6-2 set scores in his No. 4 slot match before winning over Caballero 6-3 in the third keeping Barton's comeback alive freeing up the fourth court for Naude's eventual comeback winner.
In the final No. 3 doubles play earlier in the afternoon, the Saints' Gajic and Richard Patte won 8-5 over the Cougars' Naude and Hayden Loffler completing the sweep in tandem action.