Lady Cougar Tennis loses battle with ranked teams #GoBarton

The No. 21 ranked Barton Community College women's tennis team took on three ranked opponents last week in being handed a trio of losses. Dropping to 2-9 on the season Barton will have a couple of opportunities to find a win next Sunday in doubleheader action with a 10:00 a.m. match hosting Iowa Central Community College at Veterans Park followed by a 5:00 p.m. dual with Bethany College.

Barton began its two-day three-match road swing with a trip to Arkansas City, Kansas, taking an 8-1 conference loss to host No. 10 ranked Cowley College before falling 6-3 to No. 19 New Mexico Military Institute. The Lady Cougars continued the road south to Oklahoma City in hopes of getting in a pair of matches but due to weather, was only able to get a match completed against Seminole State College in getting blanked 9-0 to the nation's No. 8 squad.

9th ranked Neus Torregrosa earned two victories in the Spaniard sophomore's three matches improving to 7-3 on the spring season, defeating conference foe and No. 20 ranked Kristela Vidnere of Cowley 6-2, 6-4, before earning the battle with NMMI's Georjema Roe 6-2 and 7-6(3). Torregrosa's loss came on Friday against Seminole State's No. 7 ranked Valentina Gonzalez in a 6-1, 6-3 defeat.

The No. 3 doubles duo of Sarah Hammer and Thamires Lima earned the Cougars their lone tandem victory in the three matches, dominating NNMI's Becsave Pacheco and Kathy Clouthier for an 8-1 win.

Barton had near misses throughout the day as signified in Thursday's match against the 10th ranked Tigers as the No. 1 doubles team of Torregrosa and Shai Cartmill was on serve leading 7-6 but dropped the next three matches is a "one that got away" 9-7 loss.

In addition to Torregrosa's two singles victories on Thursday in Ark City, No. 5 singles player Jenna Groene also earned a tough win in defeating NMMI's Pacheco 7-5, 6-3 to draw Barton to within 4-3 with two matches in play.

The Lady Cougars had three tie break singles matches in the two day span, the first coming in Thursday's No. 2 singles match between Hammer and the host Tigers' Laura Rincon Arias. Hammer took the first set 6-2 but dropped the second 6-4 before a marathon third set super tiebreaker went the way of the home squad 10-8.

As Barton had closed to within 4-3 in the NMMI match, the No. 6 singles match between Lima and Clouthier proved pivotal as each won a set 6-4 before Clouthier came out on top 10-7 in the third set tiebreaker to secure the NMMI match win.

Friday's action in Oklahoma was moved indoors due to weather with the Lady Cougars taking on No. 8 Seminole. The No. 2 doubles matchup of Ksenija Dmitrovic and Groene taking on Gonzales and Mariah Turney was one of the many "close but no cigar" matches as the duo came up short 8-6.

The Lady Cougars had another near miss in the No. 5 singles match as Groene battled back from a 6-3 first set loss to Turney before taking the second 6-1 to force the extra set in coming up on the short end of an epic 14-12 tie breaker to conclude the over two hour match.

"A somewhat fatigued Neus struggled today losing to Gonzalez," said Head Coach Lyle Stickney after Friday's dual against Seminole. "To her credit Neus gave a good effort as she played through her aches and pains. Although coming up short today, Jenna really played great this week overall as well. We had chances in the three duals up and down the lineup but just couldn't get the big points and wins when we needed it."