The Barton County Community College women's team competed this past weekend at the Southwest JUCO hosted by Collin College in Plano, Texas.
Natsuki Nishimura led the 5th ranked Cougars' individual performances of the weekend, reaching the championship match of the No. 3 singles play. Nishimura dropped just five games in her march to the title match by winning 6-1, 6-0 in her opening match before winning 6-0, 6-4 in her semifinal bout.
The Cougars came away with a pair of 3rd placings from No. 2 Annunciata De-Souza and No. 6 Hailey Vinroe.
Dropping their third place matches, No. 1 Alexandra Abyasova and No. 5 Malena Hernandez had to settle for 4th while No. 4 Angelina Gnezdilova finished fifth.
In doubles action, two of the three tandems reached the title matches as the No. 1 pairing of De-Souza and Nishimura rolled to the finals behind 8-1 and 8-4 wins before falling 8-2 in the finals. The No. 2 duo of Abyasova and Hernandez earned a hard fought 9-8(1) semifinal bout but had to retire due to injury in the finals. Gnezdilova and Vinroe dropped their No. 3 slot semifinal 8-6 in settling for third place.
Barton returns to conference action for its next meet, traveling to Liberal on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. first serve against 6th ranked Seward County Community College.