Cougar Tennis gets all six singles to Round of 16 at National Championship

The Barton Community College men's tennis team began play today at the NJCAA Division I National Tennis Championship in soggy Plano, Texas.   The Cougars won all three of their scheduled first round matches taking place in the early morning times before play was halted due to weather conditions forcing the postponement of some singles matches and all the doubles matches.  With an expected change of tournament schedule, Barton will resume play on Tuesday with match times updated early Tuesday morning.

Freshman Vinicius Ono was impressive in his No. 1 Singles match dispatching Jones County Junior College's Graham Lightsey 6-2, 6-1.  Ono, one of three Barton freshmen to compete in the first round, advances to the Round of 16 and will take on the tournament's No. 5 seed Joshua Page from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABCA).   Seventh seeded Alvaro Martinez was also impressive in defeating Edgar Polanco of Jacksonville College 6-1, 6-3, to advance into the Round of 16.  No. 5 Singles player Austin Jacobs made it a three-for-three impressive day defeating Jones County's Robert Kiewit 6-3, 6-1, to join his five outher cougar teammates in the Round of 16.

Jeret Johnson, Chase Buntain, and Nicholas Moyers each received a first round bye and will play their opening matches in the Round of 16 on Tuesday.   Johnson, playing in the No. 3 Singles spot, will take on Parker Cuevas-Woodall of ABAC who defeated Lotfi El Jai of Prairie State College 6-1, 6-1.   In the No. 4 Singles, Moyers will have to wait to see who his opponent will be as the match between Vincennes University's Harsha Manjunath and Gerardo Gomez of Prairie State was halted due to weather.   Buntain will begin No. 6 Singles action taking on Prairie State's Jeremy Horvath who outlasted Pima Community College's Aldo Amaya 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 6-1, in first round action.

The No. 1 doubles tandem of Ono and Martinez will put their national No. 6 seed to the test against Jones County's Graham Lightsey and Harrison Thomas in first round action.   Johnson and Moyers will begin their No. 2 Doubles matches against Harford Community College's Tyler Cook and Bobby Frantz while the No. 3 duo of Jacobs and Buntain takes on Temple College's Nathaniel Boatright and Ricardo Longoria.  The winner of each doubles matches will advance to the Round of 16 while the loser drops to the consolation side of the bracket.  

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