The 7th ranked Barton Community College men's tennis team notched a pair of victories over ranked opponents in its 3-1 trip to Plano, Texas, competing in the Collin College Super Bash.
Fresh off the bus Thursday from making the long trip, the Cougars' grabbed just two wins in the nine matches in dropping a 7-2 loss to host and 6th ranked Collin College.
Returning Friday for one match, Barton rode its doubles play sweep for a 5-4 win over NAIA member Texas A&M University Texarkana to overcome three tiebreak losses in singles action.
On Saturday the Cougars were pretty well dominate, sweeping doubles play and straight-setting 17th ranked Meridian Community College for a 9-0 win before wrapping up the weekend with a 6-3 victory over 10th ranked Jacksonville College.
Now 6-1 on the season, Barton returns to action on Friday at McPherson College (4:00 p.m.) with a Monday, March 6, trip to Southwestern College (1:00 p.m.). The Cougars open the home slate March 17 in the two-day Cougar Classic.
The weekend success was set up by the strong doubles play to begin each match, going 10-2 in the pairings with the 1's undefeated while the next two pairings went 3-1.
The No. 1 doubles tandem of Sebastiao Vilas and Fernando Andre rolled through the weekend undefeated, winning by 8-5 scores over both Collin's 12th ranked Luis Ching and Tristan Scattarregia and Texarkana's 10th ranked NAIA duo of Alejandro Oviedo and Mauricio Velasco. The pair were dominant on Saturday beginning with an 8-2 win knocking off Meridian's 10th ranked Sebastian Hernandez and Loic Hiss before capping the weekend with an 8-1 win over Jacksonville's Logan Stoltz and Andres Ayala.
Both the No. 2 and No. 3 dropped their first matches against Collin on Thursday before winning the next three match-ups.
At the two slot, Barnabas Kalaba and Tsholofelo Tsiang lost 8-5 to the 17th ranked Colin duo then showed scoreboard improvement in their next three by winning on 8-5, 8-4, and 8-3 scores respectively.
In the No. 3 duo, Gustavo Campos and Marno Du Plessis lost 8-6 to Collin, prevailed in the tiebreak over Texarkana, then finished strong with 8-0 and 8-1 victories to cap the weekend.
Two Cougars came out with a winning 3-1 singles record, both at the top of the lineup as the rest of the card finished 6-10 combined.
At the top, 22nd ranked Campos picked up the only singles win on Thursday, bouncing back from a 6-3 first set loss to 30th ranked Seth Seely to win 6-0 and 10-7 in the breaker. The tiebreak wouldn't be as kind on Friday for Campos, again dropping the first set by a 6-4 tally to rally with a 7-5 tiebreak win to eventually fall short on a 10-8 score the Texarkana senior Alejandro Oviedo. On Saturday, Campos prevailed by 6-4 scores over Meridian's 23rd ranked Sebastian Hernandez before chalking up a 7-5, 6-3 win over 44th ranked Edoardo Brustia of Jacksonsville.
Vilas also dropped his Thursday match in the No. 2 spot, falling 6-2, 6-4 against Collin's 33rd ranked Tristian Scattarregia before rattling off a trio of wins. On Friday Vilas recorded a 6-2, 6-4 win over Texarkana's Mauricio Velasco then Saturday won both his matches by 6-2, 6-3 scores beginning with knocking off 23rd ranked Loic Hiss of Meridian capped by a victory over Jacksonville's 50th ranked Andres Ayala.
Barton came up short in four tiebreak losses, Kalaba being the hard-luck loser in two of his No. 3 singles matches to finish 1-3 on the weekend. Ranked 41st in the November national rankings, Kalaba's first loss began with a 6-0, 6-3 against 34th ranked Luis Ching of Collin. On Friday, Kalaba dropped the first 7-5 set against Texarkana's Andrew Otzenberger, took the second 6-4 before coming up short 10-7 in the tiebreak. Notching his lone win by 6-4, 6-3 scores over Meridian's Will McCullough, Kalaba was down 6-3 to Jacksonville's Logan Stolz but turned the tide with a 6-3 win before eventually falling 10-8.
In the No. 4, Andre went down 6-3, 6-2 to Collin's 27th ranked Joseph Restrepo on Thursday, rolled to a 6-3 sweep of Texarkana's Felipe De la Carrera on Friday, then dispatched Parker Lyons of Meridian by 6-0, 6-2 scores. Winding down the weekend with Jacksonville's Franco Vedda, Andre recovered from a 6-3 first set to even the match 6-2 before falling 10-5 in the tie break to finish 2-2 on the trip.
Tsiang's lone tiebreak action came on Thursday's No. 5 matchup, falling behind 6-3, forcing extra play with a 6-1 win, to fall short in the upset bid of Collin's 39th ranked Gianni La Mantia 10-6 in the breaker. Falling 6-4, 6-2 Friday to Texarkana's Iker Alonso, Tsiang split his Saturday's matches in blanking Meridian's Denzel Jones before dropping twin 6-3 scores to Jacksonville's Daniel Pinzon.
Anchoring the lineup at the No. 6, Du Plessis went 2-2 with losses coming against a ranked opponent and the other in a tiebreaker. Collin's 32nd ranked Djordje Kurcubic took Thursday's match 6-2, 6-1 with Friday's match against Texarkana's Marc Molina slipping through the grasp by winning the first set in a tiebreaker but dropping the second 6-2 and falling short in the deciding points by a 10-7 score. Du Plessis then gave Barton its second 6-0 set sweep against Meridian by keeping Nathan Smith scoreless, wrapping up the weekend with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Jacksonville's Brock Dawson.
Complete Results:
vs Collin College
vs Texas A&M Texarkana
vs Meridian Community College
vs Jacksonville College