The 4th ranked Barton Community College men's tennis team remained unbeaten on the season after knocking off NCAA Division II Newman University 7-2 Saturday afternoon in the Stueder Contractors' Cougar Classic held at Veterans Memorial Park.
The Cougars won the top two of the three doubles matches on the Shannon Schartz Tennis Courts before taking the first five slots of the six singles contests.
Now 9-0 on the season, with its non-conference Tuesday match being canceled, Barton will have two weeks from competition in preparation for its biggest match of the season coming Saturday, March 30, as top ranked Cowley College comes to Great Bend for a conference battle of nationally ranked teams. Simultaneously, the 9th ranked Barton women will also have its hands full in taking on the nation's top ranked team in the Cowley women's squad. Matches begin at 1:00 p.m. with the men competing on the West courts while the women will tangle on the East courts.
In singles play, Victor Alves needed a 10-7 tiebreaker to win the No. 1 slot in taking the first set 6-3 with the Jets' Ali Mournir forcing extra play with a 7-5 second set win.
The teams split another pair of extra frame matches, Barton's Shane Tapera winning the No. 4 over Luca Penteado in comeback fashion (3-6, 6-3, 10-3) with the Jets getting their lone singles victory coming in the 6th slot as Andrea Penteado held off the Cougars' Oliver Naude's comeback attempt (6-3, 3-6, 10-4).
The Cougars were straight set victorious in the other three matches. Gabriel Garay handled the Jets' 65th ranked Kurt Bruckner Suarez in the No. 2 slot (6-2, 6-4), 39th ranked Fernando Andre registered twin 6-3 victories over Isfan Makhmudov in the No. 3 matchup, and in the No. 5 singles contest Mateo Prado overwhelmed Newman's Andrea Torrini (6-3, 6-1).
Barton began the afternoon with the pair of wins in doubles play, Alves/Andre winning 8-4 over Mounir/Torrini in the top tandem spot while Garay/Tapera were equally impressive in the No. 2 with an 8-3 victory against Suarez/Makhmudov.
Newman prevailed 8-6 in the No. 3 battle as Penteado/Bramati defeated the Cougars' Naude and Hayden Loffler