TYLER, Texas – The No. 8 Barton Community College men's tennis team raised some eyebrows behind five victories to remain unblemished participating at the Collin College Super Six Bash.
The Cougars showed no dead legs despite the Thursday drive to Texas in jumping all over the host and No. 4 ranked Collin County, Texas by sweeping three doubles match-ups and the top two singles slots for a 5-4 victory.
“That’s a monumental effort by both teams, taking eight of nine duals against nationally ranked teams,” said Barton tennis coach Lyle Stickney. “The men played three weeks’ worth of matches (five duals) in under 48 hours – that’s a lot of tennis. On the men’s side, we have eight guys that play at a very high-level so we have the ability to adjust and rest people.”
Barton continued the momentum into Friday with a pair of 7-2 wins over Texas A&M University-Texarkana and No. 7 Weatherford College before winding up the trip with 9-0 victories over No. 19 Meridian, Miss. and No. 16 Jacksonville, Texas.
Barton (7-0) plays March 5 at McPherson. The Cougars will then open the home slate March 16 in day two of the Stueder Contractors' Cougar Classic.
The Cougars' doubles teams went 14-1 while singles play accumulated a 23-7 record including 6-1 against ranked opponents.
No. 2 singles Gabriel Garay No. 2 doubles (Garey/Shane Tapera) are 7-0.
Victor Alves, along with No. 1 doubles player Fernando Andre, fought through tough battles on the court. Alves carried the success into the top singles matches going 4-1 including a 10-2 third set victory over Collin’s No. 8 Minjae Kim and a straight set win over Meridian's No. 45 Loic Hiss with the lone loss coming in the third set breaker to TAMU's Mauricio Trevino Velasco after the pair split 6-4 set scores.
Gabriel Garay led the squad going 5-0 in the No. 2 singles slot, picking up a straight set victory over Collin's 17th ranked Seth Seely and wrapping up the weekend with another straight set win by defeating 32nd ranked Andres Ayala of Jacksonville. Garay was also perfect in doubles play with No. 2 partner Shane Tapera, dropping just three games each in four of their matches with an 8-0 blanking over Meridian.
Andre, the lone Cougar in the November released rankings checking in at No. 39, was the recipient of tough losses including a pair of tie break defeats in his three matches until leaving Texas with a winning feeling by dispatching 49th ranked Edoardo Brustia of Jacksonville in straight sets 6-2 and 6-4.
Barton's other ranked singles win came from within Tapera's 3-1 record in his four-match trip, a victory over Weatherford's 36th ranked Hugo Castets with his lone loss coming on a third set tie break to 43rd ranked Jose Castillo of Collin.
Additional singles results were Jaime Sigauque winning all three of his matches in straight sets, Hayden Loffler going 4-1 including a straight set victory moving up to the No. 3 slot against Meridian, Mateo Prado posting a 2-1 record, and Oliver Naude winning his lone match.
Loffler and Naude went 4-1 in No. 3 doubles play with their lone loss concluding Friday's action on the short side of an 8-6 score to Weatherford.
