The Barton Community College men’s tennis opener was kind of like a comet. A one day comet that won’t be back for another month.
The Cougars traveled north to Nebraska this past weekend for a pair of matches to open the 2015 season. The second playing date is set for the first week of March.
Barton lost the opener to Doane (Neb) College before defeating host Midland University. The Cougars fell 6-3 to Doane then won 5-4 over Midland. Vitor Schuler, a freshman from Brazil, had a perfect day for the Cougars, winning all four of his matches.
“Naturally, the first time out this semester, we had some issues with court rust,” Coach Lyle Stickney said. “But I also saw some things in our matches that were encouraging.”
Barton dominated the single matches in the win over Midland. The Cougars went 4-2 winning the top three singles matchups.
Spain sophomore Alvaro Martinez battled to a 6-0, 7-6 (7-3) win over Geovanny Satama. Schuler and Olathe freshman Dominic Fabiano had easy wins at No. 2 and 3. Schuler won 6-0, 6-4 at No. 2 while Fabiano won 6-0 6-3 at No. 3. Trevor Carey, a freshman from Wichita South, won at No. 5 singles, defeating Logan Meisinger 6-3, 6-4.
Andover freshmen Matthew Rochat and Tristian Jones both came up short in singles. Rochat lost at No. 4, 6-3, 6-3, and Jones fell 7-5, 6-2 at No. 6 for the Cougars.
Martinez and Schuler combined to earn Barton’s only win in doubles. The duo won easily over Satama and Jaime Chacon, 8-2. Fabiano and Rochat gave Midland a battle at No. 2 but came up short 8-5. Cary and jones were blanked 8-0 at No. 3.
Schuler opened the day with wins in both singles and doubles against Doane. He again teamed with Martinez to win doubles, knocking off Sebastian Gardefjord and Dylan Ramey 8-5. It was the only doubles win of the match as Fabiano and Rochat lost at No. 2 by a close 8-6 score while Cary and Jones lost 8-3 at No. 3
Schuler rolled to a straight-set win over Kristian Kiland in No. 2 singles, 6-4, 6-2. Rochat earned Barton’s other singles win when Tyler Johnson had to retire for Doane.
“Vitor played well this weekend in his Barton debut,” Coach Stickney said.
Martinez, Fabiano, Cary and Jones all lost their singles matches.
The Cougars will get their season off and going in full fashion March 4 when they travel to Wichita to battle Friends University.