NORTH NEWTON— It wasn’t a weekend to remember for the Barton Community College women’s tennis team.

The weekend started with a pair of matches against Top five opponents in Oklahoma City and ended with a close loss to Ottawa University Saturday. Barton was blanked 9-0 by No. 4 North Central Texas College and No. 5 Seminole State (Okla) College Friday. The Cougars traveled back to Kansas for the match with Ottawa in Newton where injuries played a big part in that defeat.

The Cougars had their chances to defeat the Braves Saturday but it wasn’t to be.

“The women continue to underwhelm their opponents as we lose another close dual,” Coach Lyle Stickney said. “It didn’t help that our No. 2 and No. 3 players were unable to play their singles matches, but, it still comes down to your ability to close out games that you should be winning.

“We squandered a couple match points in the No. 2 doubles and that match was the difference in the team’s outcome.”

Barton earned an 8-4 win at No. 1 doubles as Daniela Sanz and Margaux Perez won 8-4 over Ottawa’s Madeline Bellew and Jennifer Luedtke. The Cougars Kelly Brauer and Stephanie Langer took a forfeit  win at No. 3 doubles.

The key match of the day turned out to be the No. 2 doubles battle between Barbara Codognotto and Karli Beck for the Cougars against Lexis Hibbs and Danika Good for the Braves. Hibbs and Good ended up winning that match by a 9-8 tiebreaker score.

Injuries caught up to the Cougars in singles. Sanz had an easy time at No. 1 with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Bellew. Barton appeared on its way to another win at No. 2 as well before the injury bug struck. Perez led 4-0 on Luedtke before she had to retire due to an injury, giving the win to the Braves.

Injuries also played a part in the final three singles matches - Barton got a forfeit win at No. 6. Codognotto did not play singles due to an injury so everyone slid up a spot in her absense from spots 3-5. Langer lost to Hibbs 6-0, 6-0 at No. 3. Beck lost 6-2, 6-0 to Good at No. 4 and Brauer lost 6-2, 6-1 at No. 5 to Kimisha Peterson.

The Cougars won’t have much time to heal either as they are right back at it Tuesday in a Region VI match at Hesston.