Tiger men lose pair of close matches

Gearing up for this weekend’s Region VI Tournament, the Cowley College men’s tennis team got solid play from its doubles teams but found wins hard to come by in singles play as they suffered a pair of 5-4 defeats.

Saturday in Great Bend, Cowley got wins from its top two doubles teams and its top two singles players, Richard Filkuka (pictured) and Diego Motivar. However, the Cougars won four singles matches to go with their win at No. 3 doubles as they slipped past the Tigers 5-4.

On Sunday, Cowley traveled to Lindsborg to take on Bethany College. The Tigers won all three doubles matches, but won just one of six singles matches as they suffered another 5-4 defeat.

Cowley’s lone win in singles play came from Sean Cobble at No. 3 singles. Richard Filkuka and Boomer Saia also battled hard before coming up short in a pair of three-set matches.

 “We went out and played a tough Barton team very well on Saturday, but I did not feel we had the same intensity on Sunday,” Cowley head coach Josh Cobble said.

The Region VI Tournament will begin Friday at 8 a.m. at Wichita’s Riverside Tennis Center. The tournament will resume Saturday at 9 a.m. The top-three teams at the tournament will qualify to compete at the national tournament.

“We need to take the stuff we learned from the season and correct our mistakes,” Cobble said. “We will be ready to go.”

Saturday vs. Barton
DOUBLES
•No. 1 — Richard Filkuka/Diego Motivar (CC) defeated Noe Losmozos/Artur Latypov (BC) 9-8 (8-5).
•No. 2 —Sean Cobble/Boomer Saia (CC) defeated Raphael Namias/Victor Pinones 8-4.
•No. 3 — Ignacio Velez/Bruce Maytubby (CC) defeated Petr Grigorev/Roman Mendoza (BC) 8-1.

SINGLES
•No. 1 —Filkuka (CC) defeated Losmozos (BC) 6-3, 6-4.
•No. 2 — Motivar (CC) defeated Latypov (BC) 7-6 (3), 6-1.
•No. 3 — Namias (BC) defeated Velez (CC) 6-0, 6-2.
•No. 4 — Mendoza (BC) defeated Cobble (CC) 6-4, 6-4.
•No. 5 — Pinones (BC) defeated Bruce Maytubby (CC) 6-4, 6-1.
•No. 6 — Grigorev (BC) defeated Saia (CC) 6-2, 6-1.

Sunday vs. Bethany
DOUBLES
•No. 1 — Filkuka/Motivar (CC) defeated DeJong/Bietau (BC) 8-4.
•No. 2 — Cobble/Saia (CC) defeated Feyernauch/Garcia (BC) 8-6.
•No. 3 — Velez/Maytubby (CC) defeated Hambleton/Yamurto (BC) 8-1.

SINGLES
•No. 1 — DeJong (BC) defeated Filkuka (CC) 6-4, 2-6, 10-8.
•No. 2 — Hambleton (BC) defeated Motivar (CC) 6-3, 6-4.
•No. 3 — Cobble (CC) defeated Yamurto (BC) by default.
•No. 4 — Bietau (BC) defeated Maytubby (CC) 6-1, 6-1.
•No. 5 — Verlup (BC) defeated Saia (CC) 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.
•No. 6 — Feyernauch (BC) defeated Mathew Slovacek (CC) 6-2, 6-0.