Cowley tennis finishes rain-soaked national tournament

Wrapping up play at the NJCAA Division I Men’s National Tennis Tournament, the Cowley College tennis team had some good performances.

With some teams still playing today, Cowley head coach Josh Cobble expects the Tigers to finish around 10th or 11th at the national tournament.

“I thought we had an excellent tournament, everybody played really hard and some of the matches we lost could have easily gone the other way,” Cobble said.

Tiger sophomore Diego Motivar advanced all the way to the semifinals at No. 2 singles before losing to Laredo Community College’s Francisco Segura 6-7, 1-6. Freshman Boomer Saia was Cowley’s only other singles player remaining in the tournament on Thursday.

After losing his first match at No. 6 singles on Monday, Saia fought his way through the back draw before losing 8-6 in the consolation finals to Temple Community College’s Michael Smathers.

Saia then teamed with Sean Cobble to win the consolation finals at No. 2 doubles. The duo defeated Central Alabama’s Jarrett Beasley and Mitch Harmon 8-3 in the finals of the consolation bracket.

“After dealing with a difficult loss in the main draw its tough to come back and play in the consolation bracket,” Cobble said. “But, those guys did it and earned two big points for our team.”

The Tigers’ No. 1 doubles team of Motivar and Richard Filkuka advanced to the semifinals before losing to Tyler Junior College’s Dominic McLuskey and Roman Petrunin 4-6, 4-6.

Motivar and Filkuka played their final matches for the Tigers as did fellow sophomore Sean Cobble. Mathew Slovacek and Bruce Maytubby round out the sophomores on the squad.

“These sophomores did a great job,” Cobble said. “I can’t thank them enough for their leadership and what they have done for this team.”