Seward County's Ronzai Saurombe is starting to run out of room in his trophy case and Sunday afternoon in Denver, Colorado, that already limited space got a little bit tighter as the sophomore outdueled a field of NCAA Division I and Division II talent to capture his second straight titles in singles and doubles at the Metro State Invitational Tournament. Saurombe finished the weekend a perfect 7-0 while Vitor Galvao was 5-1 for the Saints.
The Saints sent Ronzai Saurombe and Vitor Galvao to the draw in the Flight A singles bracket. Saurombe was solid on day one, knocking off Nico Carpenter from Air Force 7-6 (6), 6-3 and battling to the end against Jordan Lyden from Colorado Mesa to win 7-6 (4) 5-7, 7-5 in an epic four hour battle to reach the semis. Galvao had an easy time against Jason Gutierrez of Colorado College in his first match, winning 6-4, 6-1, but fell in his second match of the day 6-4, 7-5 to Nick Baker of Metro State. Saurombe's semifinal match pitted him against Josh Graetz of Metro State and the Seward sophomore knocked Graetz out of the tournament on his home court with a 7-5, 7-5 win to reach the finals for the second straight year. In the final Saurombe played another close one as he looked to avenge Galvao's earlier loss to Metro State's Nick Baker. Saurombe lost a tough 6-7 (5) decision in the first and then gutted out a 7-6 (4) win in the second set. In the tiebreaker it was all Saurombe as he blasted Baker, a 2014 2nd Team All-RMAC performer, 6-0 to claim the Flight A championship for the second straight year.
Seward had their struggles everywhere else in singles action as Felipe Cesares and Des'mne Curtis picked up the Saints only wins in 16 tries in the Flight B, C, and D draws. On Saturday Cesares knocked off Josh Hedderigg from Montana State-Billings 6-4, 6-2 in the consolation bracket of Flight B while Curtis won a 6-2, 6-1 backdraw match Sunday against Casey Shaw of Colorado College.
Saurombe and Galvao teamed up in Flight A doubles for the Saints, as Seward looked to capture its second straight championship in that event after Saurombe and Alejandro Gonzalez did the trick a year ago. The duo got off to a good start, beating Fryer/Lovera of the University of Denver in the first round 8-3 before slipping by Metro State's top pair in Graetz/Baker in the second round with an 8-5 decision to reach the semis. In their only doubles match of the day Saturday, Cesares and Curtis fell 8-2 to Louhnan/Jacob from the University of Northern Colorado to be eliminated from doubles contention. On Sunday Saurombe/Galvao picked up another win against an NCAA Division I school, downing Finerty/Sheldon from Northern Colorado 8-4 to reach the championship round where they were given a forfeit win to take home the title.
In the Flight B draw, Christian Kurz and Xavier Ramirez picked up a doubles win for the Saints as they buried Peterson/Benham of Colorado College 8-1 to reach the quarterfinals where they would later fall to Stember/Hayes of Metro State 8-3 to end their tournament in 5th place.
Seward finished the tournament with a 13-17 overall record as a team, while posting a 9-2 record in Flight A draws.
METRO STATE INVITATIONAL DAY ONE RESULTS
METRO STATE INVITATIONAL DAY TWO RESULTS
Competition will remain tough for the Saints this weekend as they travel to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to take part in the 2014 ITA Regional Tournament. The three day event will send one singles player and one doubles team to the ITA National Tournament in Fort Myers, Florida in October.