WICHITA FALLS, Texas — The No. 48 St. Mary's women's tennis team suffered its first setback of the season Saturday, falling 7-2 to No. 38 Midwestern State University.
The Lady Rattlers had previously swept doubles in each of their first three matches this season, but failed to keep the streak alive Saturday, losing at each doubles position the same score, 8-4. The match continued to singles play with MSU holding a 3-0 lead.
St. Mary's top players battled back with a strong effort. No. 28 sophomore
Mariana Rong (Jinan, China) won 7-6, 6-1 over Midwestern's top player Taylor Coffman at the No.1 singles spot. St. Mary's sophomore
Felicity Delgado (So., Universal City, Texas) was also victorious at the No. 2 position, winning 7-5, 6-3 over Midwestern's Kendra Casey. However, their efforts were not enough to spark a St. Mary's comeback, as the Lady Rattlers suffered losses at positions four through six.
“This was not our best doubles effort,” St. Mary's head coach
Lisa Dausin said. “We had chances in singles, but didn't close-out in some key moments. We never like to lose, but we faced a good team today. I hope our girls learn from this.”
St. Mary's women's tennis comes back home for its next match facing Texas A&M–Corpus Christi at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the St. Mary's University Tennis Courts.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
