SAN ANTONIO — The No. 48 St. Mary's men's tennis team picked up its fifth straight victory Monday, defeating Heartland Conference opponent Newman University by a final score of 8-1.
The Rattlers started off by sweeping the doubles matches to take a 3-0 lead. At the top doubles position,
Zachary Nicholson and
Jared Fellows bested Newman's top team, Nei Dos Santos and Freddy Sanchez, by the score of 8-4. The No. 2 and No. 3 teams for St. Mary's were also victorious with scores of 8-5, and 8-4, respectively.
In singles, the Rattlers' charge continued with St. Mary's winning five of the six matches in straight sets. At the top singles position, senior
Andrej Klipa picked up another win on the season, winning 6-1, 6-2 over Newman's top player Nei Dos Santos.
The sole blemish on the day for the Rattlers came at the No. 6 singles position, where freshman
Brien Galon lost in a third-set deciding tiebreaker to Newman's Jeff Wherritt. After winning the first set 6-1, Galon lost the momentum in the second, falling 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Newman's Wherrit was able to take the match, winning 11-9.
“I hate to see Brien lose a match like that, but he can learn from it,” said St. Mary's head tennis coach
Lisa Dausin. “We have plenty of tennis ahead of us this week for Brien to get back out there and show what he is capable of.”
With the win, St. Mary's Men's Tennis moves to 8-4 on the season. They return to the courts next to face nationally ranked No. 21 Drury University on Wednesday at 1 p.m. The match will be played at the St. Mary's 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.
