SAN ANTONIO — The No. 48 St. Mary's women's tennis team continues to shine, pulling off a second consecutive victory over a highly nationally ranked opponent Wednesday by taking a 6-3 victory over No. 23 Drury University.
The Lady Rattlers fell into an early 1-2 hole by falling at two of the three doubles positions.
The lone victory for St. Mary's in doubles came at the No. 2 position, where
Felicity Delgado and Christina Lopez defeated Drury's Hadeil Ali and Natalia Kozel by a score of 8-2.
The Rattlers nearly won the No. 3 doubles position also, but the team of
Valentine Lambrechts and
Joanie Bryant were unable to close the match, losing in a tiebreaker to Drury's Petra Zilincanova and Katarina Kostovic for a final score of 9-8(5).
In singles, the St. Mary's women outplayed their opponents in nearly every match, winning five of six singles positions in straight-set victories.
At No. 1 singles, undefeated No. 28
Mariana Rong extended her winning streak in a straight-set victory over Drury's top player Beatriz Juan 6-2, 6-2.
At the No. 2, freshman Christina Lopez cruised in the first set 6-0 and stayed focused in a close 7-6 second set over Drury's Natalia Kozel.
Winning in convincing fashion, freshman
Joanie Bryant rolled in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Drury's Katarina Kostovic at the No. 6 spot.
Clinching the overall match, senior captain
Valentine Lambrechts held the No. 4 position well in an emotional victory over her former school. Lambrechts defeated Drury's Stefanie Monsch 7-5, 7-6(3) to seal yet another upset for the St. Mary's women's tennis team.
With the match already decided, St. Mary's
Ariana Saldana extended the winning margin further, defeating Drury's Petra Zilincanova 6-4, 6-1 at the No. 5 position, adding the final touch to the upset.
“Big win for this team. I'm proud of the fight we displayed after falling behind in doubles,” said St. Mary's head coach
Lisa Dausin. “We are excited for this, but this weekend we have another chance against a highly ranked opponent. We need to bring this intensity to out there again.”
St. Mary's women's tennis moves to 11-3. The Lady Rattlers next will face regional rival and nationally ranked No. 3 Abilene Christian University at the St. Mary's Tennis Courts at 9 a.m. Sunday.
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.
