SAN ANTONIO — The No. 48 St. Mary's Men's Tennis team put on a historic performance Saturday, defeating Heartland Conference rival No. 17 St. Edward's University for the first time since both schools joined NCAA Division II in 1999.
The Rattlers started slow, losing two of the three doubles positions, putting them in a 1-2 hole heading into singles play. The Ratters' lone doubles victory was at the No. 3 position with the freshman tandem of
Brien Galon and
Matt Banner winning 8-6 over St. Edward's Alexandre Bueno and Adrian Garza.
In singles, the Rattlers jumped to a quick start, winning four of six first sets.
First match off the court was at the No. 6 position, where freshman
Brien Galon won a decisive 6-2, 6-1 victory over St. Edward's Jacob Belanger, bringing the match to a 2-2 tie.
At the top singles position, senior Andrei Klipa was a man on a mission, jumping St. Edward's James Rogers early to take a decisive 6-2, 6-2, victory to give the Rattlers the lead.
Surging back, St. Edward's then took the No. 3 and No. 4 positions, both in straight sets, to give the Hilltoppers a lead of 4-3, putting them within one match of clinching the overall match victory.
Bouncing back for the Rattlers, freshman
Matt Banner held on in a closely contested straight-set victory over St. Edward's Alexandre Bueno 6-4, 6-4. This brought the match to a 4-4 tie, meaning the winner of the remaining match at the No. 2 position would clinch the match.
At the No. 2 position, senior
Zachary Nicholson battled with St. Edward's Pedro Bronstrup for the clinching victory. After winning the first set 6-3, Nicholson was unable to close the match in straight sets, falling 6-3 in the second set. The final set of the match was in the Rattlers' favor, as Nicholson was able to extend into a 5-2 lead. Losing the next game, Nicholson was able to fight off Bronstrup's comeback attempt and won the set 6-3.
The win gave the Rattlers a 5-4 victory, a crucial conference win that places the Rattlers in first place in the Heartland Conference regular-season standings.
“I told the guys it would come down to close matches and it did” said St. Mary's head tennis coach
Lisa Dausin. “This is a great win; we hope to ride this momentum further into the season.”
The Rattlers move to 9-5 on the season. The victory will likely result in a rise in both regional and national rankings. The win also nearly guarantees the Rattlers a No. 1 seed at the Heartland Conference Tournament.
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.
