SAN ANTONIO — The No. 48 St. Mary's Men's Tennis team suffered a loss Sunday against No. 14 Abilene Christian University. The final score was 5-2 in the Wildcats' favor, as the remaining matches went unfinished as ACU already clinched the victory.
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. 1 position, with
Zachary Nicholson and
Jared Fellows winning in a closely contested 9-8 victory over ACU's top squad of Guilherme Gesser and Nicklas Wingord.
In singles, the Rattlers were unable to overcome their opponents losing in straight sets at the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 positions to give the visiting Wildcats enough points to clinch the match.
The highlight for the Rattlers in singles came at the No. 3 position, where freshman
Jared Fellows won in straight-sets over ACU's Jason Proctor 6-4, 6-3.
The match was called once ACU had clinched the match. The No. 5 and No. 6 singles positions did not finish.
“We fought hard against a very good team today,” said St. Mary's head tennis coach
Lisa Dausin. “Jared had a great day coming away with doubles and singles victories.”
With the loss the Rattlers move to 9-6 on the season with only five matches remaining before 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.
