MASON, Texas — The No. 44 St. Mary's Men's Tennis team defeated Heartland Conference newcomer No. 47 McMurry University Wednesday in a closely contested nail-bitter. The final score was 5-4 in the Rattlers' favor.
The Rattlers started fast, winning two of the three doubles positions, putting them up 2-1 heading into singles play. The Ratters' doubles victories were at the No. 1 and No. 3 positions.
Zachary Nicholson and
Jared Fellows won 8-3 over McMurry's top team Chris Breaux and Casjen Rico. The freshman tandem of
Brien Galon and
Matt Banner won 8-2 over McMurry's Chritiano Mendes and Preston Steblein at the No. 3 spot.
In singles, the Rattlers lost four of six first sets, bringing the match to within McMurry's reach.
Winning matches for the Rattlers in straight sets were senior Andrei Klipa and junior
Carlos Olea.
Klipa won a decisive 6-1, 6-1 victory over McMurry's Chris Breaux at the No. 1 position. Olea won at the No. 4 spot 6-2, 6-2 over Preston Steblein.
The match came down to the play of the St. Mary's freshmen. Each freshman had split sets, the Rattlers needing only one victory out of the three to clinch the match.
At the No. 6 position,
Brien Galon was unable to hold off his opponent and fell in the third set to Casjen Rico to tally a final score of 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in McMurry's favor.
Shortly afterward, fellow freshman
Matt Banner suffered a similar fate losing in a third set to Christiano Mendes for a final score of 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 for McMurry.
The match was tied an even 4-4 with the No. 3 singles being the only remaining match on the court.
With the deciding match in his hands, freshman
Jared Fellows converted to bring home the win for the Rattlers. After losing the first set 6-4, Fellows bounced back to win by a final score of 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 over McMurry's Felipe Cruz.
“Kudos to Jared for sticking with it in the tough conditions to get us a win here,” said St. Mary's head tennis coach
Lisa Dausin. “We played solid doubles today.”
The Rattlers move to 10-6 on the season with only four 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.
