DALLAS — No. 48 St. Mary's women's tennis picked up an important conference victory Saturday, defeating fellow Heartland Conference opponent Arkansas-Fort Smith 5-1 on the indoor courts of Northwood Club.
The Lady Rattlers came away with a 2-1 lead following the completion of doubles. Wins for St. Mary's came at the No. 1 and No. 2 positions by the scores of 8-2, and 8-6. At the No. 3 position, the St. Mary's team of
Valentine Lambrechts and
Joanie Bryant fought to complete the sweep, but fell in a closely contested 8-6 battle against Abby Thompson and Allie Wilson Saldana of UAFS.
In singles St. Mary's swept the top three singles positions to clinch the match.
At No. 1 singles No. 28
Mariana Rong remained undefeated taking a straight set victory over UAFS's Masa Podunavac 6-2, 6-4.
Freshman Christina Lopez split sets at the No.2 position. She was able to win the third set and picked up the victory over Taylor Price of UAFS with a final score of 6-4, 3-6, 6-2.
The final match to see completion was at No. 3 singles where
Felicity Delgado won in straight-sets, both of which were extended to tiebreakers, over Amy Belanger of UAFS 7-6 (4-0), 7-6 (3-0).
The remaining matches were stopped before reaching completion because of the court availability with the rain forcing the matches inside.
“These conditions were tough, I'm glad we focused and got the job done,” said head coach
Lisa Dausin. “The score looks lopsided, but these were hard fought matches. I'm pleased with our fight today.”
The Lady Rattlers moves to 6-3 on the season after the victory and returns to the court next to face University of Texas of the Permain Basin, Sunday at Plano West High School in Plano, Texas.
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.
