LAWTON, Texas — The No. 28 St. Mary's women's tennis team comes home from an impressive weekend of tennis at the Cameron Quad. The Lady Rattlers were victorious in matches over No. 17 Tarleton State University and No. 18 Cameron University.
Kicking off the weekend, the Lady Rattlers defeated No. 17 Tarleton State University 5-4 last Friday.
The match was closely contested from start to finish; the St. Mary's women came on strong early as they won two of the three doubles positions. Doubles wins came at the No. 2 and No. 3 spots.
The No. 2 team of
Cristina Lopez and
Felicity Delgado (StMU) defeated TSU's Melanie Barnes and Ivana Zecevic 9-7 in the most competitive of the doubles matches.
Coming out of doubles, the Lady Rattlers held a 2-1 lead. The slight edge proved vital as the singles matches were split, with both teams earning three singles victories. Singles wins for St. Mary's came at the No. 1, No. 3, and No. 5 singles positions.
The Lady Rattlers carried the momentum forward to Saturday, as they faced another worthy opponent in No. 18 Cameron University. Up to the challenge, the St. Mary's women continued to thrive as they defeated Cameron 7-2.
Things started off well for St. Mary's as they swept the doubles to take an early 3-0 lead.
Singles was also largely in St. Mary's favor, with the Lady Rattlers winning four of six positions.
“We played well this weekend, there is nothing more I could ask from this team right now, just a solid performance as a whole on both days,” said St. Mary's head coach
Lisa Dausin. “If we can maintain this level of play throughout the rest of the season, I feel good about our chances for a nice postseason run.”
Notably, St. Mary's No. 1 singles player, sophomore
Mariana Rong, continued her undefeated streak winning both of her matches in straight sets. With only one match remaining on the regular season, Rong is one match away from a perfect regular season.
The Lady Rattlers return home with a 15-4 record. They will play their final regular-season match Saturday, April 13 at 6:30 p.m. versus Heartland Conference opponent Dallas Baptist University at the St. Mary's University tennis courts.
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.
