SAN ANTONIO — Sometime between this season and last, St. Mary's tennis coach
Lisa Dausin saw a transformation among her women's and men's players.
Not necessarily a physical change, but a mental one.
“They started asking, 'Why not nationals? Why not win conference? Why not?'” Dausin said. “That's the difference between this year and last.
“Last year it was, 'What if?' Now it's, 'Why not?'”
Winning can have that effect on a team.
Fast becoming a national contender on both the men's and women's sides in just Dausin's second season leading the program, St. Mary's enters this week's Heartland Conference Championship as the No. 1 seed in the men's and women's tournaments.
The red-hot women are 16-4 on the season and ranked No. 28 nationally, the highest-ever ranking for the program. Their 5-0 record against Heartland Conference opponents equaled that of the men, who are 11-8 on the season and are ranked No. 44 in the nation.
As the top seed, both teams received first-round byes in the tournament, which begins Friday in Dallas. The men will play their first match at 5 p.m. Friday, while the women play at 3 p.m. The championship matches are slated for Saturday.
“We're going in as the No. 1 seed on both sides and we're the youngest team in the tournament,” said Dausin, whose squads are seeking their first-ever Heartland Conference championships.
Dausin's men's squad regularly features as many as five freshmen among the top six in singles or doubles competitions, including
Matt Banner,
Jared Fellows,
Brien Galon,
Matt Jones and
Luke Keller. The women's team is only slightly older, with freshmen
Cristina Lopez and
Joanie Bryant playing critical roles alongside sophomores
Mariana Rong and
Felicity Delgado.
“The big question mark is how are our young freshmen going to do on the men's side,” Dausin said. “All indications are that they'll do great. We've got a bunch of players that are overachievers and I kind of just turned them loose. That's what happened. We have a team full of overachievers.”
Between the new and old faces alike, there's hardly been any stopping the Rattlers of late.
Four different Rattlers on the men's side have won Heartland Conference Player of the Week honors this season: Banner, Galon and seniors
Zachary Nicholson and
Andrej Klipa. St. Mary's has taken home six of the 11 Women's Tennis Player of the Week honors doled out by the conference, with Rong winning all six for StMU.
Rong has drawn much attention for posting a 19-0 record in singles action this spring, but she's hardly the only Lady Rattler with the hot hand. Lopez is 15-5, Bryant 12-4, Delgado 13-7 and Lambrechts 11-7. In fact, no Rattler has a losing record this season in singles play.
“I don't think the girls are wavering at all,” said Dausin, whose team is 10-2 against regional opponents. “It appears they are building momentum if anything.”
But don't mistake the Rattlers' confidence as overconfidence. They are taking nothing for granted entering the Heartland Tournament.
“It's going to be competitive,” Dausin said. “That's my expectation.”
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.
