WICHITA FALLS, Texas — The No. 44 St. Mary's men's tennis team traveled to Wichita Falls, Texas Monday to face off against regional opponent No. 24 Midwestern State University. The match resulted in a 7-2 loss for the Rattlers as the Mustangs proved to be a worthy opponent.
The Rattlers started fast, winning two of the three doubles positions, giving them a 2-1 lead heading into singles play. The doubles victories for the Rattlers came at the No. 2 and No. 3 positions.
At No. 2, the freshman team of
Jared Fellows and
Matt Banner defeated MSU's Kyle Davidson and Austin Crawford 9-7.
The No. 3 position was won by
Andrej Klipa and
Carlos Olea over MSU's Tomas Grejtak and Zack Santagate, also by a score of 9-7.
The doubles points would be the only points earned for the Rattlers.
In singles, the Rattlers were unable to earn any victories. Four of the six singles matches were straight-set victories for the Mustangs.
At the No. 1 position, Andrei Klipa defaulted because of illness after losing the first set 6-3.
With the overall match score decided, the No. 2 match was halted before completion. Senior
Zachary Nicholson was in a closely contested match with Midwestern's Kyle Davidson. Nicholson had lost the first set 7-6, and was down 2-1 in the second set when the match was pulled.
“We did some good things in doubles today,” St. Mary's head tennis coach
Lisa Dausin said. “Things just were not in our favor as far as singles goes. We are focused on getting ready for conference now and need to put this one behind us.”
With the loss the Rattlers move to 10-8 on the season with only two matches remaining before the Heartland Conference Tournament. The Rattlers will play their last home match of the season on Saturday at 10 a.m. against No. 46 Southeastern Oklahoma State University.
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.
