DALLAS — For the first time, St. Mary's has won the Heartland Conference Women's Tennis championship.
St. Mary's, seeded No. 1 entering this weekend's tournament, knocked off No. 2 seed St. Edward's 5-2 to win the title and advance to the NCAA Division II South Central Regional for the first time.
Meanwhile, the No. 1-seeded men's tennis team fell just short of equaling the women's feat, falling to No. 2 St. Edward's 5-1.
The women jumped to a 2-1 lead over St. Edward's in doubles action, prompting the Rattlers, ranked No. 28 nationally, to prevail following singles victories from
Mariana Rong,
Cristina Lopez and
Felicity Delgado.
The men fell behind 2-1 in doubles action and couldn't take away the momentum St. Edward's had built, dropping three singles matches. The remainder of the matches went unfinished with the overall match already decided. Seniors
Andrej Klipa and
Zachary Nicholson teamed for the Rattlers' lone victory on the day.
Details concerning the women's team's trip to regionals will become available early next week on RattlerAthletics.com.
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.
