SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's Men's Tennis picked up two wins last week, going 2-1 against hard-hitting competition to remain undefeated in Heartland Conference play and contest the No. 18 team in the nation, Midwestern State.
The No. 27 Rattlers started their three-match weekend against Newman on Friday, picking up their fourth conference win with a 5-4 victory.
A day later, the Rattlers faced No. 18 Midwestern State on Saturday, competing well to fall 6-3.
St. Mary's ended the weekend with a victory against Collin Community College on Sunday, winning 8-1.
On the season, the Rattlers are 9-7 with a perfect 4-0 conference record to remain the league's No. 1.
Freshman
Michael Maciel (Sugar Land, Texas) had an impressive week, losing just one match to go unbeaten in singles at 3-0 as the Rattlers' No. 2 and 2-1 in doubles.
The Rattlers' No. 1
Philipp Raickovic (Kurallee, Germany) also had a stout week, going 1-2 in singles and 2-1 in doubles.
Raickovic faced fierce competition, serving against the No. 2 player in the nation, Kacper Boborykin of Midwestern. Raickovic nearly clinched a victory, going a marathon four sets against the No. 2, 7-6 (4-0), 6-4, and (4-0).
Matt Banner (So., Mason, Texas) and
Jared Fellows (So., Boerne, Texas) both went unbeaten in doubles play for the week with Banner going 3-0 and Fellows 2-0, both including big wins over No. 18 Midwestern State.
The Rattlers have just four regular-season matches left before the conference championship and will play in their last home match of the season Saturday against Our Lady of the Lake at 10 p.m. at Rohrbach Stadium.
