SAN ANTONIO — A heated matchup between No. 2-seeded St. Mary's Men's Tennis and No. 3-seeded UA Fort Smith had the Rattlers come out on top Friday night in the Heartland Conference Championship Tournament to advance to the title match.
The Rattlers battled through highly contested pairings, coming out dominant to win 5-1 to earn the chance to fight for the Heartland Conference Championship title.
No. 27 St. Mary's plays No. 1-seeded St. Edward's for the conference crown at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rohrbach Stadium.
A large crowd formed on the No. 1 doubles courts as Rattlers
Philipp Raickovic and
Matt Banner faced Chris Ramirez and Seth Laster in a lengthy and competitive duel as the pairs were the last to finish and were the rubber as the score was tied 1-1.
Raickovic and Banner powered through, winning 9-7 to give the Rattlers a 2-1 advantage going into singles play and only in need of three more points.
Michael Maciel dominated his opponent, finishing first after winning 6-1, 6-2 on the No. 2 singles court.
Raickovic again faced the Lions' Ramirez for another heated exchange in No. 1 singles, besting him 6-4, 6-2.
Banner picked up the Rattlers' winning point, silencing his opponent in No. 4 singles 6-2, 6-0.
Bob Resink,
Brien Galon and
Richard Foley were each ahead of their opponents in singles before the Rattlers ended the match.
The Rattlers will look for their first Heartland Conference title under head coach
Lisa Dausin and in the program's history in hopes of granting the No. 26 Hilltoppers their first conference loss for the crown.
Live video and live stats of the championship match can be found on the
Tournament Central Page.
