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Lisa Dausin
Liz Dalton
Head coach Lisa Dausin celebrates as the advance to the National Quarterfinals.

Women's Tennis RattlerAthletics.com

Historic victory puts Women's Tennis in NCAA Quarterfinal

By Ruben Dominguez | St. Mary's Athletics Communications 

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Although the venue had the namesake, it was no "surprise" what St. Mary's Women's Tennis did at the NCAA Division II National Tennis Championships Wednesday afternoon, which was win.

No. 13 St. Mary's claimed a convincing 5-1 victory over No. 17 Northeastern State in the Round of 16 of the National Tournament, advancing to play No. 3 BYU-Hawaii in the National Quarterfinals at 3 p.m. (CDT) Thursday in Surprise, Ariz.
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Kaylin Kruseman (right) celebrates with teammates.

The match proved to be the most significant win for the Rattlers in program history as it marked the first time StMU has reached the National Quarterfinals after narrowly missing out with last year's Round of 16 exit.

Doubles started the way of the Rattlers with Felicity Delgado (Sr., Universal City, Texas) and Kerry Wiegand (Jr., San Antonio) winning 8-2 over Molly Worden and Easton Parker at the No. 3 position.

The winning ways continued for the Rattlers in a highly contested No. 1 matchup of two nationally ranked doubles teams.

No. 7 Mariana Rong (Sr., Jinan, China) and Cristina Lopez (Jr., San Antonio) carried their near flawless doubles record into battle with No. 10 NSU's Patricia Husakova and Kristina Savchenkov by the same score line, 8-2, to give the Rattlers an early 2-0 overall lead.

The final doubles point up for grabs would go down to the wire with No. 21 Jamie Lee Denton (Jr., San Angelo, Texas) and Kaylin Kruseman (Fr., Houston) facing off with Valeriia Efimenko and Daria Panferova.
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Mariana Rong (right) congratulates her opponent.

The two teams would prove to be worthy opponents in a seesaw affair, but the latter would fall to the Snakes by a 9-7 score to give St. Mary's the sweep of doubles and 3-0 overall lead.

The attention would then turn to singles where the Rattlers would only need to take two of the remaining six matches.

After a close doubles match, the Heartland Conference Freshman of the Year and ITA Rookie of the Year Kruseman continued her tear as she won the fourth match with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Efimenko to put the Rattlers in prime position to reach the next round.

The Riverhawks (20-6) tried to forge a comeback to sustain their place in the competition and they got on the right track with No. 39 Husakova forging revenge against No. 43 Lopez for her earlier doubles defeat with a 6-4, 6-1 at No. 2 singles.

With a 4-1 lead, St. Mary's called on a familiar face to close out the victory.

No. 31 Rong rallied to seize the victory for St. Mary's over No. 36 Savchenkov with a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

The win marked StMU's 21st win of the season and its biggest win to date, as they are now on a 20-game winning streak.

The celebrations will be short-lived, as the Rattlers will return to the courts Thursday at 4 p.m. to see if they can extend their season into the National Semifinals against BYU-Hawaii.
 
No. 3 BYU-Hawaii advanced to the Elite Eight with 5-0 win over No. 33 Indiana (Pa.), improving to 31-1. Like St. Mary's, the Seasiders also house nationally ranked players including the No. 1 singles player in the nation, Nannah (Dallas) Zhang, who is also on the No. 2 doubles team in the nation along with Min (Karen) Liu. 


 
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Players Mentioned

Felicity Delgado

Felicity Delgado

5' 2"
Senior
Jamie Lee Denton

Jamie Lee Denton

5' 8"
Junior
Cristina Lopez

Cristina Lopez

5' 1"
Junior
Mariana Rong

Mariana Rong

5' 10"
Senior
Kaylin Kruseman

Kaylin Kruseman

5' 4"
Freshman
Kerry Wiegand

Kerry Wiegand

5' 8"
Junior

Players Mentioned

Felicity Delgado

Felicity Delgado

5' 2"
Senior
Jamie Lee Denton

Jamie Lee Denton

5' 8"
Junior
Cristina Lopez

Cristina Lopez

5' 1"
Junior
Mariana Rong

Mariana Rong

5' 10"
Senior
Kaylin Kruseman

Kaylin Kruseman

5' 4"
Freshman
Kerry Wiegand

Kerry Wiegand

5' 8"
Junior

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