No. 20 Women's Tennis Wins In LSC Semifinals Against No. 56 UT Tyler

ARLINGTON, Texas – The St. Mary's Women's Tennis Team is headed to the finals of the Lone Star Conference Championship after a 4-1 victory over #56 UT Tyler on Friday morning.
 
The Rattlers won their 19th match of the season, tying for fourth in school history in victories and are just two wins shy of knotting the all-time record of 21 held by both the 2015 and 2016 teams.
 
The two teams faced each other less than a week ago, playing on Saturday in the regular season finale and the results were pretty similar as StMU won that match with a 6-1 tally at UT Tyler.
 
For the 19th time in 22 matches this season, the Rattlers started the match by winning the doubles point. The No. 1 tandem of freshman Bailey Godwin (San Antonio) and junior Angela Vargas (Del Rio, Texas) defeated Leony Deutschmann and Kanika Siviraman 6-3 and moments later, the No. 2 duo of seniors Ashley Penshorn (Montgomery, Texas) and Alice Thane (Elloughton, East Yorkshire, England) secured the point with a 6-2 win. 
 
The pairing of senior Maria Garcia (Valencia, Spain) and junior Gabi Ioannou (Melbourne, Australia) were leading 5-4 when their set was called.
 
Garcia trailed 2-0 early in the first set, but was able to break serve a few times and won the final three games for the 6-4 score and then she surged to a 6-0 win in the second set at No. 3 singles for the 2-0 lead.
 
Penshorn stretched that advantage to 3-0 with a 6-0, 6-3 win over #66 Leony Deutschmann at No. 1 singles. It is the eighth-straight singles win for Penshorn as she improves to 18-3 in duals this spring.
 
The Patriots broke onto the scoreboard with a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 4 singles.
 
At No. 6, Thane got an early break of serve for the 2-0 lead and was able to hold off Chloe Chawner by winning seven of the nine points in the tiebreaker to win the opening set 7-6 (2) and Thane won five straight games after trailing 2-0 early in the second for the 5-4 victory to clinch the match for the Rattlers.
 
In the two unfinished bouts, Ioannou dropped the opening set 6-4, but bounced back to win second 6-0 and was leading 4-2 at No. 6 singles and Vargas was in a fierce battle at No. 2. She won the opening set in tiebreak fashion, 7-6 (5) and was leading 2-1 in the second.
 
The Rattlers face Cameron in the finals, which defeated Texas A&M Kingsville 4-3 in the other semifinal. This is the first finals appearance for the Gold & Blue, while the Aggies are making their fifth appearance and won the title in 2016. First serve is scheduled for 9:30 a.m.