#17 Women's Tennis Fights Past Delays and Patriots for Sixth Straight Win

TYLER, Texas – Originally slated to start at 10 a.m., the #17 St. Mary's Women's Tennis team didn't take the court until just before 5 p.m., getting delayed due to weather several times, but the Rattlers remained poised through the setbacks for the 4-2 win against Lone Star Conference foe UT Tyler.
 
StMU won its sixth-straight match to improve to 14-3 overall and 2-1 in Lone Star play.
 
"We had to do a lot of waiting around today," Director of Tennis Bill Macom said. "Starting and stopping due to the rain, so the doubles point proved to be very important for us today. I think that gave us a mental edge going into singles."
 
Both the number one and three doubles teams won by identical scores of 6-2 to give the Rattlers the first point of the night. The #2 team of Bailey Godwin (San Antonio) and Angela Vargas (Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico) were knotted at 4-4 when the #3 squad of Gabi Ioannou (Melbourne, Australia) and Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) finished.
 
The Patriots tied the score at 1-1 with a pair of 7-5 set wins at #4 against Ioannou. The Rattlers regained the lead on a straight-sets victory by Vargas at #2, 6-3, 6-2 and minutes later Ashley Penshorn made it 3-1 with her 6-1, 7-5 win at No. 1.
 
UTT closed within one with a hard-fought battle at #3. Elena Munoz won the first set in a tiebreaker, 7-5, but dropped the next two 6-2, 6-2 for the Rattlers.
 
With the men and women playing at the same time, the singles matches at the fifth and sixth ladder positions had to wait for earlier matches to finish, but Sifuentes clinched the victory for the Rattlers with her lopsided 6-2, 6-0 tally at No. 5. Godwin was early in the second set when the match finished.
 
"Five and six singles had to wait the longest to play," Macom said. "I'm glad Stella was able to stay pumped up after her doubles to close her match out quickly."
 
The Rattlers head to Arlington to face DBU on Saturday. The match is scheduled for 1:30 p.m.