Women's Tennis Will Play for Second-Straight LSC Title

ARLINGTON, Texas – For the second-straight season, the St. Mary's Women's Tennis team will play for the Lone Star Conference Championship as they defeated DBU 4-1 in the quarterfinals and Lubbock Christian 4-0 in the semifinals.
 
The Rattlers (22-4) will face Angelo State in the finals, which reaches with wins over UT Tyler (4-0) and the upset over top-seeded Cameron (4-3).
 
StMU breaks the school single season wins record with its 22nd victory of the year, breaking the old mark of 21 by the 2015, 2016 and 2022 squads.
 
"We did a great job against DBU, working for every point in singles this morning," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "Which the girls can be proud of. The DBU women were well coached, and we just capitalized on a few more of the deuce points than they did. That great effort carried us into some very solid doubles play against Lubbock Christian, which was crucial. Thankfully, we had enough energy to pick up our singles a level and close things out."
 
The finals are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Arlington Tennis Center. 
 
QUARTERFINALS RECAP
It's not often a team plays one match over two days, but that's what happened to the last two quarterfinals of the day as rain washed away the end of day one at the Lone Star Conference Tournament.
 
DBU won the doubles point and all six singles were early in the first set when the rains came for the second time, pushing the match to Friday morning.
 
On Friday morning, the Rattlers came in refocused and won four singles matches to advance. 
 
Senior Ashley Penshorn (Montgomery, Texas) dropped only four games en route to a 6-1, 6-3 victory on court one.
 
No. 43 Angela Vargas, a senior from Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico got a late break of serve in the first set for the 7-5 win and won set two 6-3 to give the Rattlers the 2-1 advantage.
 
Freshman Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) won the opening set 6-2 and pulled off the straight sets victory with a 7-5 win in the second-set tiebreaker.
 
Junior Kyndall Quiroz (San Antonio) clinched the victory for the Ratters at the fourth position. After dropping the opening set 6-4, she bounced back to win the second set at love and the deciding set 6-4.
 
Junior Elena Munoz (Corregidora, Queretaro, Mexico) won a thrilling first-set tiebreaker 11-9 and was locked into the third set when the match was completed, while senior Gabi Ioannou (Melbourne, Australia) was one game away from pulling off the comeback after she dropped the first set. Ioannou got the late break of serve for the 7-5 second-set win and was leading 5-4.
 
SEMIFINALS RECAP
After a short rest, the Rattlers returned to the courts to face Lubbock Christian in the semifinals, where they recorded the 4-0 sweep.
 
Ioannou and Sifuentes won 6-2 at number three to put the Rattlers in the driver's seat. The Lady Chaps won with a late break of serve on court one, but the tandem of Vargas and sophomore Bailey Godwin (San Antonio) did the same thing on court two for the 7-5 win and the initial point.
 
Quiroz lost only one game in getting things rolling in singles action. She won 6-1, 6-0 at number four for the 2-0 lead.
 
Vargas posted a 6-2, 6-2 win at number two and Sifuentes clinched the team win with a 7-6 (1), 6-1 win on court six.
 
Munoz was leading 8-7 in the tiebreaker in the second set, looking to even things at one set each and Ioannou was early in the third set after winning the second set 6-2.