Women's Tennis Drops Heartbreaker in NCAA Round of 16

ORLANDO, Fla. – The St. Mary's Women's Tennis team was within a few points of a victory in the Round of 16 at the NCAA Championships but lost 4-2 to Columbus State late on Friday evening.
 
The Rattlers end a fantastic season with a 24-5 record and their second-straight Lone Star Conference Tournament title and their third-straight appearance in the Round of 16.
 
"I really can't say that I'm disappointed because this was the strongest team we faced all spring," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "And we ended playing at a very high level. In many ways, this was a successful season. We set a record for team wins, won a conference championship and had players with numerous accolades."

StMU jumped out to the early lead by winning the doubles point as both the number one and two teams won by identical 6-3 scores. Court one was senior Ashley Penshorn (Montgomery, Texas) and junior Kyndall Quiroz (San Antonio), while senior Angela Vargas (Ciudad Acuna, Coahuila, Mexico) and sophomore Bailey Godwin (San Antonio) were on court two.
 
Penshorn ended her stellar career with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over #52 Mariana Ramirez for her fifth consecutive victory and her fourth of the season over a nationally ranked player. In five seasons, Penshorn posted 108 total singles victories and 80 dual wins, in addition to 92 wins in doubles with 64 coming in duals for a combined 200 wins.
 
Freshman Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) was in the first game of the third set when the match ended. She won the opening set 6-3 and lost in the second-set tiebreaker to knot the match at 1-1. 
 
The other four singles matches were all decided in straight sets for the Cougars for their four points.

"What's amazing is I didn't hear one excuse after the match tonight and that is one of our best successes," Macom continued. "Everyone got a chance to speak in our final team meeting and it was quite evident to me after hearing alll those words that we finished as a team and that is an accomplishment they can be proud of."
 
In addition to Penshorn, the Rattlers also say good-bye to seniors Vargas and Gabi Ioannou (Melbourne, Australia). Vargas earned two First-Team All-Conference honors and won 49 singles matches, while Ioannou was honored three times on LSC All-Conference teams and also collected 49 singles wins.