Women's Tennis Drops Exhibition Match to Roadrunners

SAN ANTONIO — The St. Mary's University Women's Tennis team is using local Division I opponents to test themselves early in the spring season in exhibition matches before kicking off the regular season, and on Thursday, the Rattlers fell 7-0 at UTSA.
 
"Doubles went way too fast, unfortunately," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "I'd say that was more about nerves and the fact that we didn't have much preparation time with those combinations. We competed well in a couple of the singles matches, which is promising because they applied the right strategy but just came up a bit short in the end results."
 
The Roadrunners (1-0) only dropped four games to the Rattlers in the three doubles matches. When the script flipped to singles, a pair of Rattlers made things extremely tough on the cross-town foes.
 
Sophomore Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) dropped the first set in a tiebreaker, 8-6 and then was broken late in the second set for the 7-5 score at No. 5 singles against Cassie McLay.
 
Junior Paula Garrote (Cartagena, Spain) also fell in her first set in a tiebreaker, 7-2. In the second set at No. 3, Garrote was broken once for the 6-4 loss.
 
Freshman Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.) played No. 1 singles for the Rattlers after a stellar fall, but dropped a 6-2, 6-4 decision to returning First-Team All-Conference selection Aleksandra Zlatarova.
 
The Rattlers take on Incarnate Word in the second of four exhibition matches, playing on Jan. 26 at 11 a.m. The team then hosts both Cowley County Community College and Jacksonville College on Jan. 27 at the Rohrbach Tennis Stadium.
 

Singles competition

1. Aleksandra Zlatarova (UTSA) def. Selina Wu (STMU) 6-2, 6-4

2. Fatima Gutierrez (UTSA) def. Alessia Terlizzi (STMU) 6-2, 6-1

3. Vittoria Baccino (UTSA) def. Paula Garrote (STMU) 7-6 (2), 6-4

4. Ekua Youri (UTSA) def. Kyndall Quiroz (STMU) 6-1, 6-0

5. Cassie McLay (UTSA) def. Stela Sifuentes (STMU) 7-6 (6), 7-5

6. Magda Tuells (UTSA) def. Bailey Godwin (STMU) 6-1, 6-1

Doubles competition

1. Aleksandra Zlatarova/Cassie McLay (UTSA) def. Selina Wu/Paula Garrote (STMU) 6-1

2. Ekua Youri/Fatima Gutierrez (UTSA) def. Kyndall Quiroz/Bailey Godwin (STMU) 6-1

3. Magda Tuells/Vittoria Baccino (UTSA) def. Stela Sifuentes/Janel Ospanova (STMU) 6-2

Order of finish: Doubles (1,2,3); Singles (6,4,2,1,3,5)