Women's Tennis Comes Down to the Wire for Second-Straight Day

TYLER, Texas — For the second-straight day, the St. Mary's University Women's Tennis team came down to the wire, dropping a 4-3 match, this time to Central Oklahoma.
 
The Rattlers (1-3) swept doubles action for the early 1-0 advantage. Freshman Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.) and junior Karen Kondo (Tokyo, Japan) won 6-2, while freshman Janel Ospanova (Karaganda, Kazakhstan) and sophomore Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) won 6-4 at No.3 to clinch the first point. 
 
The tandem of junior Paula Garrote (Cartagena, Spain) and sophomore Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy) remained undefeated on the season, though it took a tiebreaker on court two, 7-6 (7-1).
 
"We played some smart doubles today to get the early lead," said Director of Tennis Bill Macom. "But we had too many ups and downs in the singles. In the wind, our play was very streaky, and we didn't hold our serves when we had the lead. That is something we are going to focus on for the next few weeks."
 
Sifuentes stretched her winning streak to three in singles, pulling out the straight sets, 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory at No. 6. The win briefly gave the Rattlers a 2-1 edge, but the Bronchos won the next two singles decisions on court two and one to jump out to a 3-2 lead. Court five was the deciding match as Anika Ouwejan and Kondo went back-and-forth with Ouwejan winning in a third-set tiebreaker, 7-4.
 
Terlizzi struggled in the first set on court three, dropping it at love, but she refocused and dug deep to knot the match at one-set each after a 9-7 tiebreaker. She then got one break of serve for the 6-4 win in the deciding set to move to 2-2 on the young season.
 
The Rattlers have 12 days before their next match, hosting Saint Mary (Kan.) on March 8 at 10 a.m.