Women's Tennis Begins Season With Tough 4-3 Loss to UTRGV

SAN ANTONIO — In the official season opener for the St. Mary's University Women's Tennis team, the Rattlers battled to a close 4-3 loss to Division I foe, UTRGV.
 
"We played at a decent level but couldn't close out a couple of the singles, unfortunately," Director of Tennis Bill Macom said. "Hopefully, we learn from some of our fundamental mistakes in doubles and singles and bring up our practice levels next week."
 
The Rattlers (0-1) opened the day with a clean sweep in the three doubles matches for the early point. 
 
The No. 1 team of junior transfer Karen Kondo (Tokyo, Japan) and freshman Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.) kicked off the scoring with a 6-4 victory. Next to finish, and secure the first team point was the No. 2 tandem of junior Paula Garrote (Cartagena, Spain) and sophomore Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy), who recorded a break of serve tied at 5-5 and then held serve to win 7-5.
 
Though the team point was already in hand, the San Antonio pair of Bailey Godwin and Kyndall Quiroz dug deep in the tiebreaker for the 7-6 (7-4) win to complete the triad.
 
The Vaqueros (1-1) tied the score with a win at No. 1 singles and took the lead with a straight-sets victory at No. 2.
 
Quiroz needed three sets but tied the team score at 2-2 with her 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory at No. 6. After winning the first set, sophomore Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas), who was a late addition to the singles roster, lost a pair of hard-fought sets by identical scores of 6-4 at No. 4.
 
Kondo and Kristal Dule went back-and-forth at the fifth spot with Kondo winning 7-5 in the first set before falling 6-3, 7-5 in the next two for the Vaqueros win.
 
Garrote and Yaiza Vazquez were extremely well matched at the No. 3 spot as they played two extra-point tiebreakers. Garrote won the first set 14-12 in the tiebreaker and dropped the second set with a late break of serve for the 7-5 tally. The two again went to a tiebreak in the deciding set with Garrote pulling out the thrilling 8-6 win to win her first spring dual in the Gold and Blue.
 
The Rattlers will play a pair of matches next Saturday, traveling to Kerrville, Texas to take on Schreiner at Noon and McMurry at 3 p.m.