Women's Tennis Falters Against #15 Angelo State

SAN ANGELO, Texas — For the third consecutive match, the St. Mary's University Women's Tennis match came down to the wire. This time, the Rattlers fell 4-3 to No. 15 Angelo State.
 
As it usually does, the first point, the doubles point, proved crucial in the match and the Rattlers (9-6, 3-3 Lone Star Conference) dropped all three bouts.
 
"We got off to a rough start," Director of Tennis Bill Macom said. "Being dominated in the doubles. However, we did a really good job battling in number two through six singles but just couldn't get the job done today. They (ASU) wanted it more at the beginning of the match than we did, and it showed."
 
For the second-straight match, junior Paula Garrote (Cartagena, Spain) found a top-10 nationally ranked player on the other side of the net. Garrote fell 6-4, 6-2 to Letizia Corsini.
 
Freshman Janel Ospanova (Karaganda, Kazakhstan) snapped a four-match losing streak with an impressive 6-1, 6-3 victory at line five for the Rattlers' first point of the afternoon.
 
On court three, sophomore Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy) finished moments later to knot the score at 2-2 after her 6-4, 6-0 win.
 
Sophomore Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) flipped the script on court six. After dropping her opening set 6-0, she only lost one game in the next two sets for the comeback 6-1, 6-0 win and the 3-2 advantage.
 
Freshman Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.) also did an about-face after dropping her first set 6-0 to win set two 6-3, but Eva Schwartz managed to come back and win set three by a 6-1 score to knot the match at 3-3.
 
It all came down to number four singles. Junior Karen Kondo (Tokyo, Japan) suffered a late break of serve to drop the opening set 7-5; however, she dug deep to win set two 6-4 to set up a third-set showdown. The two went back-and forth, with Christine Jevicky eventually winning 6-4 to give the Rambelles (15-2, 5-1 Lone Star Conference) their first win over StMU since 2021.
 
The Rattlers return to Rohrbach Tennis Stadium to host the annual Alumni Reunion beginning at 10 a.m. on Sunday. They host UAFS on Friday, April 12 for Senior Day. The match is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. and the festivities for the men's and women's teams will happen after the conclusion of the men's match before the women get started.