SAN ANTONIO — Tied at 3-3, all eyes turned to court five, where St. Mary's University junior
Gia Posito was able to complete the three-set comeback and lift the No. 27 Women's Tennis team to its fifth consecutive victory with a 4-3 win over No. 33 Angelo State.
Posito led 5-2 in the first set, but Ivet Stancheva was able to dig deep and win five straight games for the 7-5 tally. It was Posito's turn to find the extra gear as she won the next two sets 6-0, 6-3 for her second-straight team-clinching point of the week.
Both teams battled high winds and intermittent rain throughout the afternoon and were forced to stop for approximately 30 minutes during singles.
"I think the rain delay may have helped us catch our breath a little bit," said Director of Tennis
Bill Macom. "A lot of the matches were very streaky, with a bunch of momentum shifts. Fortunately, we were able to finish the last sets of singles more aggressively and did a better job of playing in the wind."
Angelo State jumped out to a 2-0 lead, winning the doubles point and court two.
Senior
Paula Garrote (Cartagena, Spain) put the Rattlers on the scoreboard with her 6-2, 6-4 victory at number four singles, while junior
Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy) returned to the win column with a 6-2, 7-5 win at line three to knot the team score at 2-2.
No. 38
Selina Wu and No. 43 Margaux Rene went back-and-forth on court one, with Rene getting the 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 win.
Junior
Stela Sifuentes set up the exciting finish with her thrilling three-set win at number six. The Eagle Pass, Texas native won the opener 6-2 before dropping a 7-6 (2) tiebreaker in the second set. Sifuentes flipped the momentum to win the third set by the same score as the first, 6-2, and extend her winning streak to five.
The Rattlers wrap up the regular season at Cameron on Thursday, and at No. 3 Midwestern State on Saturday at 2 p.m.
