WICHITA FALLS, Texas — Undefeated no more. In the regular season finale for both teams, the No. 14 St. Mary's University Women's Tennis team knocked off No. 2 Midwestern State, 4-3, to split the regular season title and earn the top seed at the upcoming Lone Star Conference Championship.
Both teams end LSC play with a 9-1 record, and the Rattlers (17-2) snapped the Mustangs' (20-2) 14-match winning streak by winning their seventh straight. It is the second regular season title for the Rattlers since joining the Lone Star, as they won both the regular season and tournament titles in 2022, as well as the tournament in 2023.
For the fourth-straight match, the team outcome came down to the racket of sophomore
Gia Posito (Houston). After she and Sydney Williams each won a set 6-4, they headed to a deciding third-set with the team score tied at 3-3. Trailing 5-4, Posito saved four match points to win the 10th game and have the scoreboard read 5-5. Both players held their final serves to go to a tiebreaker. Posito saved another match point at 6-5, while Williams saved back-to-back match points to knot the score at 8-8. Posito saved another three deciding points to tie the total at 11-11 before winning back-to-back for the 13-11 tally.
"It really just came down to Gia not giving up," said Director of Tennis
Bill Macom. "She saved about eight match points and that final tiebreaker kept going back and forth with momentum shifts. Fortunately, (graduate assistant coach) Caio (Ravagnani) kept her calm enough at all the right times."
St. Mary's struck first, winning two of the three doubles sets, after the match was delayed 50 minutes due to wet courts from all the rain on Saturday. Sophomores
Janel Ospanova (Karaganda, Kazakhstan) and Posito won 6-4 on court two, while senior
Paula Garrote (Cartagena, Spain) and junior
Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy) won 6-3 at number three.
MSU took the lead with wins on courts three and four for the 2-1 score.
Junior
Stela Sifuentes (Eagle Pass, Texas) pushed the score back to even with her 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 win at line five.
No. 8 Jessica Binzari and No. 48
Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.) had a long battle in the second set. Binzari eventually pulled out the 8-6 win in the second-set tiebreaker for the win and the 3-2 advantage.
Terlizzi won in a three-set thriller at number two singles, playing for only the second time this season, knocking off No. 66 Hannah Yip, 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to set up the fireworks on court six.
The Rattlers and Mustangs both receive a bye and advance to the semifinals of the Lone Star Conference Tournament. StMU will face the winner of the 4-5 matchup at 1 p.m. on Friday, May 2, at the Arlington Tennis Center.
