Tennis Teams Will Host Brother Al Invitational to Open Fall Season

This Week in Rattlers Tennis
Brother Al Invitational
Friday, Sept. 5-Sunday, Sept. 7 • All Day
 
Men's Teams: Our Lady of the Lake, St. Mary's, Texas Lutheran
Women's Teams: Our Lady of the Lake, St. Mary's, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Texas Lutheran, Trinity, UIW
 
Brother Al Invitational Draws
 
Starting Off: The St. Mary's Men's and Women's Tennis teams begin the 2025 fall season hosting the Brother Al Invitational. Named for Brother Al Kuntemeier, a Marianist brother who joined St. Mary's in 2014 and was the chaplain for both teams until 2023. He enjoyed playing tennis well into his 90s.
 
Brother Al Invitational History: This is the third season the Rattlers have hosted the Brother Al Invitational. Men: In the opening season, 2023, seven Rattlers went undefeated, and the doubles teams combined for only one loss the entire weekend. In 2024, two doubles teams won titles and four singles players reached the finals. Women: Last season, the tournament was a men's only competition. During 2023, the Rattlers went 22-8 in singles and 14-1 in doubles play.
 
Women's Roster: The Rattlers return six women from last year's team that won a share of the Lone Star Conference regular season title, including junior Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.), who was a First-Team singles and honorable mention doubles selection and senior Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy), who was a Second-Team singles and honorable mention doubles pick. Wu ended the 2025 spring campaign ranked 56th nationally and third in the South Central Region, while Terlizzi was 19th regionally. The Rattlers added three newcomers for 2025-26: DBU transfer Madalynn Smelley (Ocean Springs, Miss.), who helped the Patriots reach the round of 16 at the NCAA Championship in their last year of competition, and freshmen Isabella Olsson (Sverige, Sweden) and Sarah Wooten (Beaumont, Texas).
 
Men's Roster: The men's roster sports seven returners and five newcomers. Leonardo Fabbri (Faenza, Italy) was named to the CSC Academic All-District team a season ago, while senior Bernhard Hauer (Vienna, Austria) was a member of the Lone Star All-Academic team. Head Coach Bill Macom added a trio of freshmen in Diego Alvarez (Santa Cruz, Bolivia), Nikita Gavrilonoks (Riga, Latvia) and Colton Rogers (New Braunfels, Texas), along with transfers Fabian Rosales from DBU (Hollywood, Fla.) and Evan Walther from Wheaton College (Eagle, Idaho).
 
Up Next: The Rattlers remain at home next week, hosting the Kimbell Memorial Invitational on Sept. 12-14. The tournament is named for former assistant coach Lilly Kimbell, who passed away in February 2023.