SAN ANTONIO — The St. Mary's University Women's Tennis team dropped a 5-2 decision to No. 11 Hawai'i Pacific on Thursday afternoon, kicking off a busy stretch of four matches in seven days.
The Sharks (7-2) and Rattlers (4-5) were knotted at 1-1 in doubles action, as the first point came down to the match on court one. Seniors
Gia Posito (Houston) and
Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy), ranked 39th in the nation, had the lead, but the No. 12 team of Annika Hakovirta and Evi Roobol fought back to knot the score at 5-5 and got a late break of serve for the 7-5 victory and the initial team point.
"I thought we picked up our level today in singles, collectively and competed well on a very windy day against a top-ranked team," said Director of Tennis
Bill Macom. "However, doubles was disappointing that we didn't get the point. I think that would have made a huge difference in the result of the match."
The Sharks stretched their lead to 3-0 with a straight-sets win at line four and six and clinched the team victory with a hard-fought three-set match on court one. Terlizzi, ranked No. 61 this week, bounced back after losing the first set against #50 Roobol to set up the tiebreaker, which Roobol was able to win 6-1.
Posito grabbed a 6-2, 6-7 (6-8), 6-2 win at line five, and junior
Janel Ospanova (Karaganda, Kazakhstan) and Kayleigh Castillo had very few breaks of serve on court three, with Ospanova winning 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-4 for the Rattlers' second point.
The Rattlers head to Lubbock to take on Colorado Mesa on Saturday at 9 a.m. before returning home to take on Swarthmore on March 10 at 3 p.m. and Lamar on the 11th at 1 p.m.
