THIS WEEK IN RATTLERS TENNIS
April 24 • at #6 UT Tyler • 1:30 p.m. • Summers Tennis Center
April 25 • at UT Dallas • 10:30 a.m. • UTD Tennis Complex
April 26 • #24 Midwestern State • 2 p.m. • Rohrbach Tennis Stadium
• The St. Mary's Men's Tennis team will have a busy week after getting rained out on Sunday. The Rattlers now play at No. 6 UT Tyler on Friday, at UT Dallas on Saturday and will host No. 24 Midwestern State on Sunday at 2 p.m. to close out the regular season. The match against MSU will start over.
• The Rattlers are looking for their first-ever win against UT Tyler, as the Patriots have won the first seven meetings in the series, dating back to 2021 when the clubs joined the Lone Star Conference.
• StMU has won the first two matches against league newcomer, UT Dallas, winning 9-0 in 2006 and 7-0 in 2023. Each team has won once on its home court.
• Midwestern State holds a commanding 23-1 lead in the all-time series against St. Mary's, and has won the last five in the series, which started in 2001. The lone win for the Rattlers came in 2021 in the Lone Star tournament.
• The Rattlers split their last matches, falling 7-0 at No. 13 Lubbock Christian before bouncing back to defeat UT Permian Basin 5-2 on Sunday. Against the Falcons, the Rattlers won the doubles point, while Diego Alvarez, Aaron Ben Anton, and Lucas Castillo Sanchez all won in straight sets, while Nikita Gavrilonoks won 10-8 in the international third-set tiebreaker. Castillo Sanchez clinched with his win at line one, his second of the year.
• The 12-3 start to the season for the Rattlers ties the best 15-match start in school history, matching the start of the 2020-21 and 2021-22 teams. The 2020-21 team finished 14-5, while 2021-22 was 17-7 and both advanced to the NCAA South Central Regional.
• Sophomore Lucas Castillo Sanchez was named the Lone Star Conference Player of the Week in back-to-back weeks on March 5 and March 12. Castillo Sanchez is 21-6 overall and 13-3 in duals this spring. He has a perfect 6-0 record at number two singles and is 7-3 at number one.
• Freshman Nikita Gavrilonoks leads with three team victory clinching wins this season, while Diego Alvarez, Lucas Castillo Sanchez and Leonardo Fabbri have done so twice, and four others have clinched the team win once.
• Freshman Victor Velter took over the team lead with doubles wins in the spring and is now 11-4. Velter and Lucas Castillo Sanchez are 7-2, while he and Ollie Eriksson are 2-1, and he and Florian Smalto are 2-1. Castillo Sanchez is second on the team with nine doubles victories.
