SAN ANTONIO — Despite not being ranked inside the top 50 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), the St. Mary's University Women's Tennis team gave No. 22 Angelo State all it could handle on Monday afternoon, falling 4-3.
The Rattlers (11-7, 4-1) snapped a five-match winning streak with their first loss in Lone Star Conference play, while the Rambelles remain undefeated at 15-0 overall and 5-0 in LSC action.
"I thought we put up a pretty good battle today," said Director of Tennis
Bill Macom. "Especially by winning the doubles point, as that always puts us in contention for a win. However, Angelo State was a little too strong for us on four of the singles courts, but I'm glad the girls ran after every ball and put in a good effort."
St. Mary's put the pressure on ASU immediately, winning the doubles point. Seniors
Gia Posito (Houston) and
Alessia Terlizzi (Andria, Italy), ranked No. 33 by the ITA, defeated the 20th-ranked team of Benedetta Raggiotti and Margoux Rene by the score of 6-4. Tied at 5-5, juniors
Selina Wu (San Gabriel, Calif.) and
Janel Ospanova (Karaganda, Kazakhstan) won the last two games for the 7-5 win and gave the first point to St. Mary's.
The Rattlers took a 2-0 lead in the match when Ospanova defeated the reigning LSC Singles Player of the Week in Raggiotti on court four, 6-2, 6-4.
The Rambelles answered with three consecutive straight-sets wins at line six, three and five, to take a 3-2 edge on the team scoreboard.
Terlizzi knocked off No. 24 Rene in straight sets with identical scores of 6-3, 6-3 to turn all attention to court two. There, No. 21 Vasilis Kupriianova was able to defeat Wu, 6-3, 6-2 for the ASU win. Terlizzi's win at number one singles is her ninth consecutive, as she moves to 9-1 on the year. She is a perfect 5-0 in LSC singles play.
"Since we played them so tightly, I'm hoping the girls understand that they have a good chance of finishing pretty high in the conference standings as long as we can raise our level a little bit more each match," said Macom.
The match, which was rescheduled from Saturday due to rain, gives the Rattlers a busy week as they head out on the road to take on Lubbock Christian on Thursday at 10 a.m. and UT Permian Basin on Saturday at 11 a.m.
