WICHITA FALLS, Texas – The No. 38 Midwestern State Mustangs opened the season with a 7-2 win over No. 49 St. Mary's Saturday afternoon at the MSU Tennis Center.
 
The Mustangs (1-0) grabbed all three doubles points to stake a lead they wouldn't relinquish while handing the Rattlers (3-1) their first loss of the year.
 
Midwestern got a pair of victories from Madeline Schorlemmer, Lauren Pineda and Kayla Casey to open the season strong.
 
Schorlemmer and Pineda led the charge at No. 1 Doubles with an 8-4 win over the Rattlers Mariana Rong and Christina Lopez.  Schorlemmer added a 7-6(4), 6-3 win over Lopez at No. 4 Singles, while Pineda ripped StMU's Joanie Bryant 6-1, 6-2 at No. 6 Singles.
 
Kayla Casey teamed with sister Kendra at No. 3 doubles to beat Bryant and Ariana Saldana 8-4, then picked up the win at No. 3 singles over the Rattlers' Valentine Lambrechts 6-4, 7-5.
 
The Mustangs No. 2 Doubles pair of Taylor Coffman and Sarita Adhikary beat Felicity Delgado and Lambrechts 8-4.
 
MSU picked up its final point at No. 5 singles with Fatima Clementino beating Elisha Bryant 7-5, 6-3.
 
St. Mary's took the top two singles points, with Rong, ranked 28th nationally, beating Coffman 7-6(5), 6-1 at No. 1, and Delgado taking Kendra Casey 7-5, 6-3 at No. 2.
 
"It was a great way to start the year," said MSU Coach Scott Linn.  "I'm proud of the way we got it started in doubles and rolled it into singles."
 
The Mustangs are in action on the courts again next Friday as they join with the MSU men to host Tyler Junior College at 2:30 at the MSU Tennis Center.  It starts a three-match weekend as MSU also hosts Dallas Baptist and East Central next Saturday as well.