WICHITA FALLS, Texas – Midwestern State used strong doubles play and solid singles action to claim a 5-3 victory over St. Mary's to win the South Central Region 2 title in the NCAA Division II Women's Tennis Championships Saturday at the MSU Tennis Center.
 
The No. 27 Mustangs (17-6) picked up their second win this season over the No. 28 Rattlers (18-5) to advance to the Sweet 16 at the Surprise Tennis and Racquet Complex in Surprise, Ariz., starting on May 8.
 
"It was an excellent win for our ladies,  we have a really young team," said MSU coach Scott Linn.  "They really stepped up to the challenge.  I was really proud of the way we played doubles and I though we finished well."
 
Midwestern jumped out to the lead by taking the top two doubles points.
 
MSU's Sarita Adhikary and Lauren Pineda teamed to get by St. Mary's Mariana Rong and Ariana Saldana 8-6 at No. 1, while the Mustangs Madeline Schorlemmer and Kayla Casey beat the Rattlers Felicity Delgado and Cristina Lopez 8-5.
 
The Rattlers won at No. 3 doubles with Valintine Lambrechts and Joanie Bryant defeating the MSU duo of Fatima Clementino and KynZee Watson 8-4.
 
But the Midwestern lead evaporated when No. 29 Rong handed Adhikary a 6-3, 6-3 decision at No. 1 singles and Lopez beat MSU's Taylor Coffman 6-0, 6-0 at No. 2.
 
That's when Casey stepped up at No. 3 singles.
 
Trailing 5-2 in the first set, the MSU freshman went on a tear, winning her next five games to take the first set over Delgado 7-5.  Casey then won the second set 6-3 to even the match at 3-all.
 
"She's extremely coachable," Linn said.  "We made some slight adjustments and she then won 11 of her next 14 games.  It was big."
 
Clementino then added the No. 6 singles point for MSU with a 6-1, 6-4 victory against Bryant.
 
The Mustangs ended the match when Schorlemmer beat Lambrechts at No. 4 with a 6-1 second set after taking the first set 7-6 with a 7-4 tiebreak.
 
No. 5 singles was left unfinished as St. Mary's Saldana had won the first set 7-5 against Pineda, but the second was tied 4-4 when the match was called.
 
Midwestern State now awaits the winner of the South Region 1 at Barry (Fla.) in the Sweet 16 on May 8 at 2 p.m. Central Time in Surprise.