SAN ANTONIO -- No. 17 Midwestern State ended up on the short end of a close match between the top two teams in the South Central Region Saturday morning falling 5-4 to 16th-ranked St. Mary's at Rohrbach Stadium.
 
The Mustangs bounced back for an 8-1 win over Texas-Permian Basin in the afternoon to move to 3-2 on the season.
 
MSU returns to action Friday against Metropolitan State (Colo.) before taking on Colorado Mesa and Western New Mexico on Saturday. All matches next weekend are set for Albuquerque, N.M.
 
St. Mary's claimed wins at the top two positions and both singles and doubles and clinched the decision with a win at No. 4 singles to improve to 4-1 on the season.
 
The Rattlers managed to take a 2-1 lead through doubles with No. 11-ranked Mariana Rong and Cristina Lopez edging MSU's tandem of Kayla Casey and Taylor Coffman 9-7 at No. 1 while 19th-ranked Jamie Lee Denton and Kaylin Kruseman claimed an 8-4 decision over Lauren Pineda and Lindsay Nochowicz at the No. 2 spot.
 
Rong, the No. 47th-ranked singles player in NCAA Division II, claimed a split set win over 16th-ranked Kayla Casey 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 at No. 1 while 30th-ranked Cristina Lopez rolled past Madeline Schorlemmer 6-1, 6-1 at No. 2.
 
Kruseman clinched the match for St. Mary's with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Pineda at No. 4.
 
Midwestern roared to wins at each of the six singles positions while claiming straight-set decisions in five spots to claim victory against Texas-Permian Basin in the afternoon.
 
Pineda survived the lone scare taking a 5-7, 6-4, 10-4 split set win over UTPB's Lisa Roslanova at No. 2.
 
The Mustangs claimed 8-2 wins at the Nos. 2 and 3 doubles positions to take a 2-1 lead.