ARLINGTON, Texas – No. 30 St. Mary's (Texas) dominated singles play to roll to a 4-1 win over Midwestern State in the NCAA Division II South Centrla Region semifinals Monday afternoon at the Arlington Tennis Center.
The Rattlers (16-5) face Angelo State Tuesday afternoon for the right to move on to the NCAA Division II Championships set for May 19-21 in Surprise, Ariz.
No. 11-ranked
Tiffany Hollebeck and
Casie Curry dominated the first doubles line against Ashley Penshorn and Maria Garcia. Last time up, the pair had a narrow 7-6 defeat against the STMU duo and prevailed again to spearhead the search for the first point.
Anda Ghinga and Emilia Visic secured the notch with a 6-1 victory over Marina Vigil and Alice Thane. They had another history repeat as they put 6-2 against Vigil and Thane on April 23 at the second spot.
Ethne Dowling and
Kyndall Quiroz's battle against Gabi Ioannou and Abigail Csengery went unfinished with the score sitting at three all before the call. Up by one, MSU headed into singles play.
No. 24 Penshorn ousted No. 34 Hollebeck for the second time this year. The St. Mary's junior took set one by 6-1 and concluded with a 7-5 win in set two in the top singles spot. This put the Rattlers even with the Mustangs as both teams inched closer to the four-point clinch.
STMU gained the lead when No. 45 Ghinga fell to No. 32 Garcia at number two singles. The 6-1 score in both sets was quite opposite of the last match when Ghinga took over in three sets (7-5, 1-6, 6-2) at MSU Tennis Center.
The sixth singles line saw Dowling drop to Thane by a 5-7, 0-6 score. Thane did not previously compete in singles play in the teams' Lone Star Conference match. St. Mary's momentum continued as their lead grew to 3-1 with only one point left to seal the deal.
The match winner came from Vigil as she took out Curry 6-1, 6-4. The third singles battle ended the match with the final score of 4-1. Four singles with Ioannou and Quiroz went unfinished, as did the fifth spot with Visic and Csengery.
The Mustangs closed the season with a 12-8 record.
--MSUMustangs.com--