St. Mary's beats cold weather as well as Tri-State
By KATIE McVOY
Associate Sports Editor
The Saint Mary's tennis team was looking to heat up the season with the team's opening match against Tri-State, but the Belles had trouble even staying warm.
But with winter still hanging on in South Bend, the Belles took home their first regular season victory with a 6-3 win against the Thunder.
"The weather was a challenge. It was windy and freezing," said sophomore Jeannie Knish. "It's hard to play in conditions like that. We had to keep jumping around and putting our hands in our pockets to warm them up. It was a big change from Daytona."
Despite the dark clouds and strong winds hanging around the tennis courts at Angela Athletic facility on Wednesday, the Belles did manage to make a few sparks. All three Saint Mary's doubles teams took home victories, led by the No. 1 doubles sister team of Knish and Knish.
"Annie and I were able to win our doubles match though," Jeannie Knish said of she and her senior sister. "We really worked together well today. The wind was causing a lot of short balls to be hit, and we were able to attack the net."
The Knish sisters took home an 8-5 victory against Kate Vaudorback and Emily Shulak of Tri-State. Junior Elisa Ryan and sophomore Kaitlin Cutler added an 8-2 win at No. 2 doubles and junior Angie Sandner and sophomore Kris Spriggle won their No. 3 doubles match with an 8-3 win.
The singles players were not quite as successful. Annie Knish dropped her No. 1 singles match to Vauderbach while freshman Miranda Milulyuk and Katie Harrison fell to their Tri-State opponents. While Knish is the normal No. 1 singles players, Milulyuk and Harrison at No. 4 and No. 6 singles were treading on slightly unknown ground.
"They definitely gave us a good warm up for the season," Jeannie Knish said. "The girls who usually don't get to play that often played and did really well."
Jeannie Knish, Sandner and freshman Courtney Watson won their singles matches at No. 2, No. 3 and No. 5 singles respectively. Knish won her match 2-0 (6-0, 6-2) against Jamie Rifubaugh. Sandner and Watson also took home 2-0 victories (6-3,6-4 and 6-2, 6-4) against the Thunder's Nicki Post and Crystal Hardorty.
"Our first match was a success," Knish said. "We worked well as a team."
The Belles will serve up their first MIAA opponent on Saturday as they face off against the Albion Britons.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, March 21, 2002
