St. Mary's ends winning streak with 5-4 defeat
By KATIE MCVOY
Assistant Sports Editor
The Saint Mary's tennis team snapped its five-match winning streak with a close 5-4 loss to Calvin College Wednesday night. The Belles expected tough competition from the Knights on their home courts, but the Belles were not expecting to lose.
"They [Calvin] played really well," freshman singles player Lindsay Mollan said. "We were expecting them to be a tough match, but not this tough."
"We were a little overconfident coming into the match," senior No. 1 singles player Katie Vales said. "Being 15-1 we hadn't had very many challenging matches, and we just weren't ready for this."
Saint Mary's No. 1 and No. 2 singles players, Vales and Natalie Cook dropped their matches to their Knight opponents. Vales won her first set, but lost the next two in a difficult loss to Calvin's No. 1 singles player.
"I got really tired during the match," Vales said. "I hadn't eaten all day, and I just ran out of energy."
The Belles recovered in No. 3 and No. 4 singles, winning both matches. Senior Becky Kremer and sophomore Annie Knish both won their matches in three sets.
The doubles team fared slightly better than the singles. The No. 1 doubles, Vales and Knish, and No. 2 doubles teams, Kremer and Cook, won their matches.
Vales and Knish got off to a slow start in their match. They were down 4-1 in the first set, but came back and won that set 7-5. With the confidence of that win, they took the second set 6-3.
"We were slow coming out and made of lot of unforced errors," Vales said. "But we came back and won."
It wasn't a good day for the freshmen of Saint Mary's. Mollan, No. 5 singles, and Trisha Jones, No. 6 singles, lost their matches. The third doubles team of freshmen Victoria Cox and Elisa Ryan dropped their match the Calvin team as well.
Saint Mary's attributes much of its loss to preparation. Because of the unseasonably cold temperatures, the Belles were unable to practice as often as they would have liked to this week.
"We weren't very well prepared this week, a lot of people weren't ready" Vales said. "I think a lot of the matches farther down the line could have been won with proper preparation and enough practice."
The loss to Calvin signals only the second conference match the Belles have lost this season. After today's loss the Belles still hold a 15-2 overall record and a 4-2 record in the MIAA. Their only other loss this season came against Hope College in late March.
Saint Mary's is looking ahead to a challenging second half of their season.
"We have a lot of tough matches coming up," Vales said. "Most will be as tough as Calvin, if not more difficult. We want to get as much practice as possible before Saturday's match."
Saint Mary's faces off against DePauw University in Chicago this Saturday at 3 p.m.
All Sports Stories for Thursday, April 13, 2000
