The St. Edward’s men’s tennis team blanked the St. Mary’s Rattlers, 9-0 Thursday afternoon in the South Austin Tennis Center, while the women took down St. Mary’s, 8-1, at the Emmett Strohmeyer Varsity Courts.
St. Edward’s men (4-4) swept the Rattlers in all three doubles matches to start the afternoon. Junior Mick Walter and senior Boris Barrios took down Bitas Van Dijk and Nestor Moreno in the No. 1 match, 8-2. Senior Justin Raiti and sophomore Ryan Wiggins paired up to take down Andre Klipe and Guy Rutton in the No. 2 match, 8-6. Senior Brett Powers and sophomore Ned Boone finished the sweep as they defeated Marcin Marczewski and Marcos Villareal in the the No. 3 match, 8-6.
In singles, Boone took the first point against Marczewski in the No. 1 match, 7-5, 6-2. Powers made a quick defeat of Klipe in the No. 2 match, 6-2, 6-1. Raiti followed in the No. 3 match against Rutton, adding another Hilltopper point, 6-3, 6-4. Walter faced off against Van Dijk in the No. 4 match. Walter took the first set, 6-3. Van Dijk was able to take the second set, 3-6 to force a third set. In the final set, Walter pulled away with the super-set, 10-5. Lancaster defeated Moreno in straight sets, 6-2, 6-3 in the No. 5 match. Wiggins took the final Hilltopper point as he defeated Villareal in the No. 6 match, 6-4, 6-2.
The St. Edward’s women (5-5) swept the Rattlers in all three doubles matches to start the afternoon. Senior Caryn McGraw and sophomore Heather Brien paired up to take the first point of the day in the No. 3 match against Vanessa Sholles and Kelly Cooper, 8-3. Sophomore Mary Bain and senior Elizabeth Jacobi took another point in the No. 2 match as they took down Ashley Hernandez and Morgan Riddle, 8-2. Freshman Paige Rachel and sophomore Audrey Tompkins completed the sweep as they took the final point against Cimen Soy and Erica Carmona in the No. 1 match, 9-8.
In singles action, McGraw finished a quick sweep of Hernandez in the No. 5 match, 6-2, 6-3. Tompkins finished soon after as she dominated her No. 2 match over Sholles, 6-1, 6-1. Brien took her point against Carmona as she took the first set, 6-4, and pulled away in the second set, 6-0. Rachel downed Soy in two hard fought sets as she took the first set, 6-4 and battled back after dropping the first three points of the second set to win, 7-5. Junior Anne Ruscoe dropped the No. 6 match against Mei-Jing Ang, 6-4, 6-1. Bain was last to finish in the No. 3 match against Cooper as she dropped the first set, 6-7. Bain rallied back to take the second set, 6-3. The third set would go to a super-set tiebreaker, finishing with Bain on-top, 12-10.
The Hilltoppers will be back in action Saturday as they host Heartland Conference opponent Newman. First-serve is set for 10 a.m.