Women's Tennis

Women´s Tennis Picks up Pair of Conference Wins

SAN ANTONIO — The Rattlers picked up their first two Heartland Conference victories of the season in a three–match stretch on their own turf, allowing their one loss to keep them at the respectable .500 mark.

The St. Mary’s women’s tennis team (4–8, 2–3) stormed the University of Texas—Permian Basin in an 8–1 victory last Saturday. The singles competitions were hardly close as Valentine Lambrechts (Jr., Belgium), this week’s Heartland Conference Player of the Week, charged for a 6–1, 6–1 win with Kelly Cooper (Sr., San Antonio) following her lead in another 6–1, 6–1 victory. The duo kept their opponents to just one point once more, defeating O. Baltzar and Y. Sanchez 8–1 in doubles. Angelique De Oliveira (Sr., Wattrelos, France) and Huong Huynh (Sr., Houston) paired up to shut down their own doubles competition in an 8–0 victory after De Oliveira finished defeating her singles match 6–1, 6–3. The Falcons’ lone point didn’t come easy with M. Jupe fighting in a three–set battle to fall 7–5, 3–6, 12–7.

The tables were flipped on the Rattlers two days later as they lost to Cameron University 8–1 after their own 8–1 victory over the Falcons. Tag–team freshman Denissia Gonzalez (Houston) and senior Erica Carmona (Converse, Texas) set their contrasting ages to their advantage, defeating Elivia Sholles and Florencia Tornero 8–6 for the only Rattler point of the day. De Oliveira and Huynh nearly missed another doubles victory, falling to a close 8–6 defeat.

St. Mary’s went back to its winning ways Tuesday, shoveling in their second conference victory in a 6–3 win over Newman University. De Oliveira and Huynh denied J. Brown and E. Gerber any chance for a win, defeating the pair in a statement 8–1 match point. De Oliveira picked up a battle in singles in a 6–7, 6–3, 6–4 win, while Lambrechts fought in the same, extra–set manner but fell 6–3, 4–6, 6–3. Gonzalez also followed her teammates in extra play, defeating C. Dold 4–6, 6–4, 6–2. Elisha Bryant (Jr., Plano, Texas) swung for a 6–1, 6–2 win, looking familiar to Cooper who had a 6–2, 6–1 victory. Huynh closed out the match in a 6–1, 6–1 triumph for the Rattlers’ 6–3 win over the Jets.

St. Mary’s wrapped up conference play as the No. 3 seed, having half of its total victories for the season coming from conference victories.

The Rattlers will continue their five–match home stay this Friday against Florida Southern College on the St. Mary’s Tennis Courts at 2 p.m.

St. Mary’s University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men’s basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men’s golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men’s golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary’s also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary’s student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.stmarytx.edu/athletics.

    

Coaching Staff

Head Coach Lisa Dausin

Lisa Dausin took over the St. Mary's tennis program last season after spending the past 31 years moving up the ranks in the Northside Independent School District. And she wasted little time making her impact felt on the Rattlers.

As the head coach for both the St. Mary's men's and women's tennis teams, Dausin found success through each. She made quick work of the talent on the women's squad in her first season, improving their record from 5-16 in the 2010 season to 10-16 last season. Dausin had the Rattlers face both nationally and regionally ranked teams to strengthen her players and to prep them for Heartland Conference play, a technique that advanced the Rattlers all the way to the conference semifinals.

The women's team held a bulk of the conference's Player of the Week awards, winning four out of the six awards given out during conference play. Dausin saw two Rattlers earn All-Conference honors, including returning player Valentine Lambrechts, who also won two Player of the Week awards, and senior Angelique DeOliveira.

Entering her second season as the women's head coach after doubling their wins last season, Dausin lost four seniors but revamped the roster with a five-deep signing class that includes a Division I transfer. With her expertise, a successful second season looks within reach.

Before taking over as head coach for St. Mary's, Dausin served for 12 years as the Assistant Athletics Director for Northside ISD before returning to teaching this past school year, when she taught at Warren High School in San Antonio and coached middle-school tennis.

The first female hired in the school district's athletics office, Dausin served as an extension of the athletics director, overseeing the hiring of coaches and doing legal work pertaining to athletics personnel, among other duties.

At St. Mary's, she will look to build upon the foundation laid last season, when the men went 5-14 and the women 5-16.

Before moving into the athletics office at Northside ISD, she worked at Marshall High School, coaching tennis and assisting other sports from 1980-1994. In 1995, she became the school's Girls Coordinator.

A St. Mary's graduate, Dausin has always had tennis in her blood. She played tennis, basketball and softball at St. Mary's. She graduated in 1979 with an education degree with a teacher's certification, and went on to get her master's degree in education at Southwest Texas State in 1983. She later completed her coursework for another master's degree in counseling at Texas-San Antonio in 1998.

Born in Del Rio, she spent much of her childhood in San Antonio, graduating from McCollum High School. Dausin is married to Bryan, a football coach at Warren High School. They have two sons, Ross and Rex.

Assistant Coach Stephan Poole

Stephan Poole stepped in as St. Mary's assistant tennis coach last season, becoming head coach Lisa Dausin's right-hand man.

Poole joined the St. Mary's coaching staff with experience, playing tennis throughout and after high school. An alum of John Marshall High School in San Antonio, Poole made his way around the court, placing fourth in regionals for singles his junior year as well as qualifying for individual regionals for singles that same year. As a senior, Poole placed fourth in doubles.

With the love of tennis not of out his system by the time he graduated, Poole continued to swing his racket competitively. He played for the San Antonio 5.5 Men's League and the 4.5 Men's League, making sectionals twice.

Poole found his way to St. Mary's by way of his talent during high school, where he was coached by St. Mary's own head tennis coach, Lisa Dausin.

"She's given me the opportunity to further my career in tennis," says Poole, who will be completing his degree in exercise and sport science and soon become a St. Mary's alum like his former coach.

Having already developed an effective line of communication - plus a successful, established tennis relationship - Poole and Dausin advanced the St. Mary's tennis squads last season with improved records for both the men's and women's teams.

"I think this is the most experienced tennis coaching staff St. Mary's has had," says Poole, referring to both his and Dausin's personal experience in competitive tennis.

With tennis experience under his belt and the program taking a step in the right direction as soon as he signed on, Poole is a valuable asset to the coaching staff, bringing excitement and "making (players) remember why they started this sport."

Poole is married to Tara and they have one daughter, Madison.

2011-2012 St. Mary's Women's Tennis Roster