March 30, 2012
ABILENE, Texas – After riding high on two Heartland Conference wins, the Rattlers lost sail to nationally ranked Abilene Christian on Thursday.
Abilene Christian’s (15-7) stance of a 16th national rank was sweet enough to shut down the Rattlers, 9-0.
Joining two of his fellow Rattlers in winning the Heartland Conference Player of the Week award this week was Andrej Klipa (Jr., Belgrade, Serbia), who nearly came away with a point with his teammate and two-time Player of the Week Marcin Marczewski (Sr., Warsaw, Poland). The pair faced off against Nick Plum and Guilherme Gesser on the doubles court and caused an extra-set affair that kept the Wildcats on their toes in a close 9-8, (9-7) defeat.
On the singles court, Jake Williams (Sr., Dallas) was inching for comeback in set two but fell to Borja Cortes, 6-1, 6-4.
The Rattlers (5-10, 4-1) may have lost wind Thursday, but not by much. As Abilene Christian is ranked third in their region along with a national rank, the Rattlers are playing the same strategy they have all season: face off hard against tough competitors as practice for conference. St. Mary’s is locked in at the No. 1 seed in Heartland Conference rankings by a strong three-game margin and is second in overall rankings. The remainder of the regular-season games, as was the case with Abilene Christian, will act as preparation for the conference tournament in late April.
The Rattlers will remain in Abilene, Texas for their next match on Friday against McMurry University at 9 a.m.