San Antonio – Marcin Marczewski stood at a podium Tuesday evening, cracking a smile as he began to reminisce about all he and his Rattler teammates accomplished this season.

Speaking at the St. Mary’s 2012 Athletics Banquet, Marczewski noted how his men’s tennis team climbed to as high as 10th in the region and No. 50 in the nation – both believed to be program-highs.

Though they yearned for even more, the Rattlers’ successful 2012 season culminated by advancing to the Heartland Conference Championship finals over the weekend, where they fell to St. Edward’s, 5-0, in the title match at the South Austin Tennis Center in Austin, Texas.

Coming in as the No. 2 seed, the Rattlers first knocked off Arkansas-Fort Smith, 5-1, in the semifinals before moving on for the chance to play top-seeded St. Edward’s for the title.

Against the Lions, St. Mary’s (10-15), got strong play across the board, as Marczewski defeated Lubos Sobotka 6-1, 6-3 in singles play and teamed up with Andrej Klipa (Jr., Belgrade, Serbia) to win 8-3 in doubles. Klipa also proved victorious in singles action, beating Matheus Silva 6-1, 6-0, as was Jake Williams, who beat Pedro Carvalho 6-3, 6-4. Williams (Sr., Dallas) and Carlos Olea (So., Matamoros, Mexico) also teamed up to win their doubles match.

The Rattlers weren’t quite able to build on that momentum in the title match against St. Edward’s, as poor weather resulted in a handful of unfinished singles matches. St. Mary’s went 0-3 in doubles play and also dropped a pair of singles pairings to the Hilltoppers (14-9).

St. Mary’s finished the season 4-1 in conference under first-year coach Lisa Dausin – giving Marczewski and his teammates plenty to smile about.  

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