San Antonio – For Erica Carmona and Kelly Cooper, their source of inspiration during this women’s tennis season was simple.

Their first-year coach, Lisa Dausin, showed them from the start that she believed in them.

Her faith proved well-placed, as the St. Mary’s senior duo helped spark a successful season – one that came to an end over the weekend after advancing a round in the Heartland Conference Tournament at the South Austin Tennis Center in Austin, Texas.

And for their success, Carmona and Cooper delivered a heartfelt message of appreciation toward Dausin during their speech at St. Mary’s 2012 Athletics Banquet on Tuesday night.

St. Mary’s (9-15) knocked off Newman 5-1 in the quarterfinals before falling to Dallas Baptist 5-2 in a hard-fought semifinals showdown.

St. Mary’s went 2-1 in doubles action against Newman, with Cooper (Sr., San Antonio) and Elisha Bryant (Jr., Plano, Texas) teaming to take down Emily Gerber and Jess Brown, 8-6, and Valentine Lambrechts (Jr., Belgium) and Angelique De Oliveira (Sr., Wattrelos, France) winning their match 8-6 as well.

On the singles side, De Oliveira won 6-3, 6-2, while Denissia Gonzalez prevailed over Jess Brown 6-0, 6-2. Bryant also won her match 6-3, 6-3.

Against DBU, De Oliveira picked up a critical 6-2, 6-0 win over Leah Rutt, but the Rattlers narrowly fell in the other singles matches. Cooper and Bryant teamed to pick up a doubles win, beating Leah Smith and Lexi Yeado 8-5.

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