Saint Mary's will travel to Adrian this afternoon as it tries to rebound from two tough weekend losses at the Wheaton Invitational.
The Belles currently boast a conference record of 2-0 after crushing Olivet 8-1 in their home opener and narrowly beating Calvin 5-4. The Belles' overall record is 6-6 so far this season.
Belles coach Dee Stevenson is optimistic about her team's chances in the match against Adrian.
"I go into every match expecting to win," Stevenson said. "And usually Adrian is one of the weaker teams in the league, so I have high expectations for this match."
This year the Bulldogs have yet to win a match and have an overall record of 0-11.
In last year's conference matchup between the two teams, the Belles dominated game play, crushing Adrian 9-0.
As a junior, Kelly McDavitt won her match in the No. 2 singles spot in two straight sets. This year, as the senior captain of the Belles squad, McDavitt will return to play in the number one singles spot.
Other notable performances from last year's match include current sophomore Mary E. Campbell's two-set win in the No. 4 singles spot, senior Tara O'Brien's two-set win in the No. 5 singles spot and senior Grace Gordon's two-set win in the No. 6 singles spot.
The Belles also dominated in doubles play during last year's contest, taking all three matches in two straight sets.
The team will look to learn from this weekend's losses to host Wheaton and Olivet Nazarene. Gordon was the only Belles player to win a match in the two contests, competing as the No. 6 singles player. Gordon defeated Olivet's Anna Engelbrecht Saturday afternoon after the team was shut out by Wheaton the day before.
"We just got back from the Wheaton Invitational and we played against a lot of good players," McDavitt said Monday. "Tomorrow we are going to use what we learned over the weekend and hope to be able to have good match play."
The Belles put their skills to the test starting at 3 this afternoon.
