Saint Mary’s was victorious yesterday, earning a 6-3 conference win over Calvin. The Belles (10-6, 5-2 MIAA) bounced back from last week’s disappointing loss to Hope with a strong performance, led by the doubles teams.
Saint Mary’s was even stronger in the single matches coming away with four wins out of a possible six. It was junior Jackie Kjolhede who set the tone for the Belles, edging her opponent out of a first-set tiebreaker to win 7-6 (7-4), 6-3. Kiefer quickly followed suit with a comfortable straight-sets win in the sixth single match 6-3, 6-2. Both Elliott and Fetters closed out their games 6-4, 6-2.
Although Mary Catherine Faller took the lead in her first set, she fell 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 while Sexton was unlucky in a first-set tiebreaker and ended up losing 7-6 (7-4), 6-4. Despite this misfortune, Saint Mary’s claimed the victory and coach Dave Campbell was very pleased with the performance,
“Our team took care of business today when they needed to,” Campbell said. “This win puts us in the conference tournament, and I am proud of today’s performance.” The Belles will close out the conference season this Saturday against Kalamazoo, and Campbell said he is excited for the game.
“Kalamazoo is the No. 1 team at this point, but we will bring everything we have at them,” Campbell said. “We reached one of our major goals which was to make the conference tournament. We did that today, so now we look to trying to upset the top team.”
