Saint Mary’s hosted Augustana College on Saturday and fell to the Vikings 9-0, ending their three-match win streak and moving the Belles to a 6-3 record this season.
The Vikings (17-4, 6-1 College Conference of Illinois and Chicago) posed many challenges for the Belles, but Saint Mary's head coach Dale Campbell said the team did learn from the hard-fought match.
“We definitely took away some lessons, and perhaps this was most helpful to our younger players,” Campbell said. “This was definitely a strong team who is a power in their own conference. The pace of play was much faster, so we could see that we needed to be quicker in preparation and faster in everything we do.”
In No. 1 singles, senior captain and second team All-MIAA performer Andrea Fetters lost 6-3, 6-2, while freshman Monica Davy was defeated 6-2, 6-2 at No. 2 singles. Senior captain Margaret Faller lost at No. 3 singles 6-1, 6-3. At No. 4 singles, junior Sam Setterblad was defeated 6-1, 6-3. No. 5 singles produced a tight two-set match, with sophomore Maddie Minaudo getting edged 7-5, 6-4 by Vikings junior Vicki Andonova. Belles junior Kaity Venters was defeated in straight sets at No. 6. Singles, 6-2, 6-2.
In the doubles matchups, the No. 1 team of Davy and Setterblad fell 8-0, while the No. 2 doubles combination of Faller and Minaudo lost 8-3. No. 3 doubles was a closely contested match, but the duo of Fetters and Venters could not pull out a victory, losing 9-8 (7-3).
Although the scoreboard looked lopsided, Campbell noticed some positives takeaways from the matchups.
“The margin of defeat is not necessarily a factor because they know they each played strong individual opponents," Campbell said. "We were close at No. 3 doubles, having a lead there during much of the match. We were also close in a few other matches, so we can take some confidence in that.”
The team will get a chance to rebound from their loss on Wednesday, when the Belles host Concordia. The Belles have yet to lose consecutive matches on the season, and will look to bounce back with a win against the Cardinals (1-9). To do so, Campbell realizes there are areas for improvement.
“We hope to get more aggressive in attacking the net in doubles, as well as taking the ball earlier as much as possible," Campbell said. "We have to continue to work to handle quicker pace. We have to constantly work on speed, short preparation and forward movement even in the face of higher pace coming at us. We have to serve and return better in doubles as well. We basically have to have the ability to strike first against stronger teams.”
The Cardinals lone win on the year came against Roosevelt University on Feb. 6. The Cardinals have not competed since Feb. 9 and will return to competition against Trine on Tuesday before heading to South Bend for the match against the Belles on Wednesday at 4 p.m.
