In their only competition of the fall season, the Belles proved they could perform well at all levels with a successful showing at the MIAAFlighted Tournament in Kalamazoo, Mich., on Saturday.
Belles coach Dale Campbell said he was impressed by his team's performance considering the small amount of time they had to prepare.
"I thought we did well overall," Campbell said. "Especially with only two weeks to get ready, it's not bad for preseason."
Saint Mary's had players in several different flights. In singles, the Belles had two players in the A flight, three in the B flight and three more in the C flight.
Two doubles pairs made it to the semifinal of the A flight. Sophomore Shannon Elliott and freshman Shannon Golden reached the semifinals but fell 8-0 loss to Albion freshman Irene Chen and sophomore Marissa Cloutier. Junior Mary Catherine Faller and sophomore Kayle Sexton battled until losing 8-3 to Katie Clark and Sarah Woods of Kalamazoo, 8-3.
Faller had a solid tournament in singles, winning the consolation round in the A singles flight. Elliott made it to the finals of the B consolation round before Ania Latal of Kalamazoo clinched the win 6-2, 6-7. Sexton had a good start in A singles, winning her first match against junior Chrissy Uphaus of Trine, 6-4, 6-1, but a loss to freshman Morgan Spencer of Adrian put her into the semifinals of the consolation bracket.
Campbell said he was impressed by Faller's performance in singles.
"She had a lot of matches decided by tiebreakers and was playing with a sore ankle for the last four matches of the tournament," Campbell said. "It was a strong performance for her."
Campbell said it wasn't hard to get the team determined for their only fall competition.
"I think it was motivation enough to prepare for this one tournament," Campbell said. "We'll start to analyze what we need to work on based on a little bit of our performance in the tournament. We have a measuring stick to go by to see what we need to do for the spring season."
The Belles will begin their spring season on Feb. 9 when they travel to Case Western to take on the Spartans.
Contact Katie Heit at kheit@nd.edu
