Saint Mary’s Tennis swept Olivet Wednesday night in a 9-0 match. The Belles let up a combined six games in singles and only two games total in doubles.
To open the night, senior Meredith Heckert and junior Kalyn Borger didn’t let up a single game to win their doubles match against Comets Alyssa Davis and Kennedy Karns 8-0. Junior Lucy Chamberlin and freshman Alayna Campbell followed shortly after, winning 8-1 at first doubles, and to close out all three doubles points for the Belles junior Kathleen McLeod and senior Nikki Rust won 8-0.
“We talked before the match, and we definitely had some strategies that we wanted to put in for doubles tonight.” head coach Dale Campbell said. “So we were especially proud of our team plays that we were working on. We executed those things and that was an important thing for us tonight.”
Campbell said that the key to doubles was to stay “to stay assertive.” But there’s another piece to winning matches, he said.
“[We had] to be able to switch gears and be patient for our singles play,” Campbell said. “And know that there's different ways to win a match and just fighting through those matches.”
That’s exactly what the team did. Heckert moved the team closer to victory as she won her three singles match in straight sets, 6-0, 6-0. She was followed up by Campbell who clinched the match in another 6-0, 6-0 match with McLeod right behind her, touting the same score. Not a single Belle would take longer than straight sets to win Wednesday night.
The one place the Comets were able to put up a fight was at one singles. Chamberlin found a way to win though, only dropping three games and fighting past Makenzie Borg.
“Lucy is always a fighter,” Campbell said. “She always works hard, and she'll do anything she can do to win a match. So I think she's learning to be patient with herself throughout her matches, but we know that effort (is) always going to be there.”
Chamberlin won 6-2, 6-1 to bring the Belles one step closer to the sweep. Then, Rust won in straight sets, both of them 6-0. To close the match, sophomore Katie Hunter won 6-2, 6-1 at six singles.
Not only was Campbell happy with the success against Olivet, but he said he was glad it came so quickly in the context of the rest of the week’s schedule.
“We were glad that [Wednesday night] wasn't an extremely long match. We wanted to stay a bit rested,” Campbell said. He continued that the team is most focused on their in-conference match on Saturday.
Saturday, the Belles take on Alma, their third in-conference opponent of the season, at 1 p.m. in Michigan.
