Over the last two weeks, Saint Mary’s tennis hasn’t been a team to mess around with. The Belles, after embarking on an unbeaten month of March, lost back-to-back matches to start April. That left the squad hungry for more down the stretch, and it has certainly devoured the competition as of late.
Saint Mary’s finished its regular season with a 9-0 win at Albion on Wednesday, extending its win streak to four games. During that run, the Belles have outscored their opponents 34-3, sweeping both Olivet and Albion. With Wednesday’s victory, the Belles finished 16-6 overall with six wins in MIAA play for the first time in five years. They hold the No. 3 seed for the MIAA Tournament and will travel to Calvin on May 2.
The Belles jumped ahead with three lopsided match wins in doubles play. Freshman Grace Clearwater and senior Katie Hunter won their No. 3 match 8-0, junior Alayna Campbell and sophomore Evelyn Demblans-Dechans captured the No. 1 matchup with an 8-1 score and the duo of senior Emma Kealy and freshman Anna Gardner won the No. 2 match 8-2.
In singles play, the Belles won every set they played by five games or more. Campbell and Kealy both produced clean sweeps in No. 1 and No. 2 singles, respectively, setting the tone for the rest of their teammates. They followed suit, wrapping up four more two-set wins to clinch a sweeping victory for Saint Mary’s.
Heading into next Thursday’s postseason match, Saint Mary’s has a wrong to right against Calvin. Back on April 6, the Knights put an end to the Belles’ 10-game win streak with a 6-3 win. Calvin used its depth to pull away from Saint Mary’s handily winning the No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6 singles matchups.
