Women's Match Summary

ARDEN HILLS, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's tennis team didn't get off to a very good start in its Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference match against Bethel Tuesday.

Fortunately for the Cardinals, the finish was much more to their liking.

SMU dropped two of the three doubles matches, but rebounded with wins in five of the six singles matches en route to a 6-3 win over the Royals.

“This was a great match — every match played, whether we won or lost, was played at a high level,” said SMU coach Jeff Halberg, whose Cardinals picked up their first conference win of the season, after dropping MIAC matches to Carleton and Macalester earlier this year. “We were down 2-1 after the doubles, but we put in a huge effort in singles to recover the match.”

Val Meschke (Pine River, Minn.), Kayla Lenz (Pequot Lakes, Minn.), Aubrey Hirsch (Topeka, Kan.), Brittney Nielsen (Apple Valley, Minn.) and Colleen Radermacher (Belgrade, Minn.) were all victorious in singles play for SMU. Lenz, Nielsen and Radermacher all recorded straight-set wins, while Meschke, and Hirsch were taken to a third set.

Both Meschke at No. 1 singles and Hirsch at No. 3 won their first set and dropped the second, with Meschke posted an 11-9 third-set win, while Hirsch won 10-7.

Lenz and Hirsch also teamed for the Cardinals' lone doubles win, outlasting Bethel's Andrea Beegle and LeRoyce Chapman 8-5.

“This was a total team effort,” said Halberg, who team improved to 3-2 overall  with the win. “Everyone deserves praise for this win — they really put their hearts into it.”