NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The Saint Mary's tennis team soaked up as much time on their home courts as possible as the Belles defeated Trine in a four-plus hour non-conference match in their first on-campus competition since April 13, 2019.

 

Jane Price and Kathleen McLeod were the first pair off the court as the two took an 8-1 win at three doubles for a quick Saint Mary's lead. Megan Davy and Meredith Heckert suffered an 8-1 setback at the one doubles flight. Lilly Chamberlin and Lucy Chamberlin made a huge comeback from a 5-1 deficit in their two doubles match to take a 6-5 lead. The pair went to a tiebreaker after much back-and-forth play saw the score move to 7-7. The Chamberlin duo went ahead 2-0 in the tiebreaker and never trailed en route to the 7-1 win for the match.

 

Lilly Chamberlin made it a quick and decisive win at three singles as the senior claimed a 6-0, 6-2 victory to put the Belles ahead 3-1. Megan Davy had a 6-0, 6-1 setback at one singles, and Annika Smith came up on the short end of a 6-3, 6-0 match at six singles as the Thunder tied the overall score at 3-3. Meredith Heckert fought her way to a second-set win to force a third set at four singles but was unable to complete the comeback in a 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 final.

 

The Belles needed the two remaining matches - two singles and five singles - to take the team win on the day, and both matches proved to be worth the focus of the match. Lucy Chamberlin was in a back-and-forth battle in her two singles match as the sophomore fell in the first set by a 7-5 score. Chamberlin, however, came right back and took control early for a 6-2 second set win and pulled the Belles even at 4-4 with a 6-1 win in the third set. All eyes then moved to the five singles match. Kathleen McLeod dropped her opening set by a 6-3 score and trailed 4-3 in her second set before mounting a big comeback for a 6-4 win in the set to force the third and overall match-deciding set. McLeod and her counterpart played numerous lengthy points, and McLeod broke serve to tie things at 4-4. The sophomore then held serve after going to deuce for a 5-4 advantage. The next game was up for grabs after several deuces before Trine's Trista Savage ultimately claimed the game to tie things up at 5-5. The next game also went to deuce, and McLeod held serve to again for a 6-5 lead. After yet another game went to deuce, McLeod was able to prevail and break serve for the 7-5 win in a two-plus hour match.

 

In exhibition play, Nicole Becker and Annika Smith took an 8-4 win at four doubles. Jane Price had an 8-0 exhibition win at seven singles, and Nikki Rust was an 8-5 winner at eight singles.

 

The Belles (2-1) are back at home on Thursday, March 25 when they host Kalamazoo at 4:00 p.m. for a non-conference match.