James Finnigan watched his St. Mary's Men's Tennis teammates move to 4-0 on the season as they took down Southwestern University, 5-2 at Rohrbach Tennis Stadium. Four of the six singles lines went to three sets, with two of them needing a tie-breaker to determine the winner.
It took just over 30 minutes for the Rattlers to sweep all three doubles matches from the Pirates.
Jeremiah Sanchez was the first to finish at the No. 1 singles line. Sanchez started slow but proved to be the better player, as the graduate student hit big shots when he needed them. Sanchez defeated Vesko Lekovic 6-4, 6-2.
Saisaurav Konakanchi picked up the second singles victory for St. Mary's at the No. 5 position. Konakanchi cruised to a 6-1 opening set victory before dropping the second, 6-3. The senior outlasted Steven Tibbetts in the third set, winning the tie-breaker.
Freshman Ryan Koth clinched the match for St. Mary's as he grinded out a victory in the No. 4 singles spot. Koth was the second-to-last match to finish on the night after he dropped the opening set, 6-4. The Boerne, Texas native won the next two sets, 6-4 and 6-4 to pick up the win.
At the No. 6 line, Hein picked up a 6-4 win in the opener before falling 7-5. The third set came down to a tie-breaker where Hein outlasted Carlos Esteban, winning the tie-break 7-5 to close out the night.
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