Belles tennis, softball and lacrosse continue their seasons over break

By ANDREW McGUINNESS sports editor

s pring break was hardly a time for relaxation for s aint m ary’s sports. b elles lacrosse, softball and lacrosse teams were all in action, each producing unique storylines over the last week and a half.

The b elles’ tennis team easily had the best break of the three, continuing their red-hot start to 2023. They won all five of their matches, including a doubleheader last Tuesday, to improve to 9-0 on the year. a ll of the matches were convincing victories, including a pair of 9-0 victories over m arywood and a lma. o nly c arthage was able to keep the final score within three. The doubles duo of senior Lucy c hamberlain and freshman Leah h osang dominated throughout the week, while senior Kathleen m cLeod, freshman e mma Kealy and sophomore a layna c ampbell consistently led the way in singles play.

Perhaps the most impressive about the b elles’ earlyseason success is that only one of their matches so far has been at home. That will change when they return to action on Thursday against a nderson, the first of a fivegame homestand.

s aint m ary’s softball also had a solid performance during break, posting a 5-5 record to begin their campaign. a fter losing their first three games, s aint m ary’s caught fire as the week progressed. Pitching made or broke the outcomes all week.

s aint m ary’s allowed doubledigit runs four times, and the b elles lost all four of those games. Five times they held opponents to four or fewer runs, and they won all five of those contests.

s enior second baseman c aitlin Traxler won the miaa Position Player of the Week award, batting .522 with an oP s approaching 2.000 for the week of m arch 20. s he and ju - nior infielder Libby b ierbaum combined to launch eight home runs and drive in 28 runs to start the b elles’ season. s enior infielder r ylee hershberger is hitting over .300, and b ierbaum and junior shortstop mcKenna m yers are not far below. Graduate student m andi hettinger is leading the way on the mound, posting a 2.80 era in 20 innings of work. s aint m ary’s offense set the tone early often, scoring at least three times in the first three innings in eight of their games. The b elles also showed strong resilience, nearly pulling off incredible comebacks against b enedictine and r amapo.

Their most dominant performance came against m inn.m orris on the 13th. Freshman s am m ikitka turned in the team’s best pitching performance to date, allowing just one unearned run and two hits in six innings. s he only didn’t come out for the seventh because a three-run sixth inning ended the game early due to the mercy rule, finalizing a 9-1 b elles victory.

The b elles’ lacrosse team was by far the least busy of the three during the break, playing just twice. The b elles fell into an early 11-3 hole against Whittier on m arch 13 and were never able to recover. o ther than senior midfielder e rin d otson, who scored four goals, the b elles struggled to generate offense throughout. s ophomore e mma Zmudzinski left the game after allowing 13 goals on 20 shots in the first half. Five Poets -- s amantha n immo, c hella d avidson, Loren Jade s epulveda, m olly Landon and Payton c limer -- recorded hat-tricks. Whittier’s explosive offense powered them to a convincing 21-8 victory. s aint m ary’s second game of the week went much better for the b elles. d espite another poor first quarter that ended with the b elles trailing 6-3, s aint m ary’s found a way to answer. a dominant third quarter that saw the b elles outscore r edlands b ut d otson came through with two goals in the last four minutes, separated by just 1:25, to bring home a 1514 win. d otson scored an impressive seven goals in the game, but this time, s aint m ary’s depth came to play. a fter Zmundzinski exited early for the second straight game, this time after a quarter, freshman m ila s wiacki stopped eight of 16 shots in relief. a nd similar to Whittier the game before, a quintet of b elles tallied multiple games, with sophomore attacker c hristiana s ingler, sophomore attacker/defender Paige Lyons, senior midfielder molly mullett and sophomore midfielder valentina r ubio each finding the back of the net twice.

6-2 gave them control of the game. r edlands answered with four early goals in the third to knot the score at 13.

The victory ended a twogame losing skid and brought the b elles back above .500 at 3-2. s aint m ary’s begins a season-long six-game home stretch Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. against d ePauw.