SAINT LEO, Fla.- The Ave Maria University women's tennis team opened the 2023 spring season with a major test on Friday, taking on the Lions of Saint Leo University. St. Leo is a perennial contender at the NCAA Division II level, and enters the spring as the number three team in the nation. The Lions claimed a 7-0 victory over the Gyrenes, although several Gyrenes put up excellent battles against the D2 national championship contenders.

Saint Leo won all three matches to claim the doubles point, with the closest match coming at the number three position. The team of Regina Ruiz and Aethielle Kelkboom nearly forced a tiebreaker against SLU's team of Camila Keller and Jade Bellegy, but dropped the final point to suffer a 7-5 defeat. The Lions won the other two doubles matches by scores of 6-3 and 6-0 to sweep the two-player action.

All six singles matches were decided in straight sets, with several nationally ranked players from the Lions powering the win. Ave Maria's most successful singles player was Valentine Colin, who took Luzia Obermeier to the limit in the first set, a 7-5 decision, before falling 6-2 in the second set. Andrea Rodriguez Oria and Vitoria Barandas racked up six total points each in the losing effort for Ave Maria.

AMU's next match will come against another NCAA Division II foe. Ave Maria will travel across the state for a match against the Sailfish of Palm Beach Atlantic University, scheduled for Monday, February 13. It will mark the first meeting between the Gyrenes and the Sailfish in nearly a decade, as PBA defeated Ave Maria 9-0 more than nine years ago, on February 2, 2014.