WINTER PARK, Fla. - Heading south for their annual spring break trip, the University of Mary Women's Tennis team will pay a visit to Florida this week for a slate of four matches against various opponents from the NCAA Division II, III, and NAIA levels.
 
The Marauders (2-5) look to build on a tough early-season schedule where they dropped several hard-fought matches while taking wins against the University of Minnesota Duluth and Southwest Minnesota State University.
 
Last week, U-Mary clinched the win over the Mustangs with a dominant showing en route to the doubles sweep and followed up with four wins in the singles matchups to clinch the 7-2 victory, but dropped a close contest against Minnesota State University at 5-4 despite fighting for the comeback in the number three doubles spot.
 
Sarah Janes and Catherine Gibbens have led the way in the top two singles spots as they both own a 4-3 record on the year so far, while Eileen Leong anchors the fifth spot with a 3-4 record. All three doubles teams have improved as of late with the Gibbens / Leong duo and the Anastasia Bruss / Monica Benda each owning a 3-4 record in doubles matchups.
 
The Marauders will start their trip with a match against Rollins College (0-2) who are currently searching for their first win of the 2016 season. The game against Rollins will start at 1 PM CDT down in Winter Park, Fla., on Tuesday, March 1.
 
U-Mary will follow that up with a trio of neutral site matches, starting with Augustana College [IL] (13-2) on Wednesday, March 2, starting at 4:30 PM CDT, as the Vikings carry over their record from the fall portion of their schedule.
 
The third match will feature U-Mary facing Otterbein University (6-1) on Thursday, March 3, at 2 PM CDT, and the final match to wrap up the trip will take place on Friday, March 4, at 9:30 AM against Ave Maria University (1-5).
 
The Marauders went on a similar trip last season, albeit to a different part of the country, as they visited Oklahoma for a quartet of matches, but returned to Bismarck empty handed with an 0-3 record and one match cancelled due to weather.
 
U-Mary has a month-long break from their Northern Sun schedule as will conclude their non-conference portion with a match against Concordia College (Minn.) on Sunday, March 13, before hosting Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota Crookston on Sunday, April 3.
 
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