SURPRISE, Ariz. -- No. 3 Azusa Pacific took two of the three doubles sets and won the first set on four singles courts, but No. 6 Sonoma State pulled off an improbable comeback against a physically battered Cougar lineup to reach the semifinals of the Pacific West Conference tournament on Thursday at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Club.
Match Results
Early in the match, the Cougars trailed on all three doubles courts, but Natalie Johnson andLisa Schneider went on a run to win six games in a row and grab an 8-3 victory. Right before that, Jackie Resler and Valeriia Kashina won five games in a row in their set for an 8-6 win to grab the early 2-0 lead.
Freshmen duo Kara Hinton and Lilit Vardanyan trailed 3-6, but fought all the way back to tie the score at 7-7. However, Hinton suffered an injury that would eventually force her out of the singles lineup and the Sea Wolves won that match 9-7 to avoid the sweep.
In singles, Resler claimed the Cougars' first point with a 6-4, 6-2 victory at No. 5 singles and the Cougars held one-set leads on three other courts at the time. Resler now has a team-best singles record of 13-3 this season.
The Sea Wolves then evened the score with two straight-set victories at No. 2 and No. 6 singles to even the overall score at 3-3, while forcing a deciding set on each of the three remaining courts.
Kashina held two match points on her serve at 5-4 in the deciding sets, while feeling the effects of the heat. After failing to convert either of the match points, she was broken and fell behind 5-6. However, the Azusa Pacific No. 3 held to force a tiebreaker and on her fourth match point drew an error for a 6-1, 2-6, 7-6(5) win.
At No. 4 singles, Amanda Zuidema came back from down a set to defeat Vardanyan 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to even the overall score at 4-4 with the No. 1 singles match still early in the deciding set.
Johnson had a chance to serve for the match in the second set at 5-4, but was broken and Jensyn Warren went on to win three games in a row to force the third set.
The two No. 1 singles players traded breaks of serve out of the gate in the final set. Johnson broke again at 3-3 in the deciding set and held to take a 5-3 lead in the final set, while battling cramps. While Warren was serving at 3-5, Johnson took a medical timeout, but the Seawolf No. 1 won nine points in a row to tie the score at 5-5. Four and a half hours after the match began, Warren won the third set 7-5 and clinched the Sonoma State victory.
The Cougars will play Academy of Art in the second round at 9:00p.m. The No. 7 Urban Knights lost 3-5 to No. 2 Hawai`i Pacific. The Cougars' record this season is now 14-7.
