AZUSA, Calif. - No. 7 Azusa Pacific had its home opener on Saturday morning, and the Cougars emerged with a 6-1 victory over Fresno Pacific. The Cougars are now 1-1 overall on the young season. Azusa Pacific has won 14-consecutive home matches, dating back to the 2019 season.

To start the morning off, the Cougars' No. 2 doubles pairing of April Wong and Carolyn Brooner made quick work of their opponents Alice Marques & Elise Leik, winning 6-0. The Sunbirds would answer at No. 3, where Fresno Pacific's Sanne Brull & Alice De Matteo battled Lilla Plasek & Katherine Nguyen, with Brull & De Matteo eventually winning in a tie break for the 7-6 match victory. With each team holding a doubles win, it came down to the No. 1 match between Azusa Pacific's duo of Madison Kane & Nora Liga, against the Sunbirds' Lea Falentin & Mariia Borodii. The dual went into a tie break to decide a winner, and Kane delivered a beautiful over-the-shoulder backhanded shot off of a Sunbird lob that secured the 8-6 win in the tiebreaker for the 7-6 match win. With the thrilling victory at No. 1, Azusa Pacific entered singles with the 1-0 match lead. 

Kane carried the momentum from doubles into her No. 2 singles matchup, where she won 6-0, 6-4 to put the Cougars up 2-0. The next to finish was Carolyn Brooner at No. 3, where she also won in straight sets (6-1, 6-3) to put the Cougars one victory away from clinching the match.

It was Nora Liga at No. 1 who delivered the match-clinching win for Azusa Pacific. In her first set, Liga took it with relative ease at 6-3, but the second set required a little more from the first-year Cougar, as Liga would claim the 6-4 second set win to grab the straight set victory and give Azusa Pacific the fourth and deciding point on the match. 

Sanne Brull claimed Fresno Pacific's lone win at No. 5 singles.

While the match was already secured, April Wong added another point for the Cougars at No. 4 with a 6-4, 6-1 win, and Katherine Nguyen closed out the match at No. 6, winning 6-3 in the first and 7-6 (7-4) in the second set, for the final 6-1 overall match score.

Up Next: Azusa Pacific will be back on its home court this Monday, February 7, when Cal State Los Angeles visits for a 2:30 pm afternoon match. Live scoring will be available here.