LA MIRADA, Calif. – The veterans got it done in doubles and then Azusa Pacific's trio of freshmen Karola Suviste, Stina Larsson, and Tina Moser finished things off to clinch the win against Biola at 4-0 before the Eagles could get on the board, and the final score was 4-3 on Wednesday evening at the Biola Tennis Center.
 
Earlier in the day, the PacWest conference office announced that Azusa Pacific is the No. 1 team in the first set of weekly PacWest rankings leading up to the PacWest Championships, and the Cougars showed why they earned that ranking with Wednesday's performance. Azusa Pacific won 30 team points in a row against PacWest opponents before Biola broke that streak late in Tuesday's match.
 
"We know that Biola and APU have a lot of history, so we knew there was going to be a good crowd," Moser said. "We had that mindset going in, but we have really good team chemistry. We know that we are all there for each other, and we support each other in every match."
 
With the win, Azusa Pacific now has a five-match winning streak and a 13-2 record, including an 11-0 mark against PacWest teams. Biola drops to 9-5 on the season after the Cougars snapped their five-match winning streak. In Wednesday's ITA Rankings, Azusa Pacific moved up to No. 17 and is back ahead of Point Loma again for the top spot in the West Region. Julia Jordan also shot up to No. 32 in the singles rankings.
 
The Cougars' freshman trio all won in straight sets to clinch the win before Biola got on the board. Suviste won in just over an hour to secure the first singles point with a 6-3, 6-2 triumph at No. 4 singles. It was her fifth straight-sets win in a row and she has not lost more than four games in any set during the winning streak.
 
At No. 2 singles, Larsson rushed out to a 3-0 lead, but Kailee Mazzeo fought back to take a 4-3 lead. From that point on, Larsson was in complete control, dominating rallies from the baseline. She won 10 of the final 12 games to win the match 7-5, 6-1 to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead.
 
Then on court 5, Moser was in a rematch with Biola's Isabelle Karam, who won the first meeting between the two players in straight sets.
 
"I played against Isabelle once already and lost 6-2, 6-3 at APU. It was mostly the deuce points that I missed so I felt like I knew how to play against her," Moser said. "She's really good at getting everything back, so I needed to be consistent, keep my energy up against her, and go for my shots."
 
Wednesday's match went very differently though with Moser grabbing the first set 6-1. She led 4-1 in the second set and was in complete control, but Karam fought her way back into the match by getting two games in a row.
 
"I had three chances to get up to 5-2, but I lost the deuce point, and she had a lot of support from the fans," Moser said. "I just stayed focused on my match, and kept battling against her."
 
Moser didn't let the match getting any closer from that point on, winning the final two games to clinch victory for Azusa Pacific and avenge one of her only two singles losses in her collegiate career.
 
"Even though the score doesn't look like it, it was a long match," Moser added. "I won the match point on another deuce. It ended up being the team's clinching point, but I was just focused on every point, trying to execute my gameplan."
 
In doubles, Shannele Lopez and Moser put together a dominant performance. Their last four matches went unfinished, but they didn't leave that to chance on Wednesday, winning the match 6-0 against two of the Eagles' top-3 singles players. It was their first love-set in doubles since February.
 
"Shae started off hitting the ball really well and playing down the line" Moser said. "I was playing well at net. Once we built that lead, we just thought 'don't let them come back,' and we stayed focused on playing our tennis."
 
The Cougars led the doubles sets in both remaining matches and it was a race to the finish that was won by Jordan and Katherine Nguyen, who won 6-3. They remain undefeated as a duo. Larsson and Suviste led their No. 1 doubles match 6-5 when the point was clinched.
 
After the match was clinched, Biola won the remaining three singles matches. Isa Chavarria picked up her second win against the Cougars, this time beating Jordan by retirement, 7-6(1), 4-2, ret. Jordan had a 5-1 lead in the first set, using her variety to cause all sorts of problems for Chavarria, but the Eagles' No. 1 player bounced back to take the match against the No. 32 player in the nation.
 
Alexis Romano won at No. 6 singles 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 to make the overall score 4-2. The last match of the day to finish was between Katherine Nguyen and Dafne Andres at No. 3 singles. Nguyen saved match points in the second set and won a tiebreaker 8-6 to force a match tiebreaker. Andres won the match tiebreaker 10-8 to take the two and a half hour long match, 7-5, 6-7(6), 10-8.
 
The freshman trio now have an incredible combined singles record of 38-5 with a combined 14-match winning streak. That streak will be put to the test on Saturday against Westmont at the Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex on Saturday at 10 a.m.