SURPRISE, Ariz. – Azusa Pacific women's tennis came just shy of a fifth-consecutive trip to the PacWest championship match as Biola earned a 4-2 win over the Cougars in the third meeting between the two teams to advance to the conference final for the first time in program history on Friday morning at the Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex.
 
Azusa Pacific won both regular season matches, but Biola came into form in the final weeks of the regular season and came ready to take out the tournament's No. 1 seed. Biola is the second-consecutive No. 5 seed to reach the conference final after Academy of Art did the same last year and went on to win the title. Biola will face No. 2 seed Point Loma, which also reached the championship match for the first time in its history.
 
The Cougars drop to 19-3 on the season after suffering their first loss all year to a PacWest opponent. Biola is now 16-6 and is taking a seven-match winning streak into Saturday's final.
 
Julia Jordan and Vini Bautista gave the Cougars a strong start to the match with a 6-1 win at No. 1 doubles. However, Biola pulled out two tight sets in the two remaining doubles matches. Andres Dafne and Isabella Chavarria won 6-4 at No. 2 doubles and then the veteran duo of Gaby Carvajal and Alex Mann clinched the point, 7-5.
 
The Cougars had some help from one of their own veterans to get back even in the match. Katherine Nguyen didn't waste any time picking up her first win of the tournament, taking No. 4 singles 6-1, 6-2. It was the 59^th career singles win of her storied career and her fourth in Surprise.
 
Biola took the opening set in each of the top-3 singles matches to carve out a clear path to victory, but the Cougars didn't give them much margin for error. Tina Moser and Karola Suviste both won the opening set of their matches at No. 5 and 6 singles with Moser winning hers 8-6 in a tiebreaker, saving a set point.
 
The Eagles retook the lead when Chavarria earned her second singles victory of the tournament with a 6-3, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles. However, the Cougars came back to win the second set at both No. 2 and 3 singles to force a third set in each match. Stina Larson won six games in a row after being down a set and a break to Kailee Mazzeo, and Julia Jordan broke early in the second set which she won 6-4.
 
Isabelle Karam got a break when Suviste was serving for the match in the second set and came back to take the second set in a tiebreaker. Mann also won her second set, meaning that all four remaining matches were going to a deciding set with the Eagles needing to win two of them.
 
The first of those two came from Dafne Andres who recovered in her third set to win it 6-2 and put the Eagles within a point of victory. Suviste made sure that victory didn't come on her court, winning her deciding set 6-1 for her 19^th win of the season, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-1.
 
Biola took the lead on both remaining courts with Mazzeo and Mann putting the No. 5 seed on the cusp of advancing to the championship match. Mazzeo was then the one who clinched it, avenging a loss to Larsson from three weeks ago. Mazzeo bounced back after having lost seven games in a row to win the match 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-3.
 
Azusa Pacific still has plenty to play for in tomorrow's third-round bout with Hawai`i Pacific on Saturday. The flurry of upsets in the first three days of the PacWest Championships will rearrange the rankings for the NCAA West Regional next month. While the Cougars remain in a strong position to earn one of the two host bids, a win on Saturday would help ensure that Azusa Pacific gets home court advantage in the opening round of the NCAA postseason.