AZUSA, Calif. – After 24 days without playing a match, Azusa Pacific women's tennis got off to a slow start, but a switch flipped an hour into the NCAA West Regional battle with Biola, and the Cougars came roaring back for a 4-1 win in just over two hours on Tuesday afternoon at the Munson & Bavougian Tennis Complex.
 
Karola Suviste sealed the victory with a forehand inside-in winner at No. 5 singles to complete the convincing comeback in a match that was all Cougars by the end. The win punches the Cougars' ticket to the NCAA National Championships for the sixth time in a row.
 
"It was amazing to clinch the match for the team," Suviste said. "Obviously, you never go on court hoping to be the clincher. I always want to get my match over the quickest, so I can watch my teammates. But that moment where my teammates were running toward me was a moment I will remember forever. As a freshman to do that for my team was so special."
 
The region's top-seeded Cougars advance to the NCAA Division II National Championships at Sanlando Park and will be one of 16 teams to battle for the national title.
 
Azusa Pacific looked like a team that felt the pressure of having 24 days to think about a rematch with the Eagles, who knocked the Cougars out of PacWest title contention at the conference semifinals. Today, they had a sluggish start in doubles, and it carried over into singles as Biola earned the early advantage with the first point and the opening set at No. 1 and No. 6 singles.
 
"After what happened in Surprise, I wanted to face Biola," Jordan said. "They are a good team, but I knew it was a matter of strategy in terms of matchups. I thought that me playing Kailee [Mazzeo], who is a great player is a better matchup for me. It's the same for Stina, because she is so consistent, which is critical for facing Dafne [Andres]."
 
The match was tense as the wind picked up, but then the match suddenly changed. At 3-all in the opening set Stina Larsson got a critical break. Then seniors Katherine Nguyen and Julia Jordan both won their opening sets. Larsson broke one more time to win her first set 6-3, and then last of all, Suviste broke in the tenth game of her set to win it 6-4.
 
"I was really pumped," Jordan said about her mindset going into singles. "It's not easy to bounce back from a doubles loss. We haven't lost many doubles point all season, so I started to feel like this could be it if we don't give it our all. I was trying to bring more energy than usual because I knew how crucial that would be for the team and myself."
 
The Cougars had the lead in four matches, and they hardly lost a game the rest of the way. Shannele Lopez and Vini Bautista both began to make comebacks in their matches too with Lopez leading 4-1, while Bautista was ahead 3-1.
 
Larsson dominated the rest of her match, winning nine of the final 10 games to win 6-3, 6-1 against her fellow freshman, making the overall score 1-1. She is now 19-3 on the season in singles with a perfect 8-0 record at the third spot.
 
The senior duo of Jordan and Nguyen finished simultaneously. Nguyen put together a dominant performance in the PacWest semifinals but was even stronger in the regionals, playing in the regional round for the fourth time in her career. Her experience showed as she secured a 6-1, 6-1 win. She joins her former teammate Madison Kane as the second Cougar to be a starter on four Cougar teams that won NCAA West Regional matches.
 
Jordan dropped the first two games of her second set, going down an early break, but kept fighting against Mazzeo.
 
"Kailee played a lot better than the first time I played her," Jordan said. "She had great points. I was trying to avoid her forehand, and she figured that out so I had to be creative. She's a great competitor, so I enjoy the challenge of playing against her. I knew this whole time in the past three weeks that I was going to have to play points differently. I couldn't hit the same ball more than three times in a row if I was going to beat her."
 
Jordan then won six of the next seven games to come back against Mazzeo and win by the same score as their previous meeting, 6-2, 6-3.
 
"After the doubles point didn't go our way, I told the veterans they we were going to need them to step up if we were going to win," Head Coach Mark Bohren said. "That's just what they did. Vini, Julia, Katherine, and Shannele as the leaders of this team did exactly what we needed from them."
 
After the seniors won their matches, all the attention switched to Suviste's match as she earned a second break in the second set for a 6-4, 5-1 lead. She had a chance to serve for a spot in the NCAA Division II Women's Tennis National Championships after having won seven of the last eight games.
 
"Coach Marlon Wilken was there for me the whole time," Suviste said. "Then finally, I was able to adjust in the windy conditions. I was more consistent in the end and making better selection on when to be aggressive. I consider myself and aggressive player, but with some conditions, it's hard to play that way so I had to get creative."
 
The freshman rushed out to a 40-love lead as she served for the match, and on her second match point, she stepped in after her serve and swatted away a forehand winner to clinch the victory.
 
"I was so excited about seeing Karola shine," Jordan said. "Knowing how important this was for her put tears in my eyes. Seeing her grow this season has been a rewarding thing for me. I know she is going to continue to do great things."
 
Suviste clinched the match after just two hours and 12 minutes, securing her milestone 20^th win of her freshman campaign. She is the seventh player in program history to reach 20 singles wins in a single season. Her 20-2 record currently ranks as the third-best singles winning percentage for a Cougar in a single season.
 
"We worked extremely hard these past three weeks," Jordan said. "The results in Surprise were disappointing but that motivated us to put out our best showing. All the work we have been putting in since the fall paid off."
 
The Cougars are into the last 16 for the sixth year in a row. Barry is the only other program in the nation that has also reached the final 16 in each of the last six seasons.
 
"I'm really excited about Florida," Suviste said. "Everyone is already talking about the Florida weather, but I actually like the humid conditions, so I'm excited for the opportunity to show who we are as a team."
 
The national championships will be held on May 21-25 in Altamonte Springs, Florida, at Sanlando Park. The 16 teams that qualified, which include Azusa Pacific and Point Loma from the West Region, will be seeded by the NCAA for a single-elimination tournament.
 
"It's a bitter sweet feeling to know this was my last home match," Jordan said. "In Florida, I'm looking forward to enjoying my last trip of my six-year college career. I just want to be healthy and enjoy my last days with the team, because these relationships will last a long time even off the court."