CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's tennis team earned a return trip to Sunday's West Virginia Conference tournament championship match here Saturday with a convincing 5-2 semifinal victory against Charleston.

Coach Heather Gallagher's Hilltoppers (13-1) will take on unbeaten defending WVIAC champion West Virginia State (14-0) at 10 a.m. Sunday with the conference title on the line.

It's a rematch of last year's WVIAC championship match which saw State prevail by a 5-1 score in a tightly-played battle. The Yellowjackets earned their return trip to the WVIAC finals with a 5-0 romp past No. 4 seed Davis & Elkins in Saturday's other semifinal.

West Liberty had little difficulty beating Charleston for the second time this season.

The Hilltoppers' top two doubles tandems – Lauren Howard and Raissa Wischi (No. 1) and Alex Barr and Zineb Houssaini (No. 2) – won their matches to give the Black and Gold a 2-1 lead heading into singles play.

Howard, the 2012 WVIAC Player of the Year, and Wischi, a three-time first-team All-WVIAC selection, quickly pushed the lead to 4-1 by rolling to straight set wins at Nos. 1 and 2 singles, respectively.

Charleston tried to stop the bleeding with a win at No. 3 singles but Houssaini wrapped up the victory for the Hilltoppers with a 6-3 6-2 win against Taylor Todd at No. 5 singles.

The winner of today's WVIAC championship match will receive the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional in the spring but the loser is expected to receive an at-large bid.

WOMEN'S TENNIS

WVIAC Championships

Semifinal

West Liberty 5, Charleston 2

Doubles

Lauren Howard/Raissa Wischi (WLU) d. Laura Smith/Kelsey Hensley, 8-6

Alex Barr/Zineb Houssaini (WLU) d. Ana Pena/Courtney Pierron, 8-4

Mallika Mali/Taylor Todd (UC) d. Emily Dawson/Sarah Howells, 8-3

Singles

Lauren Howard (WLU) d. Laura Smith, 6-2 6-0

Raissa Wischi (WLU) d. Kelsey Hensley, 6-1 6-0

Ana Pena (UC) d. Emily Dawson, 6-1 6-0

Zineb Houssaini (WLU) d. Taylor Todd, 6-3 6-2