CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The No. 3-seeded West Virginia State women's tennis team edged No. 2 seed West Liberty by a 4-2 score here Saturday in a Mountain East Conference Tournament semifinal between regionally-ranked rivals at the Charleston Tennis Club.
Ranked No. 4 in the Atlantic Region, Coach Heather Gallagher's Hilltoppers had eked out a narrow 4-3 win over the Yellowjackets, ranked fifth regionally, earlier this month and Saturday's rematch also went right down to the wire.
State grabbed the upper hand right out of the box by winning the doubles point. Julia Daszkiewicz and Maya Haidari took a 6-3 decision over WLU's Ishika Agarwal and Evelina Martirosyan at No. 2 doubles and WVSU's No. 1 duo of Amanda Menendez-Thomasson and Tuva Wallin locked up the doubles point with a hard-fought 6-4 win over the Hilltoppers' No. 1 pairing of Emma Arnal and Gemma Cliffe.
With the 1-0 lead in their pocket, the Yellowjackets cruised into singles play needing only a 3-3 split of the six singles matches to advance to Sunday's championship match.
Arnal quickly evened the score for WLU with a 6-2 6-0 blitz of Haidari at No. 2 singles to forge a 1-1 deadlock. State struck back with straight-set wins by Wallin at No. 1 singles and Chante Malo in the No. 4 slot to move within one win of advancing.
Jacqueline Pena-Aceves kept West Liberty's hopes alive by rallying past Emily Moore, 6-3 1-6 7-5, at No. 5 singles, trimming the WVSU lead to 3-2. The final two matches of the day also went to a third set. Cliffe had won the first set of her No. 3 singles match against Menendez Thomasson only to see the State standout force a third set with a 6-2 win in the second set. At No. 6 singles, WLU's Agarwal had rebounded from a tough 7-5 loss in the opening set of her match with Daszkiewicz to grab the momentum with a 6-3 win in the second set.
Menendez Thomasson closed out the victory for State with a 6-4 win over Cliffe in the third set. With the match decided, play was halted in the No. 6 singles match with Agarwal leading, 2-1, in the third set.
West Virginia State advances to take on nationally-ranked Charleston at noon on Sunday in the MEC championship match.
