CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The West Liberty University women's tennis team came from behind here Monday to defeat West Virginia State, 4-3, in an NCAA Division II Atlantic Region semifinal at the Charleston Tennis Club.

    With the win, Coach Heather Gallagher's Hilltoppers advance to tomorrow's Atlantic Regional final against No. 20-ranked Charleston. The winner of that match will earn one of the spots in the 16-team field at the NCAA D2 Nationals, set for May 11-16 at the Collegiate Center on the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Fla.

    Monday's semifinal with the Yellowjackets was a see-saw affair from the start.

    State came out of the blocks fast, taking two of the three doubles matches to earn the doubles point and scoring a straight-set win at No. 1 singles.

    West Liberty responded with two quick wins of its own. Ishika Agarwal blitzed her opponent at No. 6 singles, 6-4 6-0, and Jacqueline Pena-Aceves shook off a 6-1 loss in the opening set of her No. 5 singles match to reel off 12 straight wins for a 1-6 6-0 6-0 decision.

    Gemma Cliffe won the opening set of her No. 3 singles match in a tiebreaker but couldn't build on the momentum as her Yellowjacket foe rallied for a 6-7 6-2 6-1 win, putting West Virginia State one point away from advancing with two matches still in progress.

    The Hilltoppers' Evelina Martirosyan evened the score at 3-3 with a hard-fought straight-set win at No. 2 singles, 7-5 6-2, meaning the match would be decided by the outcome at No. 4 singles.

    West Liberty veteran Nathalia Valencia had dropped a 7-5 decision in the first set against WVSU's Chante Malo and was trailing in the second set when Martirosyan's match concluded.

    But with the Hilltoppers' season on the line, Valencia came storming back to tie the set at 6-6 and kept WLU's hopes alive by winning the tiebreaker to force a third and final set.

    Malo won the first game of the third set but it was all Valencia after that. The three-time All-MEC junior from Cochabamba, Bolivia won six of the next seven games to post a 6-2 win and punch the Black and Gold's ticket to Tuesday's regional final.                 

    

WOMEN'S TENNIS

NCAA Division II Regional

Atlantic Region Semifinal

(at Charleston)

West Liberty 4, W.Va. State 3

Doubles

Wallin/Menendez-Thomasson (WVSU) d. Cliffe/Arnal, 6-2

Haidan/Daszkiewicz (WVSU) d. Martirosyan/Agarwal, 6-3

Valencia/Pena-Aceves (WLU) d. Malo/Moore, 6-2

Singles

Wallin (WVSU) d. Arnal, 6-4 6-2

Martirosyan (WLU) d. Haidan, 7-5 6-2

Menendez-Thomasson (WVSU) d. Cliffe, 6-7 6-2 6-1

Valencia (WLU) d. Malo, 5-7 7-6 6-2

Pena-Aceves (WLU) d. Moore, 1-6 6-0 6-0

Agarwal (WLU) d. Hernandez, 6-4 6-0