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Lily Waterhouse standing at the net
Shelly Blunck
3
Hawai'i Hilo UHH-WT (3-7)
4
Winner Biola University BU-WT (6-7)
Hawai'i Hilo UHH-WT
(3-7)
3
Final
4
Biola University BU-WT
(6-7)
Winner

Match Recap: Women's Tennis | | Brandon Taylor, Assistant Sports Information Director

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For the second time this season, Biola Women’s Tennis earned a comeback win against a PacWest opponent in dramatic fashion.

LA MIRADA, Calif. --- They did it again. In a big match that would help determine qualification and seeding for the PacWest Tennis Championship, Biola Women's Tennis rallied it way to a dramatic victory at home that went down to the third set in the final singles match.

Just as the Eagles did in their previous 4-3 win at the Biola Tennis Center against Dominican, Biola created some momentum by taking two doubles matches to earn the first point of the match. Then Ines Diaz delivered a big straight-set victory at No. 2 singles to reignite the Eagles' confidence headed into the third set in two matches that featured Biola veterans.

Captain Lauren Lee used sheer will to push her way to a 6-2 victory in the final set of her match and evened the overall score in the dual match. Then Lily Waterhouse held serve twice late in her third set to push the rubber match to a tiebreak that Waterhouse controlled by winning the final six points of the breaker.  

The win pushes Head Coach David Goodman's group to 6-3 at home this season with two more matches to come this week. Hawaii Hilo drops to 3-7 in its first match of three this week.

The Eagles actually came into the match a bit short-handed with a few women out due to injury and with Allison Torres and Diaz both feeling under the weather. Diaz and Torres were both seen using their elbows to "shake hands" with opponents after their matches due to their sickness. But the duo were still able to overcome their ailments and win their fifth doubles decision at the No. 3 flight, 6-2. That clinched the first point of the day for the Eagles after Esther Lee and Lauren Lee also took their doubles contest 6-2 and evened their record at the No. 1 spot at 5-5.

The doubles win meant the Eagles only needed to win three singles matches and they got off on the right foot by taking the first set on three courts. L. Lee and Waterhouse had tight results in the first set at 7-5 and 6-4, respectively. But Diaz put her foot down with a 6-2 victory in the first set and then played Anouk van Hoek very close in the second until the change over at 5-4.

Diaz held serve in the next game and went onto win the next two to take the second set by a score of 7-5 for Biola's second point in the dual match. The win improves Daiz record in No. 2 singles match against PacWest opponents to 2-2 with a 2-0 record at the Biola Tennis Center in those circumstances.

With L. Lee taking her match on court five, it all came down to Waterhouse, who was putting on a clinic at No. 3 singles on how to play defensive and counter-punching tennis. For the majority of the match, Waterhouse was content to let Sandra Dafincescu provide the power on groundstrokes and to wait for Dafincescu to make unforced errors. Dafincescu stabilized to win the second set 6-2. But Waterhouse stuck to her game when it mattered most, first coming up with a big hold to make it 5-5 when Dafincescu was playing to take the game, set and match for Hilo.

The Wenatchee, Washington-native held serve again without dropping a point at 5-6 down to force the match into a deciding tiebreaker and earned a mini-break back on Dafincescu's serve to make the score 1-2 with the balls returning to Waterhouse to serve. Waterhouse went onto win the next six points with a number of opportunistic shots that forced Dafincescu to make unforced errors on running strokes and the Eagles took their second victory of the season against a PacWest opponent by a 4-3 score.

Biola Women's Tennis will return to the Biola Tennis Center on Tuesday to host Lewis-Clark State.
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