MOBILE, Ala. -- Indiana Wesleyan University outlasted Lewis-Clark State (Idaho) College in the first round of the 2008 NAIA Women's Tennis National Championship tournament on Monday morning in Mobile, Alabama.
No. 15-ranked Indiana Wesleyan netted a 5-4 victory over No. 22-ranked Lewis-Clark State to advance to the second round of the 24-team tournament.
The Wildcats opened the match with losses in two of the three doubles competitions. The freshmen pair of Eva Delk and Lisa Massey earned the lone doubles point for IWU with an 8-5 win in No. 2-doubles.
Senior Kristi Haddad captured a point for Indiana Wesleyan in No. 6-singles play with a 6-2, 6-3 victory. Unfortunately for Indiana Wesleyan, their top two singles players lost, as IWU fell behind 4-2 with only three matches remaining.
Of those three matches still competing, senior Brittany Raymond in No. 4-singles and Massey in No. 5-singles each lost their first set, 6-4.
Delk won in straight sets in No. 3-singles by scores of 7-6, 6-2 to cut into the Lewis-Clark State lead at 4-3.
Raymond evened the team match at 4-4 as she prevailed in the last two sets of her match to gain a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win for Indiana Wesleyan. Massey's contest was the deciding match and she secured the team victory with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 triumph.
"We came out and played a little flat after the emotional win at the NCCAA tournament," said IWU head coach Terry Porter. "But our girls rebounded and were competitors. We didn't give up and played very strong at the end. It was a big win for us."
The Wildcats improve to 25-3 on the season.
Indiana Wesleyan will next clash with No. 2-seed Fresno Pacific (Calif.) University in the round of 16.
"Fresno Pacific and Auburn-Montgomery (Ala.) are clearly the top two teams in the field," quoted Porter. "There is a big gap between them and everybody else. But we will be loose and ready to play them."
The match will begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, May 13. Fresno Pacific enters the tournament with a record of 19-1 this season as they earned a first round bye.
