LIMA, Ohio -- The Indiana Wesleyan University women’s tennis team pulled out a tight 5-4 victory today in a non-league showdown over Northwestern Ohio in Lima, Ohio.

The big Wildcat victory comes over a program that was ranked No. 20 in the final poll of the 2012-13 season. IWU improves to 5-1 on the season while UNO falls to 2-2.

Indiana Wesleyan swept the doubles matches to gain a 3-0 advantage over Northwestern Ohio. Katie Wilson (JR/Middletown, Ind.) and Kim Mella (SR/Libertyville, Ill.) won 8-5 in No. 1-doubles, Rachel Bottorff (SO/Newburgh, Ind.) and Kelsey Vessels (SO/Roanoke, Ind.) earned a 9-8 (9-7) victory in No. 2-doubles, and Courtney Siepman (JR/Plainfield, Ind.) and Diane Jones (SR/Greenwood, Ind.) won 8-3 at the No. 3 spot.

“Rachel and Kelsey won the No. 2-doubles match 9-7 in the tiebreaker,” said IWU head coach Eddy Shigley. “They were able to stave off three match points to allow us gain a 3-0 lead in doubles. We eventually won the first five points of the match, therefore we did not realize until later how critical that doubles match was.”

Wilson and Bottorff were the first two players to claim victories in singles contests to give IWU their fifth point for the team match. Wilson won 6-2, 6-2 at the top position while Bottorff earned a 6-4, 6-3 victory at No. 2-singles.

The final four singles points went to Northwestern as the Racers closed the final gap to 5-4. Siepman lost 1-6, 6-2, 9-11 in No. 3-singles while Vessels dropped a 4-6, 3-6 decision at No. 4. Mella lost 3-6, 7-6, 10-12 at No. 5-singles and Morgan Smith (FR/Bremen, Ind.) was defeated 0-6, 4-6 in the No. 6 spot.

Indiana Wesleyan will rejoin the Crossroads League portion of their schedule in their next match at 3 p.m. on Tuesday as IWU hosts Grace (Ind.) at the Sutter Tennis Center.