SAN DIEGO – NAIA No. 3-ranked Point Loma Nazarene opened conference play with a marathon 6-3 home win against tenth-ranked Concordia on Tuesday.

Doubles started what would be a four hour match with Kristin Strimple and Ashley Litchfield taking Loma's first win with 8-4 on court one. Concordia's Kristin Yep and Jordan Kimura fought to even the score with a close 8-6 triumph over court two's Rachel Owens and Jessica Kwan. Court three went back and forth until Wileen Chiu and Kiersten Steinhauer managed to pull PLNU into the lead with a final score of 9-8.

Tensions were high going into singles. Freshman Maika Adair lead Green and Gold to 3-1 match score with her 6-1, 6-0 win over Concordia sophomore Casey O'Connor on court five. Chiu followed soon afterwards on court six in straight sets. Owens was Loma's first singles loss to Kristin Yep of the Eagles.

The last three singles matches went long into the night, each court struggling for control. In the end it was Kwan who gave the Sea Lions the match on court three, beating junior Johanna Sceresini after some intense games 7-6, 6-2.

Courts one and two split sets and, after Kwan's win, played ten point tie breakers. Strimple pulled off a win at No. 1 over Bettina Radke after a heavy exchange of corner plays and let shots (6-7, 6-2, 10-6). Litchfield of Loma and Jordan Kimura of Concordia lobbed most of their tie-breaker until Kimura managed a win to finish the match 6-4, 0-6, 10-3.

"We played some really tough matches," said PLNU coach Rich Hills. "Concordia is not an easy team but our work has paid off."

The Sea Lions improved their overall record to 2-0 on season, 1-0 in GSAC play while Concordia drops to 2-1, 1-1 GSAC. PLNU travels to Pomona to play DII Pomona Pitzer College on Friday at 3 p.m.