(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Women's Tennis prepped for its first match against a PacWest opponent with a 5-2 home win over Westcliff on Tuesday afternoon in blustery conditions.
 
"We're not used to that much wind, but still being able to pull out the win really helped because we're going to go to an away match that's not on our home court," said Faith Pearson, who picked up wins in both doubles and singles.
 
The start of the match was delayed two hours because of rain, but that didn't slow down the Sea Lions, who won all three doubles matches in convincing fashion.


 
Joelle Lanz and Angelique Friedrich rolled at number three doubles, winning 6-0.
 
"We had a pretty good run in the first few games," Lanz said. "We won a lot of deuce points, which gave us a lot of confidence. We found a way to adjust to the wind, which was very important today."
 
Arianna Audelo and Amanda Letzring claimed victory at number one, 6-1, before Pearson and Rachel Whittington clinched a win at number two, 6-2.
 
Then in singles, all six PLNU players were leading in the first set when rain stopped the match for about 10 minutes. When play resumed, the Sea Lions picked right up where they left off, taking the first set in all six matches.
 
Friedrich cruised in her opening set at number three singles, 6-0, and was leading 2-0 when her opponent was forced to retire with an injury. At number five, Thelma Sepulveda eased to a 6-1, 6-2 victory before Pearson overcame early deficits in both sets to win 6-4, 6-3 at number six.
 
Lanz won her opening set at number two, 6-2, but found herself trailing 3-5 in the second set. She responded by winning the next four games to take the match with a 7-5 victory in set two.
 
"When I started to play more aggressive against the wind, then it worked better and I was able to pull it out," Lanz said.
 
Letzring (No. 4) and Audelo (No. 1) both battled to the end in their singles matches before falling in a super tiebreak.
 

W🎾 FINAL

#21 Point Loma - 5
Westcliff - 2 pic.twitter.com/FV9kVhl49r

— PLNU Sea Lions (@PLNUSeaLions) February 15, 2023

 
Letzring took the opening set in her match, 6-2, before receiving brief treatment from the athletic training staff in the second set.
 
She battled through an ailment to break serve and tie the set at 4-4. A service ace then put her up 6-5 with a chance to clinch, but her opponent held serve to force a tiebreak, which the visitors won before also winning the super tiebreak, 10-8.
 
Audelo won her first set 6-3 before she was trailing 1-4 in the second. She broke serve a couple times to fight back and take the lead 5-4. However, her match followed the same script as Letzring's, with Westcliff taking an eventual tiebreak and subsequent super tiebreak by an identical scoreline.
 
Point Loma (2-2 overall) plays its first match against a PacWest opponent on Friday, when PLNU travels to take on Azusa Pacific at 11 a.m.