(SAN DIEGO) No. 20 PLNU Women's Tennis picked up its third-straight victory and its first against a PacWest opponent this season with a 6-1 win over Academy of Art on Saturday.
 
"The girls did a great job of not letting themselves get too high or too low, which is really hard in tennis, especially when you're playing an opponent that you know it's going to be a battle against," Head Coach Curt Wheeler said. "Every time we play them, it's a battle.
 
"When you want it that badly, it's hard to focus on the small things and to play calm and confident. I felt like as a whole the girls did that very well and that showed in the results and in how they played."
 
With the doubles matchups even at 1-1, Thelma Sepulveda and Rachel Whittington came up with a 7-6 tiebreak victory to claim the doubles point for the Sea Lions.
 
A powerful overhead volley from Sepulveda, combined with strong serving from Whittington, helped PLNU's No. 3 doubles duo win their match.
 
"Thelma and all the girls have worked on finishing points at the net," Wheeler said. "That was really cool for me to see as a coach that in those big moments where it's very easy to think about not missing, she had the confidence to trust herself and hit a good shot."
 
Angelique Friedrich, who combined with Joelle Lanz to win 6-2 at No. 2 doubles, cruised in singles with a 6-0, 6-2 victory at No. 3. She now holds records of 6-1 in singles and 7-0 in doubles this year.
 
"Angelique has had a great start to the year in doubles and singles," Wheeler said. "She's been focused and has a great understanding of her game and the things she has to do to be successful.
 
"She's put everything together very quickly. It's been fun to see her take charge of multiple singles and doubles matches from the beginning and not give up control all the way through."
 
Sepulveda also improved to 6-1 this year in singles after her 6-4, 7-5 victory at No. 5.
 
Lanz (7-5, 7-5) and Amanda Letzring (7-5, 6-4) also both won their singles matchups in straight sets at No. 2 and 4 respectively.
 
Whittington stormed back from a first set tiebreak loss to win sets two and three by identical 6-1 margins to take her No. 6 singles match.
 
Point Loma (5-3 overall) returns to the PLNU Tennis Courts on Monday at 9 a.m. to take on another conference opponent, Fresno Pacific.