(SAN DIEGO) PLNU Women's Tennis was picked to finish third in the PacWest Preseason Poll, but after beating the two teams ranked ahead of them, the Sea Lions are putting the rest of the conference on notice.
 
Following its season-opening 4-3 win over PacWest favorites Azusa Pacific, Point Loma defeated Hawai'i Pacific, the No. 2 team in the conference preseason poll, by the same margin on Wednesday evening.
 
The win is PLNU's first ever against HPU, who was previously 10-0 in the series and beat the Sea Lions the past two years in the NCAA West Regional.
 
"Today was a great win by the ladies," Head Coach Curt Wheeler said. "Every court was a battle and that's how a lot of the matches have been. There are a lot of great teams in our conference and what was great about today was everyone showed up ready to go.
 
"It was really difficult to get the win. I'm really happy with how the ladies competed, how they played and how they were able to finish off some tough matches."
 
Point Loma won the doubles point, which proved to be the difference, as Amanda Letzring and Quin Brady overcame a 2-4 deficit to win the final four games, with Letzring's volley at the net sealing a 6-4 victory.
 
Emely Valencia and Anna Pallencaoe then won at No. 3 after overturning a deficit in the tiebreak to clinch the doubles point.
 
"Tennis is a great sport in the sense that no lead is safe and you have to go actually win every point that you need," Wheeler said. "You have to win every game and No. 2 doubles did a great job of, regardless of being down 2-4, staying confident and executing the gameplan.
 
"When those close games came, they played their best tennis when it mattered. That was huge for them in their comeback."
 
PLNU then won at No. 4, 5 and 6 singles, which proved to be enough to hold off an HPU comeback bid.
 
Valencia won in straight sets at No. 6 (6-3, 7-6) before Pallencaoe (No. 5 – 7-6, 2-6, 6-4) and Brady (No. 4 – 6-4, 3-6, 6-2) both won three-setters after overcoming a second-set defeat.
 
"Our singles wins were all freshmen," Wheeler said. "All stepped up in a big way to get us those three singles wins that we needed. Four and five won their first sets and then credit to HPU, they made adjustments and played really well in the second set.

"But beating us in two out of three sets is really difficult to do. Even if that person gets one set, it's hard to win two sets against us on all six courts in singles. We've shown that this year and we're going to keep showing it."
 
Point Loma (8-2 overall), now winners of seven-straight matches, returns to the court on Friday at Cal State LA. Doubles play is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.