(SURPRISE, Ariz.) No. 2 seed PLNU Women's Tennis completed a comeback for the ages against No. 7 seed Biola in the PacWest quarterfinals to defeat the Eagles 4-3 and advance to Thursday's conference semifinals.
Point Loma led 1-0 after claiming the doubles point and 2-0 following a dominant 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 1 singles from
Alina Kupfer.
However, Biola won the first set on the other five singles courts and took a 3-2 advantage.
That set the stage for the Sea Lions to storm back, as
Melissa Zirkle overcame a 2-6, 2-5 deficit to tie the overall match at 3-3 with her win at No. 6 singles, winning the final five points of set two and then claiming the third set, 6-2.
Anna Pallencaoe then completed the comeback, winning a third-set tiebreak 7-4, after trailing 0-2, to advance the Sea Lions to the semifinals for the fourth straight season.
Pallencaoe and
Emely Valencia Andrejeva won 6-3 at No. 1 doubles before Kupfer and
Perla Conde Vendrell clinched the doubles point with their 6-4 victory at No. 2.
Point Loma (16-3 overall) will now play No. 3 seed Hawai'i Pacific in Thursday's semifinals at 1 p.m.
