The Valparaiso University tennis team faced an early deficit after dropping a tightly-contested doubles point, but the Beacons won all four singles matches that finished to beat Marian 4-1 in a clinch-clinch format on Saturday afternoon at The Courts of Northwest Indiana.
 
How It Happened

• The No. 2 doubles team of Moira Silva (Houston, Texas / Westside) and Brynn Steven (Wichita, Kan. / Bishop Carroll) dropped only one game, breezing to a 6-1 victory over Michelle Irigoyen and Jimena Rivera Flores in the first doubles match to finish.
• Marian controlled the No. 3 doubles match throughout, winning the first three games on the way to a 6-3 victory.
• With the second and third doubles matches both in the books, the doubles point hinged on a tight battle at No. 1 between Lacey Tanner (Fort Pierce, Fla. / Florida Virtual School) and Alexandra Popa (Glenview, Ill. / Glenbrook South) and Marian's Ana Lopez Torres and Yasmin Imamniyazova. Valpo went up 3-1, but Marian broke serve to get the match back on serve, starting a string of five consecutive breaks in the match. Valpo served for the match up 5-3, but the fifth straight break made it 5-4 Valpo, giving the Knights the chance to serve to extend the match.
• The Beacons had a triple match point at 15-40, but Marian survived, winning a deuce point to hold and make it five games all. Valpo rolled to a hold with great serving, clinching the game with back-to-back aces to go up 6-5 in the match. Marian held to force a tiebreak for the doubles point at six all.
• In the tiebreak at No. 1 Doubles, Valpo had first serve and Marian went up a mini-break at 1-0. Marian split serves and Valpo split serves, before the Beacons broke Marian's first serve to tie it up at 3-3 at the switch. Marian came back to split the service points and go ahead 4-3, then Marian broke on both Valpo serves before holding serve to clinch the breaker and win the match 7-6(3).
• Valpo showed great resolve after dropping the doubles point, led by Silva on the top singles court. She wasted no time in securing a win over Imamniyazova, doing so in "double bagel" fashion.
• The next match to finish was at No. 5, where Andrea Delgado (Richmond, Texas / Foster [Dallas Baptist]) topped Lillane Alinquant 6-3, 6-0. Valpo went up 3-1 in the match when Popa finalized her 6-1, 6-2 win over Lopez Torres at No. 2.
• The Beacons needed only one of the three remaining singles matches, but the match was still hanging in the balance as all three matches were competitive. Valpo had dropped the opening set at No. 3 and No. 6, so the second set at No. 4 was critical. After winning 6-2 in the first, Steven came from behind to win 7-5 in the second. Marian was serving to force a tiebreak, but Steven secured the break to wrap up the team match.

Inside the Match

• Silva furthered her career singles win total to 59, moving into sole possession of fourth in program history. She owns an 11-2 mark this season including 9-0 in dual matches.
• The doubles win was the 51^st of Silva's career, helping her climb into a tie for fifth in the program record book.
• Delgado improved to 10-4 including 8-1 in dual matches as she owns the team's second-highest singles win total.
• Popa (fifth) and Steven (fourth) added to their singles win total as well.
• At 7-3 through 10 matches, Valpo has already over doubled its win total from last season.
• In three of Valpo's last four matches, the team that won the doubles point lost the match. This marked the second time this season, joining Jan. 31 vs. Butler, where Valpo rallied to win the match after dropping the doubles point.

Up Next
The Beacons (7-3) will face a quick turnaround as they host Oakland on Sunday morning at 8:30 a.m. CT at The Courts of Northwest Indiana. Please note that the match will begin 30 minutes earlier than originally scheduled.