GORHAM, Maine—Southern Maine (3-6, 1-3 Little East) rallied from an early 2-1 deficit to earn a marathon 6-3 victory over UMass Boston women's tennis (1-5, 0-3 Little East) Tuesday afternoon at the Gorham High School Tennis Courts.
The two sides played for five-and-a-half hours, with the Huskies coming away with their sixth-consecutive victory over the Beacons.
UMass Boston took the majority of the doubles points for just the second time in six matches this season, but couldn't keep the momentum going into singles play. After dropping the first five singles points, junior Nurcin Celebi (Istanbul, Turkey) earned the Beacons' lone singles win, with a lengthy three-set victory at sixth singles.
The Beacons' number one doubles pair of freshman Kristy Garcia (Miami, Fla.) and Martina Daelli (Florence, Italy) opened the match with a dominant 8-3 victory over Southern Maine's Sarah Hill and Molly Gallagher.
Moments later, UMass Boston pushed their lead to 2-0, when co-captains Logan Smith (Southwick, Mass.) and Kelsey Shea (West Bridgewater, Mass.) cruised to an 8-2 win at number two doubles over Courtney Aldrich and Liz Martin.
Southern Maine began cutting into the UMass Boston lead at number three doubles, when Katie Quinn and Emily Collins held off Kathleen Conroy (Quincy, Mass.) and Vicky Woytowicz (Springfield, Mass.) 9-7.
Hill evened the match up 2-2 with a win at number one singles, as she defeated Garcia 6-1, 6-4.
Southern Maine took their first lead of the match at 3-2 with a victory at number four singles, as Martin downed Shea 6-2, 6-3.
Aldrich pushed the Huskies to within a point of victory, as the junior defeated Smith 6-3, 6-3 at third-flight singles.
Daelli tried to keep the Huskies' victory at bay at number two singles, but the freshman eventually fell 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 to Gallagher in three sets, to give Southern Maine a 5-2 advantage.
With the match already decided, the final two singles matches began in Gorham.
Southern Maine pushed their lead to 6-2 at number five singles, as Quinn defeated Conroy 6-3, 6-0.
Celebi claimed the final point of the day for the Beacons at number six singles, as she held off a pair of match points, to earn a 6-4, 5-7, 12-10 victory over Collins.
UMass Boston will send a pair of players to the ITA New England Regional Tournament this weekend with Garcia and Daelli competing at Williams College on Friday. The rest of the team will return to action Saturday at Rhode Island College.
