Posted: Mar 30, 2018
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Santa Clara women's tennis beat Portland, 4-3, in a thrilling West Coast Conference match on a sunny Friday afternoon at the Degheri Tennis Center.
The outcome hinged on the third set of the match between Santa Clara freshman Katya Tabachnik and Portland's Emily Soares on court No. 5. Tabachnik lost the first set but battled back to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-1 to clinch the match for the Broncos (7-6, 2-1 WCC).
After losing the doubles point to Portland (4-10, 0-3 WCC), the Broncos got singles wins from Elvena Gevargiz, Zeina El Tawil and Maddie Pothoff to set the stage for Tabachnik.
Playing on court No. 4, Gevargiz defeated Raphaelle Leblanc 6-4, 6-2 to even the match at 1-1.
The Bronco fell behind 2-1 when Madison Clarke was forced to retire on court No. 1 against Jelena Lukic.
Zeina El Tawil's straight sets win on court No. 3 over Ramalle Lourdes made the match all square at 2-2.
Maddie Pothoff put Santa Clara up 3-2 with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Radina Dimitrova on court No.2, extending her singles win streak to 10 matches.
The Broncos had two opportunities to close the match but Portland's Anna Oberg beat Giannina Ong in three sets 7-6, 2-6, 6-1 on court No. 6 to extend it to the deciding match on court No. 5 between Tabachnik and Soares.
Santa Clara will have a quick turnaround, hosting West Coast Conference foe Gonzaga on Saturday at 10 a.m. PT.
VIDEO | Katya Tabachnik (@ktabachnik17) clinches today's @WCCSports match against Portland and gets mobbed by her teammates! #StampedeTogether #SCUBroncos pic.twitter.com/N4NVI3dW34
— SCU Women's Tennis (@scuwtennis) March 30, 2018
