Complete Results

SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The Western Carolina women’s tennis team traveled to Spartanburg, S.C., to face the Spartans of USC Upstate Thursday afternoon. WCU and USCU battled on every court with WCU using a pair of nearly impossible comebacks to capture a 4-3 victory. Junior Elizabeth Ansari and freshman Madison Riley used an incredible comeback in doubles to capture the point for the Catamounts while Riley repeated the feat in singles to clinch the match for WCU.

"Today was an absolute battle and it feels good to be back on the winning side of a 4-3 match,” said head coach Michaela Kissell-Eddins. “I give a lot of credit to USC Upstate's girls for battling hard and pushing us to the limit. The doubles point was big for us and to pull out the win at two after being down 5-2 definitely gave us the momentum going into singles. Madison (Riley) also had to come back from 5-2 down in her third set to clinch the overall match so to say we had to earn that team win today would be an understatement."

WCU has now played five 4-3 matches this season with three victories and two defeats. The victory improves the Catamounts record to 11-4 this season while the Spartans dropped to 1-13. The Catamounts are now just one victory away from tying their school record 12 win season from a season ago.

Freshman Lauren McCall and sophomore Alexa Webb started WCU off on the right foot at No. 3 doubles as they cruised to a 6-1 victory to open the contest. WCU’s No. 1 duo of sophomore Savannah Taranto and freshman Jordan Strickland dropped a close contest 6-4 to bring the doubles point down to court two.

Ansari and Riley found themselves down 5-2 with the doubles point on the line and the pair won five straight games to win the match 7-5 and capture the coveted doubles point.

Webb won put the Catamounts ahead 2-0 with a 6-0, 6-1 win at No. 2. The victory was her 12th of the season moving her into sole possession of fourth on the WCU single season charts.

Upstate picked up its first point at No. 6 with a 6-2, 6-4 win but Strickland stopped the momentum with a 7-5, 6-4 win at No. 1 for the Catamounts. Strickland picked up her 11th win of the season to move into a tie for fifth in WCU’s record book for single season wins.

Upstate would again respond with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 5 to cut WCU’s lead to 3-2.

The drama continued as Riley mounted her amazing comeback. After winning her opening set 6-4, Riley dropped the second set 6-2. Riley found herself down 5-2 in the third set but won three straight games to tie the set at five. Upstate’s Eduarda Ferreira won the next game to take a 6-5 lead and need just one more game win to take the victory. With the 12 game of the set tied at deuce, Riley fought off the match point and won the game to force a tiebreaker. She went on to win the tiebreaker 7-4 to give WCU its 11th win of the season. The victory was also her 13th individual win of the season moving her just three victories behind WCU’s record holder for wins in a season, Stacia Kissell who won 16 matches in both 2014 and 2016.

The Spartans went on to win the final singles match at No. 2, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 7-5.

WCU will have another short turnaround as the Catamounts travel to Kennesaw State Saturday afternoon for a 2 pm match. The Owls are 3-7 this season but have won three of their last four home matches.