VALDOSTA, Ga. – The No. 37 Valdosta State women's tennis team won three of six singles matches, but was unable to come away with the doubles win, falling 4-3 to visiting Hawaii Pacific on Sunday afternoon at the VSU Tennis Complex.
 
HPU, ranked No. 42 nationally improved to 9-10 on the year, while the No. 37 Blazers fell to 8-10 on the year.  The Sharks won two of three doubles matches for the early lead, but sophomore Evelyn Altmaier and freshman Natalie Rainke won 6-3 at No. 3 for the first doubles match to conclude.  From there, HPU used a 6-4 win by Abigail Wild and Sara Hejtmankova over No. 29 duo of freshman Denisa Hanakova and junior Viktoriia Fedorova.  The Sharks then pulled out a 7-6 victory at No. 2 by Leonie Mueller and Isabel Heupgen over freshman Aneta Poborilova and junior Kayla Greco to claim the team point.
 
In singles, Mueller downed Greco 6-1, 6-4, for a 2-0 lead for HPU at No. 4, while the visitors pushed the lead to 3-0 as Heupgen won 6-1, 6-3 over Rainke.  From there, the Blazers caught fire with great wins from Poborilova over Hejtmankoa, 7-5, 6-0 at No. 3, junior Olivia Pezo won 6-0, 6-2 at No. 5 over Lynn Kader and Fedorova won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 6 over Vera Markovic to knot the match at 3-3.  Wild, ranked No. 36 nationally, won 6-4, 7-6 at the top spot for the fourth HPU point. 
 
VSU, which has shown great improvement throughout the season, played its fifth match this season with a final score of 4-3.  The Blazers return to action on Wednesday at 3 p.m. at No. 10 Saint Leo.