VALDOSTA, Ga. – The Valdosta State women's tennis team jumped out to an early lead only to see No. 4 Flagler battle back to tie the match at 3-3, but sophomore No. 26-ranked Natalie Rainke dug deep and won at the top spot, 7-6, 3-6, 6-2 over No. 2-ranked Dana Heimen to give VSU a 4-3 win over the Saints Wednesday afternoon in the decisive match.  
 
The upset-minded Blazers came out firing on all cylinders as senior Olivia Pezo and freshman Alyssa Novoa upset No. 4-ranked duo of Dana Heimen and Anastasia-Aleksandra Nikolova, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles.  Shortly following, Rainke and senior Viktoriia Fedorova won 6-3 over Sofia Balsera and Adela Latalova to claim the doubles point.  At No. 3, VSU duo of seniors Valentina Jimenez and Kayla Greco had a 5-4 lead, but were unable to hang on, falling 7-5 to Eryka Kruck and Laura Jipescu.  
 
VSU took a 2-0 lead as Greco bagled Jipescu at No. 5 singles, 6-0, 6-0, in just 40 minutes to get things started in singles.  The Blazers won the first set of three of the first five matches, while Heimen battled back to tie Rainke forcing a very important tiebreaker at No. 1 singles.  Rainke pulled off the opening set tiebreaker victory.  
 
VSU then took a 3-0 lead as Novoa won 6-3, 6-1 over No. 35 Nikolova at No. 2 singles, but the Saints would mount the comeback as Balsera won 6-0, 6-2 over Jimenez at No. 6, Kruk won 6-2, 6-0 over Fedorova at No. 4 and Latalova won in three-sets over Pezo at No. 3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 to tie the match.  Rainke then closed it out with the commanding third-set victory as VSU won its first match against Flagler in program history (1-3). 
 
Following two heartbreaking 4-3 losses to No. 22 Mississippi College and No. 34 Auburn Montgomery last week, the Blazers dug deep and came out on the right end of the ledger.  This marked Flagler's fourth match this season decided by one team point (1-3), while this is VSU's third and third-straight (1-2). 
 
VSU improved to 4-9 on the year, while Flagler dropped to 15-4.  
 
The Blazers now travel to Pensacola, Fla., for a 3 p.m. ET match on Thursday versus No. 8 West Florida in a makeup match from earlier in the year, then will return home to host No. 34 Florida Southern on Saturday at 2 p.m., followed by a matchup with Tampa on Sunday at 1 p.m.