SILVER CITY, N.M. –Playing against one of the top junior college teams around the Western New Mexico University women's tennis team fought back in singles to come back and defeat Eastern Arizona College, 5-4, Saturday afternoon at the WNMU tennis courts.


In doubles, WNMU took the No. 3 flight behind Dena Irvin (Farmington, NM/Farmington High School) and Davida Aragon (Arenas Valley, NM/Cobre High School) as they collected the only point in doubles for the Mustangs with a 8-4 win. At the top flight, Ganna Tiurina (Kiev, Ukraine/M.M. Gromov #227) and Nikolina Vukadin (Pale, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Sredwjoskolski Centar Pale) fell, 8-1. At No. 2, Ashley Newell (Las Vegas, NV/Silverado) and Doris Berberic (Lower Hutt, New Zealand/Hutt Valley High School) battled, taking the match into extra before falling, 9-7.


In singles, Eastern Arizona took the top two flights. Tiurina dropped her top flight match, 6-1, 6-1 and Vukadin lost at No. 2, 6-3, 6-1. But, the Mustangs stayed with it and came back strong in the other four matches. At No. 3, Newell rolled to a 6-0 opening set win and then had to battle in the second set before winning in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (3). Berberic continued the momentum as she cruised to a 6-3, 6-4 win at No. 4. Aragon had the most dominate match of the afternoon, as she won both sets without giving up a point, 6-0, 6-0. That meant it all came down to the No. 6 match and Erica Rasmussen (/). Not knowing it at the time, but the match hung in the balance with her result. After opening the first set with a 6-1 win, she fell behind 4-0 in the second set. By then, all of the other matches had concluded, so with the crowd behind her, she began to make a comeback. She erased the deficit coming back to tie the set at four and then took a 5-4 lead. She then broke serve to win the second set, 6-4, giving the Mustangs the match, 5-4.


WNMU (2-7) will look to keep the momentum going next week as they will travel to California to play three matches beginning first with Grossmont College on Monday at 2 p.m.