SAN RAFAEL, Calif. – Dominican women's tennis fell 5-2 Saturday afternoon to Fresno Pacific at the Castellucci Family Tennis Center. The two points won by the Penguins (7-5) were the most ever in the 10 matches between the two foes during their NCAA Division II eras.  

"Despite the loss, I'm very proud of the way we competed today," head coach Cristina Visico Hassanali said. "We wanted to bring a lot of fight and competitive spirit to today's match and I felt we did that. FPU is a strong and well-coached team and we weren't able to win the pressure points. There were a lot of close games in today's matches and I think we need to clean up some of the loose errors we had in the big moments. We can learn a lot from today and we're ready to go back to the drawing board as we prepare to play them again next week."

The Sunbirds (10-6) jumped ahead early as Alice Di Matteo and Sanne Brull won No. 2 doubles 6-2. The battle for No. 1 doubles was fierce between Dominican's Gina Dudley and Audrey Rafols and FPU's Maria Borodi and Lea Falentin, but once again the Sunbirds came out on top with the 6-4 victory to claim the doubles point. Zoe Coggins and Julia Rydel gave the Penguins one bright spot in the doubles portion as they defeated Alice Marques and Elise Leik 6-4 on the final court.

No. 45 Falentin was the first to finish her match in singles a 6-0, 6-0 victory on the second court to give FPU the 2-0 lead in the match. Rafols and Borodi battled at No. 1 singles with many games reaching deuce, but Borodi found herself on the winning end of most on her way to a 6-2, 6-2 victory. Leik clinched the match victory for the Sunbirds at No. 6 singles with the 6-1, 6-1 victory.

The middle three courts were tight battles between the two teams. Coggins had the early advantage in both the first and second sets over Brull, but Brull settled in to take the match 7-5, 6-2. Dudley had a spectacular start at No. 3 singles taking the first set 6-2 over Di Matteo but the second set proved to be a seesaw battle. Di Matteo held off several match points to tie the match 5-5, but Dudley held serve to take the 6-5 lead. Dudley then finished off Di Matteo as she broke serve for the 7-5 victory. Rydel and Marques traded games to a 6-6 tie in the first set at No. 4 singles, but Rydel was strong in the tiebreaker dropping only two points to take the 7-6 victory. The second set was tight with an early break giving Rydel the advantage and she held serve down the stretch to take the 6-4 victory in the second set.

These two teams will face off again Friday at 1 p.m. as the Penguins travel south to Haak Tennis Complex on the campus of Fresno Pacific.